BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2497
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 2497 (Solorio)
As Amended May 25, 2012
Majority vote
HIGHER EDUCATION 9-0 APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Block, Olsen, Achadjian, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Harkey, |
| |Brownley, Fong, Galgiani, | |Blumenfield, Bradford, |
| |Lara, Miller, Portantino | |Charles Calderon, Campos, |
| | | |Davis, Donnelly, Gatto, |
| | | |Ammiano, Hill, Lara, |
| | | |Mitchell, Nielsen, Norby, |
| | | |Solorio, Wagner |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO), in
consultation with the California State University (CSU), to
report by January 1, 2014, and every two years thereafter until
January 1, 2019, specified information measuring the impact of
the CSU's Early Start Program on students' mathematics and
English proficiency.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, absorbable costs for CSU to provide the required data
and for LAO to analyze and prepare the required report.
COMMENTS : According to a March 2011 issues brief by 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: 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 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
Start Program. Beginning in Fall 2012, entering CSU freshmen
AB 2497
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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.
Given that this new approach by CSU is in its infancy, this bill
requires the LAO to report biennially to the Legislature on the
efficacy of the Early Start Program.
Analysis Prepared by : Sandra Fried / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960
FN: 0003992