BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 740
Page 1
Date of Hearing: July 6, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
SB 740 (Hancock) - As Amended: May 31, 2011
SENATE VOTE : 22-13
SUBJECT : Pupil assessment
SUMMARY : Eliminates grade 2 testing under the Standardized
Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program, and requires the
California Department of Education (CDE) to identify existing
assessments in language arts and mathematics that could be used
as diagnostic examinations for grade 2 pupils. Specifically,
this bill :
1)Eliminates, commencing July 1, 2012, the requirement that
assessments be administered to pupils in second grade pursuant
to the STAR Program and makes conforming changes related to:
a) A plan for producing valid, reliable, and comparable
individual pupil scores, and a method to ensure valid,
reliable, and comparable individual and aggregate scores.
b) The development and distribution of workbooks.
c) STAR apportionments.
d) The development of the California Standards Tests (CST).
e) The requirements that test publishers must meet.
f) Separate agreements between the publisher and school
districts.
g) The development of a reading list.
2)Requires the CDE by July 1, 2014, to identify and make
available to school districts information regarding existing
assessments in language arts and mathematics that are
appropriate for pupils in grade 2 for diagnostic use by
classroom teachers.
3)Requires the provisions of #2 above to be implemented from
savings realized from the elimination of the grade 2
standards-based achievement testing.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires each charter school, school district, and county
office of education to administer designated achievement tests
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to each pupil in grades 2 through 11, inclusive, as part of
the STAR Program until July 1, 2013.
2)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, State Board
of Education (SBE), and test publisher contractors to
undertake specified activities in support of STAR testing in
grades 2 through 11, inclusive, as part of the STAR Program
until July 1, 2013.
3)States Legislative intent that reauthorization of the
statewide pupil assessment program include alignment with the
new common core standards, any common assessments developed by
national consortia, and conformance with the assessment
requirements of any reauthorization of the federal Elementary
and Secondary Education Act.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, General Fund (GF) savings up to $2 million annually
commencing in the 2012-13 fiscal year as a result of the
elimination of current grade 2 testing, and potentially
significant GF costs beginning in the 2013-14 fiscal year
related to diagnostic assessments.
COMMENTS : California's state assessment program is comprised
of three major testing components, the STAR Program, the
California English Language Development Test (CELDT), and a high
school exit examination (the California High School Exit
Examination, CAHSEE, is currently the designated high school
exit examination). The program also includes a number of
smaller, more specialized assessments.
The STAR Program, initially authorized in 1997, requires testing
of students in English language arts, mathematics, science and
history/social science at specified grade levels. In 2003, the
CST replaced a nationally published "off the shelf" test as the
primary battery of STAR tests; the CST include only questions
written specifically for California's content standards. Today,
the STAR Program includes the CSTs, the California Alternate
Performance Assessment (CAPA) administered to students with
significant cognitive disabilities, the California Modified
Assessment (CMA) administered to students whose disabilities
preclude them from achieving grade-level proficiency on an
assessment of the California content standards with or without
testing accommodations, and a national norm-referenced test in
Spanish that is administered to Spanish speaking English
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learners who have been in school in the U.S. less than 12 months
or who are receiving instruction in Spanish. Neither the high
school exit exam nor the CELDT are components of the STAR
Program; each is separately authorized in statute. Results for
STAR tests are reported for the individual pupil, but no
accountability attaches to these individual results; the state
and federal accountability systems are primarily based on the
aggregated STAR test scores from all pupils in a school or
school district.
The following table summarizes testing requirements under
California's STAR Program.
---------------------------------------------------------------
| | Assessment | Grade Level Tested |
|-----------+----------------------------+----------------------|
|STAR |English Language Arts | 2-11 |
|Program |(Reading) | |
|-----------+----------------------------+----------------------|
| |English Language Arts | 2-11 |
| |(Reading) CAPA | |
|-----------+----------------------------+----------------------|
| |English Language Arts | 3-11 |
| |(Reading) CMA | |
|-----------+----------------------------+----------------------|
| |Mathematics |2-8 and EOC in grades |
| | | 9-11 |
|-----------+----------------------------+----------------------|
| |Mathematics CAPA | 2-11 |
|-----------+----------------------------+----------------------|
| |Mathematics CMA | 3-11 |
|-----------+----------------------------+----------------------|
| |Science | 5, 8, and EOC in |
| | | grades 9-11 |
|-----------+----------------------------+----------------------|
| |History-Social Science | 8-11 |
|-----------+----------------------------+----------------------|
| |Primary Language Assessment |2 -11 |
| |(Spanish) | |
---------------------------------------------------------------
EOC = End-of-course exam
Many elements of the STAR Program are used by California to meet
the assessment and accountability requirements of the federal No
Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). NCLB requires each state
to administer a standards-aligned achievement test in reading
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and mathematics to all students in grades 3-8 and grade 10; it
also requires science testing in grades 5, 8, and 10. Testing
of grade 2 students is not necessary to meet any of these
federal requirements. According to a 2005 study by the
Education Commission of the States, only seven other states
tested grade 2 students in any of the content areas tested in
the STAR Program.
Grade 2 testing in the STAR Program was a controversial issue in
1997 in SB 376 (Alpert), Chapter 828, Statutes of 1997, that
initially authorized the program, and in the subsequent
reauthorization. The reauthorization of the STAR Program in
2004, as implemented by SB 1448 (Alpert), Chapter 233, Statutes
of 2004, represented a negotiated compromise that pivoted on the
eventual elimination of grade 2 testing. This elimination was to
be accomplished over a three year period with the grade 2
testing requirement becoming inoperative on July 1, 2007. AB
1353 (Huff), held in the Assembly Education Committee in 2007,
proposed to extend this sunset date by three years. Later that
year, a four year extension of that date was enacted in budget
trailer language in SB 80 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal
Review), Chapter 174, Statutes of 2007; SB 80 was never heard in
a policy committee. Current law keeps STAR testing in grade 2
operative until July 1, 2013, and repeals the STAR Program and
related statute on January 1, 2014 unless additional legislation
reauthorizes the program.
Grade 2 testing has also long been controversial in the testing
community. In a position paper, the National Center for Fair &
Open Testing (also known as FairTest), a research center that
works to promote fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial
evaluations of students, teachers and schools, and to end
misused and flawed testing practices, presents six arguments for
opposing or eliminating grade 2 testing.
1)Tests of children in grade 2 are likely to be invalid and/or
unreliable, since research has shown that for children below
grade 4, the mechanics of taking tests and answering on
specialized answer sheets can prove more difficult than the
cognitive tasks the tests are asking them to address.
2)Standardized tests are scary for primary school children, bad
for their morale and confidence, and often do not show what
the student knows and can do because the student is
overwhelmed by the test situation.
3)Most seven-year-olds are still in the process of acquiring the
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complex skills involved in learning to read and write.
Premature testing is discouraging to the learner in the same
way that having a work-in-progress exposed to summary judgment
would be.
4)Differences in background show up most vividly in the early
years of schooling: some children arrive in school never
having actually handled a book or in some cases seen one close
up; others have had books read to them since infancy. These
differences tend to diminish in later years in the face of
their common school experience.
5)Primary grade teachers know to build evaluation into daily
instruction as a built-in function. However, when an outside
agency takes over the responsibility for evaluation, the risk
arises that teachers looking for information to guide their
instruction begin to rely on the relatively thin,
out-of-context and delayed information contained in the test
results, rather than on the immediate feedback provided by
classroom evaluations.
6)In order to prepare students for testing, teachers may use
more work sheets, and drill students on skills and vocabulary
out of context. The curriculum may become dry and mechanical
with little time given to the kinds of rich reading and
writing experiences that can make students life-long readers
and learners; this can have a greater impact on low income
students who may be less likely to have had substantial early
pleasure reading experiences.
Supporters of eliminating grade 2 testing in California have
cited the compromise agreement that led to the reauthorization
of the STAR program, and have argued that tests given to young
pupils should be for diagnostic or placement purposes only.
They have also argued that the loss of instructional time to
testing and the resulting narrowing of the curriculum are
particularly damaging in the early grades. Educators have also
questioned the developmental appropriateness and psychometric
validity of testing in the early grades. Teachers have cited
numerous examples of negative impacts on individual grade 2
students, including crying, acting out, loss of self-esteem, and
hair loss due to stress. The National Association for the
Education of Young Children has been opposed to standardized
testing of young children for a number of years for these
reasons.
According to the author, "Children in second grade are regularly
given a variety of local instructionally supportive assessments,
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including diagnostic tests to help parents, teachers and schools
understand the strengths and weaknesses in the child's learning;
including identification of special needs. Numerous early
childhood organizations express concern about the validity of
standardized tests administered to young children and recommend
that administration of California Standards Tests in the second
grade is developmentally inappropriate for young children. The
elimination of second grade tests would provide estimated yearly
savings of approximately $2 million."
Opponents of eliminating STAR testing in grade 2 have argued
that providing information to parents and teachers early in a
student's educational career is important for making adjustments
to that student's instruction. However, to the extent that the
validity of the scores and information produced by the tests
administered to grade 2 pupils can be questioned, the validity
of the educational decisions made using that information also
comes into question. For example, if a grade 2 reading test is
measuring something in addition to or other than reading (e.g.,
measuring the pupil's anxiety, lack of understanding of how an
answer form is filled in, lack of ability to sit still for a 45
minute testing session), then any decisions about the pupil's
reading abilities or about restructuring the pupil's reading
instruction may be misplaced; what appeared to be low reading
achievement may actually be the result of those other dimensions
that were unintentionally being measured by the test. Many of
these factors tend to diminish or disappear as the student ages
or gains more experience in classroom assessment situations.
Ed Voice, in opposition to this bill, argues that, "SB 740 would
result in the loss of critical statewide data used by
policymakers at the local and state level in evaluating best
practices in the primary grades, and would severely undermine
California's effort to ensure that every child learn to ready by
the end of the third grade. Without a uniform 2nd trade test,
parents, teachers and policymakers will be less likely to know
which schools are failing to close achievement gaps and allowing
students - particularly low-income and minority students - to
fall further behind." The Association of California School
Administrators (ACSA) also opposes this bill on the grounds that
there would "be no required assessment of what students know and
are able to do until the end of 3rd grade."
This bill responds to this argument by requiring the CDE to
identify existing, appropriate grade 2 diagnostic assessments in
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language arts and mathematics that could be used by classroom
teachers, and requiring the CDE to provide school districts with
information regarding those assessments. A diagnostic test,
specifically developed as a grade 2 interim assessment, rather
than as a summative accountability instrument, may well be able
to provide data to the teacher that are critical to instruction
and to ensuring that every child will acquire the gateway skills
in reading and mathematics, while at the same time being more
psychometrically and psychologically appropriate for children in
grade 2. ACSA, in opposition, states that any savings from the
provisions of this bill should go to "Providing developmentally
appropriate 2nd grade assessments?"
It should be noted that opponents of the bill have also raised
an issue related to testing requirements on EL pupils under
Title III of NCLB; the argument suggests that elimination of
grade 2 STAR testing would put California out of compliance with
that requirement. However, it is clear by examining how other
states meet this federal mandate that many different types of
assessments in grade 2, including diagnostic tests, can be used
to satisfy the Title III requirements; thus the elimination of
grade 2 STAR testing would not necessarily jeopardize the
state's compliance with Title III of NCLB.
Previous legislation: SBX5 1 (Steinberg), Chapter 2, Statutes
of 2010, Fifth Extraordinary Session, extended the STAR Program
for grades 2-11 until July 1, 2013. AB 476 (Torlakson), vetoed
in 2009, would have eliminated grade 2 testing under the STAR
program, and would have required a one-time independent
evaluation of that program. SB 800 (Hancock), held in the
Senate Education Committee in 2009, would have eliminated grade
2 STAR testing and made conforming changes to dates by which
related sections of law become inoperative and are repealed. SB
80 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review), Chapter 174,
Statutes of 2007, keeps STAR testing in grade 2 operative until
July 1, 2011. AB 1353 (Huff), held in the Assembly Education
Committee in 2007, would have required grade 2 testing under the
Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program to continue
after July 1, 2007 and until July 1, 2010. AB 1695 (Goldberg),
held in Assembly Appropriations in 2005, would have required a
school district to select and administer an existing diagnostic
reading test for administration to each pupil in grade 2. SB
1448 (Alpert), Chapter 233, Statutes of 2004, reauthorizes the
STAR Program and implemented a compromise over the eventual
elimination of grade 2 testing; this elimination was to be
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accomplished over a three year period with grade 2 provisions
becoming inoperative on July 1, 2007 and repealed the following
January 1. AB 356 (Hancock), held on the Senate floor in 2004,
would have provided for a diagnostic assessment, rather than
standardized testing, in grade 2. SB 376 (Alpert), Chapter 828,
Statutes of 1997, establishes the STAR Program and authorizes
testing in grades 2 through 11.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Federation of Teachers (Sponsor)
California School Boards Association
California State PTA
California Teachers Association
Los Angeles Unified School District
Opposition
Association of California School Administrators
California Business for Education Excellence
EdVoice
The Education Trust-West
Numerous individuals
Analysis Prepared by : Gerald Shelton / ED. / (916) 319-2087