BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1919
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Date of Hearing: April 11, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 1919 (Brownley) - As Amended: March 28, 2012
SUBJECT : Pupils: achievement data: Academic Performance Index:
charter schools.
SUMMARY : Authorizes a school district to have a secondary
Academic Performance Index (API) that includes the API scores of
the charter schools for which the school district is the
chartering authority, upon the request of the school district;
and, requires a school district to have access to individual
pupil data relating to pupils who attend a charter school for
which the school district is the chartering authority, as
specified. Specifically this bill :
1)Requires a school district to have access to individual pupil
demographic data, program data, and achievement data,
including but not limited to, the results of the
standards-based achievement tests that are part of the
Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program, the results
of the English language development tests, and the individual
results of the high school exit examination relating to pupils
who attend a charter school for which the school district is
the chartering authority.
2)Requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to
provide this data to the extent it has the data, along with
the unique pupil identification number of each of those
pupils, to the school district.
3)Requires a school district to have access to view and download
the individual pupil records in the California Longitudinal
Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) for pupils who attend
a charter school for which the school district is the
chartering authority.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires the SPI to develop the API to measure the performance
of schools, and to include a variety of indicators in that
measure, including, but not limited to, achievement test
results, attendance rates, and graduation rates. (Education
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Code Section 52052)
2)Requires any pupil results or a record of accomplishment to be
private, and may not be released to any person, other than the
pupil's parent or guardian and a teacher, counselor or
administrator directly involved with the pupil, without the
express written consent of either the parent or guardian of
the pupil if the pupil is a minor, or the pupil if the pupil
has reached the age of majority or is emancipated. (Education
Code Section 60607)
3)Requires the CDE to ensure that school districts comply with
each of the following requirements:
a) The individual STAR program results of each pupil shall
be reported to the school and teachers of a pupil. The
school district shall include the test results of a pupil
in his or her pupil records. However, individual pupil test
results only may be released with the permission of either
the pupil's parent or guardian if the pupil is a minor, or
the pupil if the pupil has reached the age of majority or
is emancipated.
b) A pupil or his or her parent or guardian may authorize
the release of individual pupil results to a postsecondary
educational institution for the purpose of credit,
placement, determination of readiness for college-level
coursework, or admission.
c) The district wide, school-level, and grade-level results
of the STAR Program in each of the grades designated, but
not the score or relative position of any individually
ascertainable pupil, shall be reported to the governing
board of the school district at a regularly scheduled
meeting, and the countywide, school-level, and grade-level
results for classes and programs under the jurisdiction of
the county office of education shall be similarly reported
to the county board of education at a regularly scheduled
meeting. (Education Code 60641)
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Charter School Background : According to the CDE,
there are currently 983 charter schools operating with student
enrollment from 2010-11 of more than 369,000 in the state. This
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includes three statewide benefit charters and 18 State Board of
Education (SBE)-approved charters. Some charter schools are
new, while others are conversions from existing public schools.
Charter schools are part of the state's public education system
and are funded by public dollars. A charter school is usually
created or organized by a group of teachers, parents and
community leaders, a community-based organization, or an
education management organization. Charter schools are
authorized by school district boards, county boards of education
or the state board of education. A charter school is generally
exempt from most laws governing school districts, except where
specifically noted in the law.
According to the author, California has established rigorous
academic standards for its students and has developed specific
measures to determine if these standards are being achieved.
Existing law establishes several measures of student
performance, such as the STAR Program, and requires all schools,
including charter schools, to report results to the CDE. Some
charter schools independently report the information directly to
CDE, while other schools report the information through the
school district which authorized it. Currently, a school
district that wishes to obtain student-level achievement data
for students who attend an independently reporting charter
school within its jurisdiction must request the information
separately from each of the various schools, costing time and
resources that school districts cannot afford.
AB 1919 will provide school districts with more information
about the performance of all students within their
jurisdictions, including those who attend charter schools, in
order to identify best practices and ensure all students receive
a quality education. This bill will authorize a school district
to access from CDE student-level achievement data for students
attending a charter school for which the school district is the
chartering authority, providing centralized access to
information that school districts are already authorized to
oversee. This bill will also allow school districts to have a
second API that includes all charter schools for which the
school district is the chartering authority, in order to provide
better oversight and accountability for all students.
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Data Request : In
2010, LAUSD requested from the CDE, student level assessment
data for students attending charter schools that were authorized
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by the school district. In his October 12, 2010 response to
this request, Superintendent of Public Instruction O'Connell
wrote, "Current state law, California Education Code Section
60607 indicates that:
Any pupil results or a record of accomplishment shall be
private, and may not be released to any person, other than
the pupil's parent or guardian and a teacher, counselor or
administrator directly involved with the pupil, without the
express written consent of either the parent or guardian of
the pupil if the pupil is a minor, or the pupil if the
pupil has reached the age of majority or is emancipated.
Because of the legal restrictions imposed on the release of
student-level assessment data, the CDE is unable to fulfill your
current request. If you received these data in the past they
were delivered in error."
This bill requires that school districts have access to this
data for all charter schools for which the district is the
chartering authority. According to LAUSD, increasing student
achievement is a key goal for school districts, and an analysis
of pupil data is necessary to ensure students' needs are met.
Access to individual student demographic and achievement data is
important to assess how students are faring. With this
information, districts can determine if sub-groups such as
English-learners, low income students or certain demographic
groups are succeeding. For charter schools that are authorized
by a school district, current law only allows the district
access to aggregate school-level data. Given that districts are
responsible for renewing school charter agreements, access to
pupil data for a district's charters is necessary to properly
evaluate the performance of students at the charter school.
Without this information, it is difficult for district's to know
if the needs of certain groups of students are being met by the
charter school. Access to this information through the CDE
allows school districts to get an accurate, complete picture of
student achievement at all of its schools.
Alternative API : The SPI established, pursuant to SB 1 X1
(Alpert), Chapter 3, Statutes of 1999-2000 First Extraordinary
Session, the Public School Accountability Act advisory committee
to advise the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) and the
SBE on all appropriate matters relative to the creation of the
API. SB 1 X1 also requires the SPI, with the approval of the
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SBE, to develop the API to measure the performance of schools
for reporting and accountability purposes, and to include a
variety of indicators in that measure, including, but not
limited to, achievement test results, attendance rates, and
graduation rates. Currently only achievement test results are
incorporated into the API, and the API is configured to produce
scores measuring a school's static performance at each grade
level, in each content area, in each year, at one point in time.
This bill authorizes a school district to request an alternative
API be calculated for the school district that includes the
student-level data from the charter schools authorized by the
district. According to the author, this bill will also allow
school districts to have a second API that includes all charter
schools for which the school district is the chartering
authority, in order to provide better oversight and
accountability for all students. Although charter schools
operate independently from the existing school district
structure, most are initially authorized by a school district to
fill a distinct educational need within the community, such as
expanding learning experiences for students who are identified
as academically low achieving. All students are entitled to
quality education, so a school district must be sure that any
new charter school, whose petition it approves, will provide
this right. Allowing a school district to incorporate charter
school API into its district calculation will help illustrate
its commitment to high-performing educational attainment for all
students.
According to LAUSD, a district-level API score that includes all
of a school district's schools--both traditional and
charter--allows the school district to be truly accountable for
all the schools under its purview. Great care is taken when a
district authorizes a charter school, and it is appropriate that
a district-level API incorporate all students that attend
schools for which a district is responsible.
Which charters should be included in a district's API ?
According to LAUSD, the school district would like an
alternative API calculated to include the charter schools that
have been authorized by the district. LAUSD is not necessarily
interested in having all charter schools located within their
jurisdiction included in the alternative API, because the
district is more interested being held accountable for the
schools they authorized, as they view these schools as part of
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their local educational system. In essence, the district has a
sense of responsibility for those schools they authorized, and
thus would like an API score calculated that includes those
schools in addition to the traditional district schools.
Which API is used for Accountability Purposes? If a school
district requests an alternative API, it is unclear which API
score will be used for state accountability purposes. The bill
is silent with regard to how the alternative API score will be
used. If the author's intent is to have an alternative API
score generated for the private use of the school district, the
committee should consider whether that is a good use of state
resources. If the author's intent is to have an alternative API
score generated for state accountability purposes, the committee
should consider whether it is appropriate for some districts to
have one API score and other districts to have two API scores,
with different groups of students in each calculation. Staff
recommends the bill be amended to clarify that an alternative
API can be calculated for a district's private use only, and
shall not be used for state accountability purposes.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Los Angeles Unified School District
Opposition
School for Integrated Academics and Technologies (SIATech)
Analysis Prepared by : Chelsea Kelley / ED. / (916) 319-2087