BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
2307 (Carter)
Hearing Date: 08/09/2010 Amended: 07/15/2010
Consultant: Dan Troy Policy Vote: ED 8-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 2307 would define dropout recovery high
schools and require the Superintendent of Public Instruction
(SPI) to certify an individual pupil growth model proposed by
such a school for use in the Public School Performance
Accountability Program, if the proposed model meets specified
criteria.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
Staffing/analysis $50 $100
$100 General
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Current law establishes the California Standards Tests (CSTs),
which comprise the majority of Standardized Testing and
Reporting (STAR) Program, measure pupil performance on the state
academic standards for each grade level. Each grade has a
discrete set of standards and the CSTs for that grade are
designed to measure pupil performance against those standards.
The STAR assessments were not designed to align performance
levels across each grade level; therefore, the state cannot
accurately measure student gains or losses across years and
schools cannot be held accountable for pupil performance over
time. AB 1130 (Solorio, Ch. 273, 2009) states legislative
intent regarding the examination of methods for making and
reporting comparisons of school and district academic
achievement over time based on a cohort growth measure.
Pursuant to authorization provided through the Public Schools
Accountability Act (SB 1x of the Statutes of 1999, Alpert), the
State Board of Education developed the Alternative Schools
Accountability Model (ASAM) for schools under the jurisdiction
of a county board of education or a county superintendent of
schools, community day schools, and alternative schools,
including continuation high schools and opportunity schools.
The ASAM uses 15 indicators of accountability, and schools that
choose to participate in the model select three indicators that
are then approved by the district superintendent and the
governing board. Schools retain those indicators for at least
three years. Over 1,000 schools use the ASAM. The Department
of Education is currently revising the ASAM to improve the
model's rigor.
This bill would define dropout recovery high schools (DRHS) as
high schools in which 50 percent or more of its pupils are
designated as dropouts pursuant to existing law and the school
provides instruction in partnership with the federal Workforce
Investment Act (WIA), the federally affiliated Youthbuild
programs, the federal job corps training or instruction provided
pursuant to a memorandum of understanding with the federal
provider, or the California Conservation Corp (CCC) or local
conservation corps certified
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AB 2307 (Carter)
by the CCC. The bill would also require the SPI and the State
Board of Education (SBE) to allow a DRHS to use an individual
pupil growth model in lieu of other accountability indicators,
if the SPI determines that the growth model proposed by the DRHS
meets the following criteria:
Measures learning based on valid and reliable nationally
normed or criterion-referenced reading and mathematics
tests.
Measures skills and knowledge aligned with state
standards.
Measures the extent to which a pupil scored above an
expected amount of growth based on the individual pupil's
initial achievement score.
Demonstrates the extent to which a school is able to
accelerate learning on an annual basis.
According to the author, DRHS programs primarily serve students
who are far below grade level standards, re-enter school for
much less than a four year period, and enter and exit high
school on an irregular schedule. For these reasons, DRHS
programs do not align with once a year testing. As a result, an
individual student growth measure is a significantly more
meaningful accountability mechanism for dropout recovery high
schools.
According to the Department of Education, there are three known
schools that meet the DRHS eligibility criteria, though there
may be others that also meet the criteria or could do so in the
near future. Staffing for review, approval, and analysis of the
proposed growth models would cost approximately $100,000 or
more, depending on the number of schools that submit a unique
growth model.
Staff notes that the Governor has proposed eliminating the ASAM
in the 2010-11 budget, suggesting that the model's flexibility
makes it difficult to compare one school with another. By
allowing DRHS programs to propose unique accountability models,
this bill would have the same issue.