BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Alan Lowenthal, Chair
2011-2012 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 1330
AUTHOR: Furutani
AMENDED: June 23, 2011
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: June 29, 2011
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Kathleen
Chavira
SUBJECT : Graduation requirements.
SUMMARY
This bill, until July 1, 2017 and commencing with the
2012-13 school year, adds career technical education, as
defined, as an option for pupils to fulfill the existing
high school graduation requirement to complete a course in
visual or performing arts (VPA) or foreign language, and
requires school districts that elect this option to notify
parents, teachers, pupils and the public, as specified.
BACKGROUND
Existing law requires the governing board of a school
district that maintains at least one high school to
prescribe courses of study designed to provide pupils with
the skills and knowledge required for adult life, including
a course of study designed to prepare prospective pupils
for admission to state colleges and universities and a
course of study for career technical training.
(Education Code � 51224)
In order to graduate high school, current law requires all
pupils to: 1) pass both the English language arts and
mathematics portions of the California High School Exit
Exam (CAHSEE); 2) complete the 13 year-long courses listed
below; and
3) complete other coursework requirements adopted by the
governing board of the school district. (EC � 51225.3)
1) 3 courses in English.
2) 2 courses mathematics.
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3) 2 courses of science, including biological
and physical science.
4) 3 courses in social studies, including:
United States history and geography, one semester
of American government, and one semester of
economics.
5) 1 course in visual or performing arts or
foreign language.
6) 2 courses in physical education, unless
exempt by law.
High school students interested in matriculating to a
California public university upon graduation must complete
the minimum coursework for high school graduation and
satisfy the subject area requirements established by the
California State University (CSU) and the University of
California (UC) for undergraduate admission. The following
pattern of coursework is commonly referred to as the "a-g"
requirements:
a) 2 years of history/social science.
b) 4 years of college preparatory English or
language instruction.
c) 3 years of college preparatory mathematics
(4 years recommended).
d) 2 years of laboratory science (3 years
recommended).
e) 2 years of a foreign language (3 years
recommended).
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f) 1 year of visual and performing arts.
g) 1 year of college preparatory electives.
Existing law requires each school district maintaining any
of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, to offer courses of study
that (1) fulfill the requirements and prerequisites for
admission to California public institutions of
postsecondary education and (2) provide an opportunity for
pupils to attain entry-level employment skills in business
or industry. School districts may 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. (EC
� 51228)
Current law requires that, at the beginning of the first
semester or quarter of the regular school term, the
governing board of each school district notify the parent
or guardian of a minor pupil regarding the right or
responsibility of the parent or guardian under specified
law, as well as other specified information.
(Education Code � 48980)
ANALYSIS
This bill :
1) Adds, until July 1, 2017 and commencing with the
2012-13 school year, a course in career technical
education (CTE) as an option to the existing
graduation requirement that pupils complete one course
in visual or performing arts (VPA) or foreign
language.
2) Defines a course in career technical education to mean
a course in a district-operated career technical
education program that is aligned to the career
technical model curriculum standards and framework
adopted by the State Board of Education (SBE).
3) Clarifies that a school or school district that does
not currently offer career technical education courses
is not required to start a new career technical
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education program for purposes of this bill.
4) Requires that a district or county office of education
that elects to allow a CTE course to satisfy
graduation requirements pursuant to the bill's
provisions, prior to offering the alternative to
students, to notify parents, teachers, pupils, and the
public at a regularly scheduled meeting of the
governing board of the following:
a) Its intent to do so.
b) The impact that this decision will have on
the availability of courses that meet UC and CSU
admission requirements and whether the CTE
courses to be offered meet these requirements.
c) The distinction, if any, between the
district or county office's graduation
requirements and the admission requirements of
the CSU and UC.
5) Requires the California Department of Education (CDE)
to report to the appropriate policy committees of the
Legislature by January 1, 2016, on the number of
pupils who took a CTE course in order to fulfill the
graduation requirement and authorizes school districts
to report the number of CTE courses taken by students
to fulfill graduation requirements through the
California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System.
6) Makes the provisions added by this bill inoperative on
July 1, 2017, and repeals the provisions of the bill
on January 1, 2018.
7) Requires a district that opts to allow a CTE course to
satisfy graduation requirements pursuant to the bill's
provisions to include in the annual packet which is
sent to the parent or guardian of a minor pupil:
a) Information about the high school graduation
requirements of the school district and how each
requirement does/does not satisfy admission
requirements for the CSU and UC.
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b) A complete list of CTE courses offered by
the district that satisfy the subject matter
requirements for admission to the CSU and UC, and
which specific admission requirements these
courses satisfy.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . According to the author, a
February 2008 report from the California Dropout
Research Project concluded that dropping out and low
achievement have many shared causes, including low
engagement. In addition, a recent Public Policy
Institute of California (PPIC) report found that 1 in
4 California high school students fails to graduate
and concluded that the programs that show promise in
keeping children in schools include career technical
education. According to the author's office, the
purpose of AB 1330 is to help students stay engaged
during high school and enable them to be successful by
allowing them to meet one of the graduation
requirements by taking a CTE course.
2) VPA/foreign language courses . Current law requires
that students complete a course in visual performing
arts or foreign language in order to graduate high
school. According to the California Foreign Language
Project (a California Subject Matter project
professional development program designed to
strengthen foreign language instruction) foreign
language education is crucial for the development of
California's economy, domestic security and
international peace, and the sustaining of our
multicultural society. The federal No Child Left
Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) defines "core academic
subjects" to mean English, reading or language arts,
mathematics, science, civics and government,
economics, history, geography, foreign language and
arts. With the exception of the two physical education
courses, all of the state's graduation courses,
including VPA and foreign language, are considered
core academic subjects and enable students to meet
"college prep" coursework typically required by many
postsecondary institutions. The UC for example,
requires two years of foreign language and one year of
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VPA class in order to be eligible for admission.
3) Career technical education (CTE) courses . This bill
requires that CTE courses that meet the graduation
requirement be aligned to the state CTE model
curriculum standards (adopted by the State Board in
2005). However, there is no statewide mechanism in
place to ensure that CTE courses are aligned to the
SBE standards, making it difficult to know how many,
and whether CTE courses meet these standards. While
there are a number of CTE courses that meet or even
exceed the rigor of high school graduation courses and
more than 6,500 have been approved to meet the "a-g"
requirements, CTE courses vary in the degree of rigor
and alignment to the CTE standards. Would the CTE
courses offered be as rigorous as the VPA or foreign
language courses they might replace as graduation
requirements? Unless a CTE course is "a-g" approved,
it is unlikely the course grade would be included in
the GPA calculations used for admission to the CSU or
UC. Would students who exercise the option to take a
CTE course instead of a VPA or foreign language course
inadvertently make themselves ineligible for admission
to CSU or UC? Should these courses be required to meet
"A-G" requirements if they will substitute for foreign
language or VPA courses that meet these requirements?
4) At the expense of foreign language and visual
performing arts ? Given current fiscal conditions, it
is not clear how many school districts have the
resources to provide CTE options for students without
reducing course options in other areas. Could this
bill create access to CTE courses by undermining the
offering of, or enrollment in, arts education and
foreign language courses? In its report, the 2011-12
Budget: Year Two Survey: Update on School District
Finance in California, the LAO reports that 26% of
districts have discontinued their Arts and Music Block
Grant programs since flexibility was granted in 2009,
and 77% have diverted funds away from that program.
According to a 2009 report produced by the California
Foreign Language Project, "Learning World Languages
and Cultures in California: A Stimulus for Academic
and Economic Success, California's foreign language
course enrollment is below the national average, with
high school enrollment in California at 40.34%
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compared to 43.83% nationally. Would this bill result
in the further erosion of foreign language and VPA
classes? Could this bill result in students leaving
high school without having taken any arts or foreign
language courses?
5) Will this hurt or help our lowest-achieving students ?
This bill is based upon the premise that providing
students the option to take a CTE course instead of a
VPA or foreign language course to meet graduation
requirements could help schools reduce their dropout
rates. According to information from the CDE, in
2008-09, 60%of foreign language/VPA courses and 10% of
CTE courses met the "A-G" requirements. The CTE
population disproportionately consists of
limited-English proficient students, students with
disabilities, minorities, and high-poverty students.
Despite its good intentions, could this bill further
narrow opportunities for these students to take
rigorous academic coursework? Would this bill create a
disincentive for these students to take college
preparatory classes because it reduces the number of
core academic subjects a student would need to take in
order to earn a high school diploma? If a student
ends up taking fewer core academic classes over the
course of their high school experience, how prepared
will they be for college-level work should they later
decide to go to college? This bill requires
information in the annual packet to parents as well as
specified notifications at a public school board
meeting. Is this sufficient to ensure that our lowest
achieving students and their parents understand the
implications of their coursework choices?
6) Local control . Current law prescribes 13 year-long
courses in order to graduate high school. A good case
could be made that CTE, foreign language, and VPA
should each be required for high school graduation.
Current law grants local governing boards the
authority to establish local graduation requirements
that could conceivably include courses in all three
areas. Should the decision to adopt CTE as a
graduation requirement be left to a local governing
board? Is there evidence that current requirements act
as a disincentive for a local board to take such
action?
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7) Only district operated CTE programs ? This bill
restricts the CTE courses that may be taken to satisfy
the graduation requirement to district-operated CTE
programs. CTE courses may also be delivered by
Regional Occupational Centers/Programs (ROC/P),
partnership academies, agricultural programs, and
tech-prep programs. While some would argue that
restricting the option to district-operated CTE
programs enables a district to have greater control
over the coursework, ROC/P programs integrate core
academic knowledge with technical and occupational
knowledge to provide students with a pathway to
postsecondary education and careers. Shouldn't these
also be an option for students?
If it is the desire of the committee to move this
bill, staff recommends the bill be amended, consistent
with the version previously heard and amended by this
committee, to include courses through a regional
occupational program or center operated by a county
superintendent of schools or pursuant to a joint
powers agreement.
8) Reporting . This bill requires districts to report on
the number of students who take a CTE course to
fulfill a graduation requirement pursuant to the
bill's provisions. Presumably, the reporting
requirement is to enable members of the Legislature to
determine whether to extend the option established by
this bill beyond the sunset date. Arguably, this
report could provide an opportunity for the
Legislature to gain information on the many of the
questions raised in this analysis regarding the rigor
of CTE courses, the reasons students opt to take a CTE
course and the impact on VPA and foreign language
courses.
If it is the desire of the Committee to move this
bill, staff recommends the bill be amended, consistent
with amendments made by this Committee to prior
versions of this bill, to require the CDE to report on
what influenced students' choices to take the courses
they took, how many and what type of CTE courses were
available, how many were "a-g" approved, the extent to
which the courses addressed local workforce needs, and
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the impact on VPA and foreign language courses as a
result of students choosing CTE classes to satisfy the
requirement.
9) Fiscal impact . According to the Assembly
Appropriations Committee analysis, there would be
GF/98 cost pressure, likely between $900,000 and $1.5
million, to school districts to provide increased CTE
course offerings to high school pupils. This cost
assumes an increase between three to five percent in
CTE course enrollment. According to the State
Department of Education (SDE), 586,362 high school
pupils, 32% of total high school enrollment, enrolled
in CTE courses in 2009-10.
10) Prior and related legislation .
AB 2446 (Furutani), as passed by this Committee in June
2010, was substantively similar to this bill. AB 2446
was subsequently vetoed by the Governor whose message
read, in pertinent part:
Improving and expanding Career Technical
Education (CTE) opportunities has been among my
highest priorities. While I am supportive of the
author's intent to give CTE a prominent place in
high school graduation priorities, the final
version of this bill omitted my Administration's
proposed amendments that were intended to limit
the new
costs to school districts. Therefore, I
am concerned that this bill could be construed to
impose higher costs without a fund source, which
could also be interpreted as a state reimbursable
mandate. Given that school budgets are very
constrained due to the recession, adding new
costs at this time is not advisable.
In addition, the Legislature has considered several
bills attempting to encourage the offering of career
technical education courses including the following:
SB 381 (Wright, 2009) would have prohibieds school
districts from adopting the "a-g" requirements for
high school graduation unless they also required
students to complete career technical education
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courses, as specified in order to receive a high
school diploma. This bill was passed by this
Committee on a 6-3 vote and was held under submission
in Assembly Appropriations.
SB 147 (DeSaulnier, Chapter 168, Statutes of 2009)
requires the CSU Trustees to develop by January 1,
2014, a process by which students could satisfy the
general elective course requirement by completing a
CTE course that meets specified criteria.
AB 554 (Furutani, 2009) would have added one course to
the existing high school graduation requirements and
included CTE as an option to fulfill this additional
requirement. AB 554 was held in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
AB 2648 (Bass, Chapter 681, Statutes of 2008) required
the SPI to develop, in conjunction with specified
individuals, a report that explores the feasibility of
expanding and establishing career multiple pathway
programs. The SPI released this report on May 12,
2010.
SB 672 (Torlakson, 2008) required high schools
participating in the California Enhanced Instructional
Time Program pursuant to SB 681 (Torlakson, 2008), to
adopt a graduation policy requiring pupils to complete
two CTE courses. SB 672 and SB 681 were held in the
Assembly Education Committee.
SUPPORT
None received on this version.
OPPOSITION
None received on this version.