BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2497
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Date of Hearing: May 2, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 2497 (Solorio) - As Amended: April 19, 2012
Policy Committee: Higher
EducationVote:9-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO), in
cooperation with the California State University (CSU), to
report by January 1, 2014 and every two years thereafter until
January 1, 2018, specified information measuring the impact of
the CSU's Early Start Program on students' mathematics and
English proficiency.
FISCAL EFFECT
Absorbable costs for CSU to provide the required data and for
the LAO to analyze and prepare the required report.
COMMENTS
1)Background . According to a March 2011 issues brief by the
Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO), of regularly admitted CSU
freshmen in 2009, about 58% were unprepared for college-level
writing or math or both. CSU students who do not demonstrate
proficiency had been required to pass the appropriate
precollegiate (commonly called "remedial") courses within one
year of admission. According to information provided by CSU,
this policy exposed two issues: (a) students who tested in the
lowest quartile of the CSU placement exams were required to do
all of their remediation while taking college-level courses,
and (b) many students were not completing remediation by the
end of the spring term but were enrolling or re-enrolling in
remedial courses in the summer at great expense to themselves
and to CSU.
To address the above concerns, CSU has established the Early
AB 2497
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Start Program. Beginning in Fall 2012, entering CSU freshmen
who are not proficient in math or "at risk" in English will
need to start the remediation process before their first term.
By fall of 2014, students will need to have started work to
become ready for college-level English. Students can meet
this requirement through several means, including senior year
high school courses, courses offered in the summer at any one
of their local community colleges or CSU campuses, and online
courses. According to CSU, three pilots were conducted in
order to understand the new program's impacts, and resulted in
at least an 80% success rate of having students move on from
remedial education.
2)Purpose . Given that this new approach by CSU is in its
infancy, AB 2497 requires the LAO to report biennially to the
Legislature on the efficacy of the Early Start Program.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081