BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Gloria Romero, Chair
2009-2010 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 253
AUTHOR: Wyland
AMENDED: March 31, 2009
FISCAL COMM: No HEARING DATE: April 22, 2009
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Beth Graybill
SUBJECT : Career Technical Education: recognition
certificates.
SUMMARY:
This bill establishes a career technical education
certificate and authorizes school districts to award the
certificates to pupils who meet specified requirements.
BACKGROUND
Existing law establishes various career technical education
(CTE) programs for public schools including but not limited
to regional occupational centers and programs (ROC/Ps),
partnership academies, adult education programs, and career
technical education programs in high schools and community
colleges.
The State Board of Education (SBE) adopted model curriculum
standards for CTE in May 2005 and adopted the curriculum
frameworks for those standards in January 2007. The
standards are organized in 15 industry sectors and identify
the academic and technical requirements for different career
pathways within each sector.
Existing law requires any business, trade or professional
association, union, or state or local governmental agency
that operates, under the auspices of the local school
district, a career preparatory program to award program
completers a certificate of completion that supplements a
high school diploma.
Existing law requires each school district maintaining any of
grades 7 to 12, inclusive, to offer to all otherwise
qualified pupils courses of study that 1) fulfill the
requirements and prerequisites for admission to California
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public institutions of postsecondary education and 2) provide
an opportunity for pupils to attain entry-level employment
skills in business or industry upon graduation from high
school. Current law permits districts to fulfill their
responsibility, pursuant to number 2) by adopting a required
curriculum that meets or exceeds the model standards CTE
adopted by the State Board of Education.
Existing law requires each person between the ages of 6 and
18, unless otherwise exempted, to be subject to compulsory
full-time education.
ANALYSIS
This bill :
1) Authorizes school districts to award career technical
education certificates to pupils who:
a) Satisfactorily complete four CTE courses.
b) Satisfactorily participate in a structured
work-based learning experience related to the CTE
courses.
c) Satisfactorily completed a culminating project
related to the CTE courses.
2) Prohibits the CTE certificate from being construed as
equivalent to the award of a high school diploma or as a
change to the compulsory education laws or requirements
for districts to offer courses of study that prepare
students for postsecondary education and employment.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Any CTE courses ? According to the author's office,
several states have specialized high school endorsements
that are awarded to students who complete additional
coursework or complete differentiated coursework in
certain subject areas, complete a series of units in a
technical field, or obtain technical certification
before the end of high school. By enabling students to
earn a supplemental certificate to their high school
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diploma, this bill could encourage more students to take
CTE classes while in high school. However, this bill
does not specify any qualifying criteria for the CTE
courses. Should the CTE courses relate to each other or
be related to a particular industry sector? Should they
be a part of a sequence of courses that provide students
with articulated entry-level employment skills in
business or technical field? Further, staff notes the
length of the courses is not specified. To ensure that
the certificate is a meaningful recognition of the
student's effort to develop career related technical
skills in a particular industry sector, staff recommend
amendments to specify the courses be at least
one-semester long and require that the courses, to the
extent possible, be related to one of the 15 industry
sectors identified in the CTE model curriculum standards
adopted by the SBE.
2) Technical amendment . While it makes sense to specify
that the awarding of the certificate does not relieve a
student of the compulsory education law, it is less
clear how the awarding of the certificate relates to the
requirement that districts provide both academic and
career related education. To clarify that the awarding
of the certificates does not alleviate or change state
or local graduation requirements, staff recommends a
technical amendment to delete the reference to Section
51228 and instead reference 51225.3.
3) Previous & related legislation . AB 2448 (Hancock,
Chapter 527, 2006) requires at least 90 percent of ROC/P
courses are part of an occupational course sequence that
targets comprehensive skills. SB 515 (Hancock), which
is scheduled before this Committee on April 22, 2009,
requires that at least half of sequenced CTE courses met
are linked to regional or state high priority workforce
needs. SB 381 (Wright), also before this Committee on
April 22, 2009, would require districts adopting a
college preparation curriculum for high school
graduation require students to also complete CTE courses
in order to earn the high school diploma. SB 725
(Hancock), which this Committee heard on April 1, 2009,
and passed on a 6-0 vote, authorizes ROC/Ps to offer
apprenticeship preparation programs.
SUPPORT
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None received.
OPPOSITION
None received.