BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  SB 512
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   July 13, 2011

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                     SB 512 (Price) - As Amended:  June 30, 2011 

          Policy Committee:                             Education Vote:8-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          No     Reimbursable:              No

           SUMMARY  

          This bill requires Academic Performance Index (API) reporting to 
          include performance data for any pupil subgroup that includes 10 
          or more pupils with valid test scores.  Specifically, this bill: 


          1)Requires reporting conducted pursuant to this measure, for a 
            pupil subgroup that is not numerically significant, to be 
            marked with an asterisk that indicates a less statistical 
            certainty than data based on a numerically significant 
            subgroup.  

          2)Requires reporting conducted pursuant to this measure to be in 
            accordance with state and federal privacy law and prohibits 
            any reporting from modifying current reporting requirements 
            related to numerically significant subgroups, as specified.  

          3)Expresses legislative intent that the reporting required 
            pursuant to this measure not be used for federal or state 
            accountability purposes.  

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Minor, absorbable costs to SDE to report on numerically, 
          significant subgroup information, as specified.  

           COMMENTS  

           1)Background  .  Exiting law requires a school to demonstrate 
            comparable improvement in academic achievement, as measured by 
            the API, by all numerically significant pupil subgroups at the 
            school including: (a) ethnic subgroups; (b) socioeconomically 








                                                                  SB 512
                                                                  Page  2

            disadvantaged pupils; (c) English language learners (ELLs); 
            and (d) pupils with disabilities.  

            Statue further defines a numerically significant pupil 
            subgroup as one that meets the following criteria: (a) the 
            subgroup consists of at least 50 pupils, each of whom has a 
            valid test score, and (b) the subgroup constitutes at least 
            15% of the total population of pupils at a school who have 
            valid test scores.  

           2)Rationale  .  In January 2009, the State Board of Education 
            (SBE) established the African American Advisory Committee 
            (AAC) "to provide the SBE with advice regarding ways to 
            address challenges that may impede success for African 
            American students."  

            In January 2011, the AAC released recommendations to 
            facilitate improved academic achievement of African American 
            students.  One of the committee's recommendations is for the 
            state to improve its accountability information for these 
            students.  Specifically, the committee states: "In 2009, there 
            were roughly 14,500 African-American students in California 
            public schools whose academic performance was apparently not 
            considered or monitored as a subgroup under the current 
            accountability and reporting system, because they were 
            enrolled in schools where they constituted less than 50 in 
            number or less than 15 percent of the school population. The 
            scores for these 14,500 students did not appear on 
            school-level subgroup reports, but rather were grouped into 
            schoolwide averages masking their academic performance and 
            potentially only appeared in district level subgroups. This is 
            a flaw in the design of California's accountability reporting 
            system, reflecting a general lack of transparency and 
            accountability built into the K-12 system when it comes to 
            subgroup proficiency ... For those African American students 
            whose scores were not reported, the system does not ascertain 
            whether they reach grade-level proficiency or graduate from 
            high school prepared for college."

            This bill begins to address the AAC's recommendation with 
            regard to numerically significant subgroups and reporting, as 
            specified.  


           3)SB 1X (Alpert), Chapter 3, Statutes of 1999, established the 








                                                                 SB 512
                                                                  Page  3

            Public Schools Accountability Act  , which required the 
            development of the API. The API is used to measure performance 
            of schools and districts over time. An API score is calculated 
            based on students' performance on the following standardized 
            tests: the California Standards Tests in English language 
            arts, mathematics, and history-social science, and science 
            (where applicable) and the California High School Exit Exam. 



           Analysis Prepared by  :    Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916) 
          319-2081