BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2682
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Date of Hearing: April 28, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 2682 (Block) - As Amended: April 12, 2010
Policy Committee: Higher
EducationVote:9-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Board of Governors (BOG) of the
California Community Colleges (CCC) to establish a pilot project
to create a centrally delivered student assessment system, for
purposes of community college placement and advisement.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires that the pilot project include:
a) A single assessment instrument for English, mathematics,
and English as a second language.
b) Creation of a centrally-housed date warehouse to collect
all assessment scores of students assessed at participating
colleges.
c) Creation of an internet portal, accessible to college
personnel and student, that provides:
i) An assessment profile generated for each student
upon request, which include information available from
the data warehouse.
ii) A pretest application for students to practice on
and familiarize themselves with prior to taking future
assessments.
iii) An advisement tool providing students with
historical success rates of students in remedial courses.
2)Requires the board to:
a) Convene an advisory committee for the pilot project with
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specified membership.
b) Provide a progress report by February 28, 2011,
including the estimated costs for the centralized
assessment and data warehouse, the technical feasibility of
expanding the pilot, any statutory changes needed to
provide test scores, the best way to provide ongoing
funding.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)The Chancellor's Office of the CCC indicates that it has
received grants totaling $500,000 from two foundations, which
will cover the costs of determining the single assessment
instrument, developing the data warehouse and access portal,
and completing the progress report.
2)Costs for the Chancellor's Office to fully implement and
operate a statewide assessment system will be estimated in the
progress report, but will likely be several million dollars
(GF) annually. To the extent most or all districts eventually
participate and exclusively use the statewide assessment
system, these costs would likely be more than offset by GF
Prop. 98 savings at the district level. If districts are
eventually required to use the statewide assessment system,
this will create a reimbursable state mandate.
COMMENTS
1)Background . According to the Chancellor's Office, about 85%
of incoming CCC students are not proficient in college-level
math, and about 70% arrive unprepared for college-level
English. Basic skills education-a core CCC responsibility-is
designed to help under-prepared CCC students attain
college-level proficiency in reading, writing, and
mathematics, which are fundamental to ultimate student
success. In 2008-09, about 10% of CCC classroom instruction
was at a basic skills level.
Current law allows CCCs to assess students, and districts are
permitted to use any assessment tool as long as the assessment
is approved by BOG. Dozens of different standardized tests are
currently used throughout the CCC system. Many CCCs recognize
only their own tests and require students who were previously
tested at other CCCs to be reassessed. There is significant
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variation among these tests both in terms of the test content
and how much students are expected to know. In total, CCCs
can have multiple definitions of college readiness, which
sends a confusing message to current and prospective students
and results in costly duplicative testing by districts.
2)Purpose . The author contends that a centralized assessment
program will increase the number of students assessed and
decrease assessment costs, save students' time and the
districts funds by allowing students to take their test scores
with them to different CCCs. As proposed, the program would
ensure students understand expectations before taking the
tests through online pre-testing, allow more accurate
placement of students through combining data with K-12 test
data, and allow CCCs to leverage purchasing power by
purchasing testing instruments centrally rather than at the
district level.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081