BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                           688 (Romero)
          
          Hearing Date:  05/28/2009           Amended: 04/23/2009
          Consultant:  Dan Troy           Policy Vote: ED 8-0
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
          BILL SUMMARY:   SB 688 would permit school districts serving  
          pupils in grades 9-12 to establish a committee of teachers and  
          pupils for the purpose of providing pupil feedback to district  
          teachers.  The bill would require districts that choose to  
          establish these committees to develop and administer a survey of  
          pupils that solicits information on different aspects of a class  
          and the effectiveness of the teacher.  Information from the  
          survey would be confidential and shall only be released to the  
          teacher.  The Department of Education would be required to  
          develop model guidelines for the process, in consultation with  
          the California Association of Student Councils.
            
          _____________________________________________________________________
                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions         2009-10      2010-11       2011-12     Fund
           Model Guidelines       $130                             General
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____

          STAFF COMMENTS:  SUSPENSE FILE.

          Current law requires that certificated personnel be evaluated on  
          a uniform basis within each school district, and requires the  
          district to adopt objective evaluation guidelines.  This bill  
          would authorize, but not require, districts to include a process  
          by which teachers could receive confidential feedback from  
          pupils in the form of a survey.  The contents of the survey are  
          intended only for the teacher's use, and would not become part  
          of the teacher's record or used as part of the bargaining  
          process.

          As the use of the teacher-pupil committees authorized by the  
          bill would be voluntary on the part of the district, there  
          should be no local assistance costs for the state.  However, the  
          bill's requirement that the Department of Education (CDE)  
          develop model guidelines for the process would drive costs of  










          approximately $130,000, one-time, for half of a consultant  
          position plus travel, posting, and other miscellaneous  
          activities required for guideline development. To the extent the  
          guidelines need to be modified in future years, the CDE may  
          incur some costs, likely of a lesser amount, at that time.