BILL ANALYSIS
------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 651|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 651
Author: Romero (D)
Amended: 6/1/09
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 9-0, 4/29/09
AYES: Romero, Huff, Alquist, Hancock, Liu, Maldonado,
Padilla, Simitian, Wyland
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 12-0, 5/28/09
AYES: Kehoe, Cox, Corbett, Denham, DeSaulnier, Hancock,
Leno, Oropeza, Runner, Walters, Wyland, Yee
NO VOTE RECORDED: Wolk
SUBJECT : Pupil retention
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires the Superintendent of Public
Instruction to submit an Annual Dropout Report, as
specified, to the Governor, Legislature, and State Board of
Education beginning on or before August 1, 2011, as
specified. This bill also deletes a conditional operative
date in existing law relating to adjustments of the
Academic Performance Index.
ANALYSIS : Existing law requires the assignment of a
Statewide Student Identifier (SSID) as an individual, yet
non-personally identifiable number to each K-12 student
enrolled in a California public school, and requires the
CONTINUED
SB 651
Page
2
establishment of the California Longitudinal Pupil
Achievement Data System (CALPADS) that includes statewide
assessment data, enrollment data, teacher assignment data,
and other elements required to meet federal No Child Left
Behind reporting requirements.
CALPADS includes student demographic, program
participation, grade level enrollment, course enrollment
and completion, discipline, and statewide assessment data.
According to the CDE, the student-level, longitudinal data
in CALPADS will facilitate program evaluation, assessment
of student achievement over time, the calculation of more
accurate dropout and graduation rates, the efficient
creation of reports to meet state and federal reporting
requirements, and the ability to create ad hoc reports and
respond to questions.
This bill requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction
(SPI) to submit an Annual Dropout Report, to the Governor,
Legislature, and State Board of Education beginning on or
before August 1, 2010. Specifically it:
1. Requires that the report include but not be limited to:
A. Specified drop out rates for grades 7-12, 9-12,
and middle schools and promotion rates from grade
9 to grade 10.
B. The percentage of high schools students at each
grade level on track to graduate and the average
number of non-promotional school moves made by
pupils between grades 6 and 12.
C. "Full year" dropout rates for alternative
schools.
D. California High School Exit Exam passage rates.
E. Cohort dropout rates, to replace middle and
high school dropout rates, once longitudinal data
is available and the rates can be calculated
accurately.
F. When data is available, four, five, and six
SB 651
Page
3
year graduation rates, course enrollment patterns
by school and district, as specified, behavioral
data including suspension and expulsions, and
truancy rates.
G. Requires, if possible, that dropout data be
reported and organized by state, county, district
and school.
2. Requires the report to include data from alternative
middle and high schools, as specified.
3. Requires, if possible the data to be presented for
subgroups grade level, ethnicity, gender,
socioeconomic status, limited English proficiency and
disability if the subgroups meet specified criteria
(at least 50 pupils with a valid test score, and a
subgroup that constitutes 15 percent of the total
population of students with valid test scores at a
school).
4. Allows the report to include relevant data on school
climate and pupil engagement from the California Health
Kids Survey.
5, Requires the report to include most recent year data and
at minimum, two prior years' data for easy comparison.
6. Requires the SPI to comply with additional reporting
requirements. Specifically it requires the SPI to:
A. Make an oral presentation of the report to the
SBE at a regularly scheduled meeting (authorizes a
designee).
B. Make the contents of the report available on
the California Department of Education website as
specified.
C. Authorizes inclusion of the school-level data
on the CDE website and its omission from the
written report, if this data renders the written
report unwieldy.
SB 651
Page
4
7. States the intent of the Legislature that the report
prepared by the Superintendent be useable by schools,
districts, policymakers, researchers, parents, and the
public, for purposes of identifying and understanding
trends, causal relations, early warning indicators, and
potential points of intervention to address the high
rate of dropouts in California.
This bill also deletes a conditional operative date in
existing law related to adjustments of the Academic
Performance Index (API) required by SB 219 (Steinberg),
Chapter 731, Statutes of 2007. This allows its
implementation to move forward. SB 219 (Steinberg) added
8th and 9th grade dropout rates as factors in the API, and
to tie accountability data of students transferred to
alternative schools back to their high school of origin.
DOE had been working on implementation by 2011 and planned
to take these changes to state board in December. DOE
counsel has told them they may not make these changes to
the API until the following language, which the Assembly
inserted into the bill, is fulfilled: This section shall
become operative only if local educational agencies receive
a per pupil allocation prior to the 2010-11 fiscal year for
implementation of the California Longitudinal Pupil
Achievement Data System established pursuant to Section
609000. The money for local data collection was never
available. The data is now available and the author's
office believes it is time to use it.
Comments
Intent of the author . According to the author's office,
California is facing a high school dropout crisis. Fewer
than 80 percent of 9th graders statewide, and fewer than 60
percent in some districts, go on to graduate from high
school. More than 120,000 students abandon school each
year without a diploma. The California Dropout Research
Project at UC Santa Barbara reports that each cohort of
California dropouts costs the state $46.4 billion over
their lifetimes. The Public Policy Institute of California
predicts that in 2025, there will be twice as many high
school dropouts as there will be jobs to support them. The
California Dropout Research Project recommends a more
comprehensive, annual public accounting for dropouts.
SB 651
Page
5
According to the author's office, California needs more
than statistics. It needs timely information so that the
state, districts, and schools can be more strategic in
their focus on dropout prevention. This bill makes smarter
use of existing student data to inform this goal.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/29/09)
Aspiranet, Inc.
EdVoice
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids California
PICO California
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : Proponents state that with the new
California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System
(CALPADS), California will be able to track the progress of
students through the educational system. This bill will
help utilize this data in order for experts and policy
makers to make more informed decisions on educational
policy for the state and our youth. The bill also focuses
on different population categories such as socioeconomic
status and disability status as well as alternative schools
such as juvenile court schools. The lack of data and
information on these different categories makes it
difficult to understand if the educational systems are
meeting the needs of all students, as each youth has
different needs and support in order to be successful.
DLW:do 6/1/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
**** END ****