BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1705
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Date of Hearing: April 11, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 1705 (Silva) - As Introduced: February 15, 2012
SUBJECT : Pupil assessment: high school exit examination:
eligible pupils with disabilities
SUMMARY : Delays implementation of the high school exit exam
(HSEE) alternatives for eligible pupils with disabilities until
July 1, 2015. Specifically, this bill :
1)Deletes the date of October 1, 2010 as the date by when the
State Board of Education (SBE) is required to adopt
regulations for implementing alternative means for eligible
pupils with disabilities to demonstrate that they have
achieved the same level of academic achievement in the content
standards required for passage of the HSEE.
2)Delays from January 1, 2011 to July 1, 2015 the date by when
eligible pupils with disabilities shall be allowed to
participate in HSEE alternatives.
3)Revises the definition of "eligible pupil with a disability"
to define a pupil who meets specified criteria and has an
expected graduation date of July 1, 2015, instead of January
1, 2011, and has satisfied all other state and local
graduation requirements by July 1, 2015, instead of January 1,
2011.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires pupils, beginning with the Class of 2004, to
successfully pass the HSEE as a condition of receiving a
diploma of graduation. As a result of action taken by SBE,
this requirement took effect beginning with the Class of 2006.
2)Allows parents to request and school districts to grant a
waiver of the requirement to successfully pass the HSEE for a
pupil with a disability who has taken the HSEE with
modifications and has received the equivalent of a passing
score on one or both subject matters of the exam, if certain
conditions are met.
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3)Allows pupils with disabilities to continue to receive special
education and related services until age 22 if they had an
individualized education program (IEP) prior to age 18 and
have not graduated high school with a diploma.
4)Requires by October 1, 2010, the SBE, taking into
consideration specified findings and recommendations, to adopt
regulations for alternative means by which eligible pupils
with disabilities, as defined, may demonstrate that they have
achieved the same level of academic achievement in the content
standards required for passage of the HSSE.
5)Defines an eligible pupil with a disability as a pupil who
has, among other things, an anticipated graduation date and is
scheduled to receive a high school diploma on or after January
1, 2011, and the school district or state special school
certifies that the pupil has satisfied or will satisfy all
other state and local requirements for the receipt of a high
school diploma on or after January 1, 2011.
6)Authorizes an eligible pupil with a disability, commencing
January 1, 2011, to participate in the alternative means of
demonstrating the level of academic achievement in the content
standards required for passage of the HSEE in the manner
prescribed by the regulations adopted by the SBE.
7)Exempts, commencing with the 2009-10 school year, eligible
pupils with disabilities from the requirement to satisfy the
HSEE as a condition of high school graduation; and specifies
that this exemption shall last until the SBE makes a
determination that the alternative means are not feasible or
that the alternative means are implemented.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : All California pupils are required to pass a high
school exit exam, in addition to meeting all other state and
local requirements, in order to receive a high school diploma.
A temporary exemption for eligible pupils with disabilities was
enacted in 2009 and is currently in place until the SBE makes a
determination that alternative means are not feasible or are
implemented. Pupils with disabilities encounter particular
difficulties in meeting the high school exit exam requirement
for high school graduation, and according to the California High
School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) 2011 Evaluation Report, "While there
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has been some improvement for students in special education,
less than one quarter of these students met the CAHSEE
requirement in grade ten." Additionally, results for the Class
of 2010 show that only 53% of pupils receiving special education
services in the Class of 2010 met the CAHSEE requirement by the
end of their senior year.
AB 2040 (Nu�ez), Chapter 666, Statutes of 2008, required the
convening of a panel to make recommendations regarding
alternative means to satisfy the HSEE graduation requirement for
eligible pupils with disabilities. Current law specifies that
eligible pupils with disabilities shall be allowed to
participate in alternative means commencing January 1, 2011 and
allows the SBE, by regulation, to extend this date by up to two
years, if it determines an extension is necessary for
appropriate implementation. The SBE determined that alternative
means are feasible and adopted regulations establishing July 1,
2012 as the implementation date for the alternative means,
however CDE does not feel this implementation date is feasible
given that very few districts had an opportunity to participate
in the alternative means pilot and CDE feels not enough
information was produced to truly evaluate the alternative means
option, and to get a more comprehensive pilot underway would be
costly.
This bill extends the implementation date of the alternative
means to July 1, 2015.
Pupils with disabilities exempted from CAHSEE : AB 2 4X (Evans),
Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009, Fourth Extraordinary Session,
exempts eligible pupils with disabilities from the HSEE
requirement until the SBE makes a determination that alternative
means are not feasible or that the alternative means are
implemented. Pupils with disabilities are still required, in
grade ten only, to take the CAHSEE to meet state and federal
requirements. The SBE adopted regulations establishing July 1,
2012 as the implementation date for the alternative means which
means that the CAHSEE exemption for pupils with disabilities
expires on June 30, 2012. While the SBE has the authority to
extend that date to January 1, 2013, this still leaves pupils
with disabilities with expected graduation dates after January
1, 2013, without an option for an exemption and without the
ability to demonstrate competency through alternative means.
Because the statute ties the CAHSEE exemption to the operative
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date of the alternative means, delaying implementation of the
alternative means also has the effect of extending the exemption
from meeting the CAHSEE requirement for eligible pupils with
disabilities to July 1, 2015. Pupils eligible for this
exemption are still required to meet all other state and local
graduation requirements to obtain a high school diploma.
New standards and new assessments : Since the passage of AB 2040
in 2008, other developments dealing with standards and
assessments have developed. In 2010, California adopted the
common core state standards, replacing the set of standards in
English language arts and mathematics that the HSEE currently
assesses hence any alternative means that are developed and
implemented now could soon be obsolete as they would not be
based on the new standards. A next step will be to align
California's assessment system to the new common core state
standards. To that end, California has joined a national
assessment consortium, the SMARTER Balanced Assessment
Consortium.
Furthermore, in anticipation of the upcoming reauthorization of
the state's assessment system, AB 250 (Brownley), Chapter 608,
Statutes of 2011, requires the Superintendent of Public
Instruction (SPI) to develop recommendations based on various
elements, including a plan to transition to a new statewide
pupil assessment. The plan and the recommendations may address
and include recommendations about the HSEE. According to the
CDE, "to implement alternative means aligned to the content
standards currently assessed by the CAHSEE could be costly and
would likely be for a relatively small number of students
potentially for a short period of time." There is a level of
uncertainly about what California's future assessment system
will look like and thus it may be prudent to provide more time
to appropriately coordinate and align all assessment efforts
particularly in consideration of the new common core state
standards.
The author notes that the date change as proposed by this bill
is necessary because, "While the state has determined that it is
feasible to create alternative means for eligible students to
satisfy the CAHSEE requirement, it would be unlikely to complete
its studies and fully implement it by the dates set forth in AB
2040 and it would be inefficient to do so while also
implementing a different set of standards in the coming years
that have been recently adopted."
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Suggested amendments : This bill delays implementation to July
1, 2015, but retains the ability for the SBE to extend this date
by two years through regulation. The future of the HSEE is
uncertain, but in the event that the HSEE remains in place after
revisions to the state's assessment system are made, it is
unclear as to why it is necessary to allow the SBE to extend the
implementation date even further. If HSEE stays in place, some
would argue that the alternative means for pupils with
disabilities should be available at the same time as a new HSEE
is operative and the alignment to the new standards should be
taking place concurrently as with any other assessments.
According to CDE, there may not be a need for an additional
extension after 2015, but given the uncertainties regarding the
HSEE at the present time, the CDE would like to retain the
ability to extend the timeline, in the event they need
additional time to align the alternatives to the common core
standards. Staff recommends , limiting the authority of the SBE
to extend the implementation date to a maximum of one year after
July 1, 2015.
The California Association for Parent Child Advocacy writes a
letter expressing concerns with the extension for developing
alternative tests and with the existing HSEE exemption. The
letter suggests that the HSEE exemption has been "transformed in
practice into overreaching policies of issuing 'diplomas' to
students who do not have, and in some cases have no capacity to
acquire, the skills California has designated as essential for
high school graduation," and suggests amendments to a section of
the Education Code not in this bill. The suggested amendments
would impose additional requirements for pupils with
disabilities to be able to obtain an exemption from the HSEE.
Arguments in support : The State Superintendent of Public
Instruction, the sponsor of this bill, states, "AB 1705 will
allow the California Department of Education and the State Board
of Education to fairly and efficiently implement the AB 2040
requirements in conjunction with the Common Core State
Standards, allowing the dates and timelines to be brought in
line with each other."
The California School Boards Association writes, "AB 1705 will
move the date for implementation of the CAHSEE alternative means
test into alignment with the adoption and implementation of new
statewide assessment instruments. This will give the Department
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and the Board time to complete their work and integrate it with
the 'common core state standards' on or near the same dates."
Previous legislation : AB 2 4X (Evans), Chapter 2, Statutes of
2009, Fourth Extraordinary Session, exempts eligible pupils with
disabilities from the HSEE requirement until the SBE makes a
determination that alternative means are not feasible or that
the alternative means are implemented.
AB 2040 (Nu�ez), Chapter 666, Statutes of 2008, requires the
Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to recommend, and the
State Board of Education to select, members of a panel that will
convene to make recommendations regarding alternative means for
eligible pupils with disabilities to demonstrate that they have
achieved the same level of academic achievement in the content
standards in English language arts or mathematics, or both,
required for passage of the high school exit exam (HSEE).
Provides that commencing January 1, 2011, an eligible pupil with
a disability who has fulfilled all of the requirements for a
high school diploma except passage of the HSEE may demonstrate
through alternative means that they have achieved the same level
of academic achievement required for passage of the HSEE.
Authorizes the SBE to extend the implementation date by up to
two years if it determines that an extension is necessary for
the appropriate implementation of the regulations adopted
pursuant to this bill.
SB 123 (Romero) of 2007 provides eligible pupils with
disabilities who have fulfilled all of the requirements for a
high school diploma except passage of the high school exit exam
the opportunity to receive a diploma by demonstrating through a
standardized evidence-based assessment that they have acquired
the same knowledge and skills necessary to pass the high school
exit exam. SB 123 was vetoed with the following message:
While I appreciate the author's continued efforts to
provide pupils with disabilities with other
opportunities to demonstrate that they meet the same
content standards of the California High School Exit
Exam (CAHSEE), this bill is premature. The State
Board of Education (SBE) and the California Department
of Education (CDE) is nearing a final settlement
agreement with plaintiffs in the case of Chapman, et
al. v. the California Department of Education, et al.
This bill will not only interfere with current legal
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negotiations, but it also circumvents the SBE's
authority.
In May 2007, the Superintendent of Public Instruction
recommended, and the SBE concurred, that the CAHSEE
continue as a graduation requirement for special
education students. This bill would hinder that
effort.
SB 517 (Romero), Chapter 3, Statutes of 2006, exempts pupils
with disabilities, until December 31, 2006, from the requirement
of passing the high school exit exam as a condition of receiving
a high school diploma, if they meet certain criteria.
SB 267 (Romero), Chapter 629, Statutes of 2006, extends, until
December 31, 2007, provisions exempting pupils with disabilities
from the requirement of passing the high school exit exam as a
condition of receiving a high school diploma, if they meet
certain criteria and requires the SPI to recommend to the
Legislature a course of action to adopt regarding pupils with
disabilities who have met all other state and local graduation
requirements, but who are unable to satisfy the CAHSEE
requirement or obtain a local waiver under current law.
SB 964 (Burton), Chapter 803, Statutes of 2003, called for an
independent consultant, advised by an appointed advisory panel,
to prepare a report that assessed options and provided
recommendations for alternatives to the high school exit exam
for students with disabilities.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
State Superintendent of Public Instruction (Sponsor)
Association of California School Administrators
California County Boards of Education
California School Boards Association
California Teachers Association
School for Integrated Academics and Technologies
Opposition
None on file.
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Analysis Prepared by : Marisol Avi�a / ED. / (916) 319-2087