BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1668
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 9, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 1668 (Carter) - As Amended: April 16, 2012
SUBJECT : School accountability: academic performance: dropout
recovery high schools
SUMMARY : Revises the definition of "dropout recovery high
school" (DRHS) to include a school offering instruction in any
of grades 9 to 12, inclusive, in which 50% or more of its pupils
are either designated as dropouts, as specified, or were not
otherwise enrolled for a period of at least 90 days and the
school provides instruction in partnership with the specified
programs. Specifically, this bill : Amends the definition in
the section of the Education Code relative to the alternative
individual pupil growth model for dropout recovery high schools.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) and
the State Board of Education (SBE) to allow DRHSs, numbering
no more than 10, to report the results of an individual pupil
growth model that the Superintendent of Public Instruction
(SPI) certifies as meeting specified criteria, in lieu of
other indicators under the state's alternative accountability
system.
2)Defines a "dropout recovery high school" for this purpose, as
a school offering instruction in any of grades 9-12 in which
50% or more of its pupils are designated as dropouts pursuant
to the exit and withdrawal codes developed by the California
Department of Education (CDE) and the school provides
instruction in partnership with any of the following:
a) The federal Workforce Investment Act;
b) Federally affiliated Youthbuild programs;
c) Federal job corps training or instruction provided
pursuant to a memorandum of understanding with the federal
provider; or,
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d) The California Conservation Corp (CCC) or local
conservation corps certified by the CCC. (EC 52052.3)
3)Prohibits graduation rates for pupils in dropout recovery high
schools from being included in the Academic Performance Index
(API) and defines DRHS for this purpose, as a high school in
which 50% or more of its pupils have been designated as
dropouts pursuant to the exit/withdrawal codes developed by
the CDE. (EC 52052)
4)Requires the SPI to provide an annual report to the
Legislature on the graduation and dropout rates in California
and to make the same report available to the public. (EC
48070.6)
FISCAL EFFECT : This bill is keyed non-fiscal.
COMMENTS : Last year the Legislature approved and the Governor
signed AB 180 (Carter), Chapter 669, Statutes of 2011 to allow
up to 10 DRHSs to propose and use, subject to the approval of
the SPI and SBE, an alternative individual pupil growth model.
Passage of AB 180 acknowledged that DRHSs should be able to
measure and report the growth of individual pupils from their
own individual pupil-based accountability model in lieu of other
required indicators so as to more appropriately reflect the
progress that a DRHS is making. AB 180 defines a "dropout
recovery high school" for this purpose, as a school offering
instruction in any of grades 9-12 in which 50% or more of its
pupils are designated as dropouts pursuant to the exit and
withdrawal codes developed by the CDE and the school provides
instruction in partnership with any of the specified federal and
state programs.
This bill revises the definition of DRHS to include a school
offering instruction in any of grades 9 to 12, inclusive, in
which 50% or more of its pupils are either designated as
dropouts or were not otherwise enrolled for a period of at least
90 days and the school provides instruction in partnership with
the specified programs.
Need for the bill : According to information provided by the
author, "The proposed amendment to the AB 180 definition is a
result of ambiguities in some of the exit and withdrawal codes.
As a result of these ambiguities, many SIATech students who have
previously dropped out from another high school for a period of
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over 90 days would not qualify for inclusion. These data
ambiguities have recently come to light and the definition would
have included them last year had they been known."
Data made available by the CDE shows that only 6 schools
currently meet the definition of DRHS. The School for
Integrated Academics & Technologies (SIATech), the sponsor of
this bill and AB 180, does not meet the existing definition of a
dropout recovery high school. According to the exit/withdrawal
codes used in the Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System
(CALPADS) SIATech does not enroll at least 50% dropouts.
SIATech, however, is a widely known dropout recovery high
school.
This bill seeks to capture, within the DRHS definition, schools
that enroll dropouts and/or pupils that have reenrolled in
school after having been out of school for 90 days or more and
that may not have been captured by the exit/withdrawal codes as
dropouts, but have rather been considered transfers for an
extended period of time.
According to information on the CDE's Internet Web site, for
state-level reporting purposes, any pupil that is reported by a
local educational agency (LEA) as transferring to another
California public school district and cannot be found
subsequently enrolled in a California public school district on
or before Information Day (the first Wednesday in October) is
considered a lost transfer and will be counted as a dropout.
According to information provided by the sponsor, the rationale
for the 90-day timeframe in this bill is that this time frame
"serves as a proxy for the period of time that CALPADS uses for
'lost transfers.' The period in which the state treats
transfers as drops begins on the reporting cycle date (August 16
or thereabouts) until Fall Census Day (first Wednesday of
October)." However, CDE asserts that this timeframe is actually
over a year in duration since these two reporting days refer to
two different years. Essentially, in some situations a pupil
can be considered a "lost transfer" for over a year before he or
she is counted as a dropout. While larger policy questions may
emerge regarding the period of time a pupil can be considered a
lost transfer, the focus of this bill is limited to the
definition of DRHS for purposes of implementing AB 180 (Carter),
Chapter 669, Statutes of 2011.
Are pupils considered enrolled during summer recess ? Some
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school districts in the state report pupils as being
continuously enrolled even during the summer recess. Other
school districts technically exit pupils at the end of a school
year and then enroll them at the beginning of the following
school year. Hence, according to CDE some school districts will
report exit data at the end of the year and then enrollment data
at the beginning of the year. In these school districts, pupils
are not considered enrolled in school during the summer break.
This then raises the question as to whether the 90-day timeframe
in this bill is reasonable and appropriate to essentially deem a
pupil a dropout for purposes of identifying dropout recovery
high schools. This timeframe may potentially have the result of
over-identifying schools that do not use a continuous enrollment
model in reporting pupil data. Staff recommends the bill be
amended to provide for a longer timeframe in consideration of
the time that a pupil may be out of school for summer break.
CDE workload : The CDE contends that in order to identify
schools that enroll pupils that have not been enrolled for a
specified timeframe will require CDE staff to review each of the
over six million statewide student identifiers (SSID) to
determine whether a pupil was out of school for at least 90
days. There is currently no mechanism in CALPADS to be able to
easily generate this data. Given that existing law only allows
up to 10 schools be identified for purposes of the alternative
growth model, a question could be raised as to whether a more
efficient approach should be explored since only 10 schools or
less will ultimately be identified. CDE suggests that schools
could be required to provide and self-certify this data and the
CDE be required to verify it. As this bill moves forward, the
author may wish to consider working with CDE on an amendment
that allows for the identification of these schools in a manner
that is more efficient than reviewing each pupil's record
individually.
Different definitions of DRHS in the Code : Current law defines
DRHS in two different ways and for different purposes. One
definition of DRHS appears in a section of the Education Code
prohibiting graduation rates for DRHS from being included in the
API and that section defines DRHS as a high school in which 50%
or more of its pupils have been designated as dropouts pursuant
to the exit/withdrawal codes developed by the CDE. A second
definition appears in the section of the Education Code amended
by this bill for purposes of the alternative individual pupil
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growth model. That definition currently includes a high school
for which 50% or more of its pupils are designated as dropouts
pursuant to the exit and withdrawal codes developed by the CDE
and the school provides instruction in partnership with any of
the specified federal and state job programs. While the intent
of this bill is only to revise the definition for purposes of
the Section of the Code relative to the alternative growth
model, a future issue for consideration may be whether the
definitions of DRHS should be consistent throughout the
Education Code.
Previous Legislation : AB 180 (Carter), Chapter 669, Statutes of
2011 requires the SPI and the SBE to allow dropout recovery high
schools, numbering no more than 10, to report the results of an
individual pupil growth model, that the SPI certifies as meeting
specified criteria, in lieu of other indicators under the
state's alternative accountability system.
AB 2307 (Carter) of 2010 requires the SPI and SBE to allow a
dropout recovery high school to use an individual pupil growth
model that is proposed by the school and certified by the SPI.
AB 2307 was held on the Senate Appropriations Committee's
suspense file.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Schools for Integrated Academics & Technologies
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
AFL-CIO (Prior version)
California Charter School Association Advocates (Prior version)
Riverside County Superintendent of Schools (Prior version)
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Marisol Avi�a / ED. / (916) 319-2087