BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 885|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 885
Author: Simitian (D)
Amended: 3/24/11
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 10-0, 4/27/11
AYES: Lowenthal, Runner, Alquist, Blakeslee, Hancock,
Huff, Liu, Price, Simitian, Vargas
NO VOTE RECORDED: Vacancy
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SUBJECT : Public education accountability: longitudinal
education
system
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill authorizes the California Department
of Education , the University of California, the California
State University, the Chancellor of the California
Community Colleges, the Commission on Teacher
Credentialing, the California Postsecondary Education
Commission, the State Board of Education, the Employment
Development Department and the California School
Information Services to enter into a joint powers agreement
to facilitate the implementation of a comprehensive
longitudinal P-20 statewide data system for California, as
well as the transfer of educational and workforce data.
CONTINUED
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ANALYSIS : Current law establishes the Education Data and
Information Act of 2008 (Act) which, among other things,
requires each of the three public higher education systems
to establish a process by which colleges and universities
within those systems issue, maintain, and report
information using unique statewide student identifiers.
The Act requires the various education segments to begin
using a common student identifier, so that once a
governance structure and technical architecture are in
place, records can be linked from pre-K through the
university. Each of the public segments of higher
education are required to annually provide the Governor and
the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the
Legislature with a report that includes a detailed timeline
for the implementation, maintenance, and use of the unique
Statewide Student Identifiers. The Act also authorizes the
California Department of Education (CDE), the University of
California (UC), the California State University (CSU), the
Chancellor of the California Community Colleges (CCC), the
Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC), the Employment
Development Department (EDD), and the California School
Information Services (CSIS) to enter into interagency
agreements to facilitate the implementation of a
comprehensive longitudinal P-20 statewide data system for
California, the transfer of data from one educational
segment to another, and the transfer of workforce data to
the educational segments.
This bill:
1.Deletes the authority of the CDE, the UC, the CSU, the
Chancellor of the CCC, the CTC, the EDD and CSIS to enter
into interagency agreements for specified purposes.
2.Authorizes these entities, as well as the California
Postsecondary Commission and the State Board of Education
to enter into a joint powers agreement in order to
facilitate:
A. Implementation of a comprehensive longitudinal
P-20 statewide data system for California.
B. Transfer of data from one educational segment to
another.
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C. Transfer of workforce data to the educational
segments.
Comments
Working Group Activity . SB 1298 (Simitian), Chapter 561,
Statutes of 2008, established the Act and, among other
things, created two working groups, one to focus on the
technical capacity to link education data systems from
various agencies, and another to make recommendations on
the governance of P-20 education data. The State Chief
Information Officer (CIO) convened a working group to
develop the strategic plan to link education data systems
from all segments and reported on those efforts in March
2010. The Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) convened a
working group to explore governance issues, and in December
2009, issued its recommendations for the governance of
cross-segment education data. Among its recommendations,
the LAO suggested that managing a cross-segmental data
warehouse could be accomplished through the use of a joint
powers authority. The provisions of this bill are
consistent with those recommendations.
Status ? Each of the segments has complied with the
statutory requirement that they prepare annual reports
outlining their progress in implementing, maintaining and
using unique student identifiers. In 2011, the systems
report that principals from the CDE, CCC, CSU, UC, and CPEC
have met to discuss their ability to build a statewide
database through a joint powers agreement. In addition,
CPEC has been piloting ways to merge CDE and postsecondary
data and EDD and the CSU have also undertaken relate d
pilot studies. The CSU reports that the principals are
close to concluding a joint interagency agreement, vetted
by counterpart General Counsel, for each to submit data, to
match, and to merge files. No timeline or details on the
maintenance has yet been developed.
Private Proprietary Sector ? Up to now, the Act has focused
on the integration of data across state agencies and public
educational institutions. However, according to the
California Student Aid Commission, $93.3 million in Cal
Grant funding was paid to over 13,000 California students
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attending private proprietary institutions, comprising
about nine percent of the total 2009-10 Cal Grant funding.
Additionally, in related budget action, SB 70 (Senate
Budget and Fiscal Review Committee), Chapter 7, Statute s
of 2011, among other things, established standards for
student loan cohort default rates which must be met by an
institution in order to be eligible to participate in the
Cal Grant program, arguably, an effort to ensure grant
money goes to students attending proprietary institutions
that provide value (as measured by lower cohort default
rates). Several recent studies have highlighted the need
to expand degree production in order to meet California's
workforce needs and the potential of private proprietary
sector to provide additional capacity.
Related Legislative History . The importance of a unique
student identifier and the need to link information across
a P-20 network has been reinforced through several
legislatively directed efforts, including:
SB 1453 (Alpert), Chapter 1002, Statutes of 2002,
authorized the creation of the California Longitudinal
Pupil Achievement Data System to provide school districts
and the CDE with the data necessary to comply with federal
reporting requirements under No Child Left Behind. The
bill required that a unique pupil identifier be assigned to
each K-12 student enrolled in a California Public School.
Passed the Senate with a vote of 33-0 on August 30, 2002.
SB 1298 (Simitian), Chapter 561, Statutes of 2008, the
Education Data and Information Act of 2008, established a
process by which local education agencies and public
institutions of higher education issues, maintain, and
report information using the unique statewide student
identifiers under current law. Passed the Senate with a
vote of 26-10 on August 20, 2008.
SB 19 (Simitian), Chapter 159, Statutes of 2009, added an
additional issue, to identify specific procedures and
policies that would facilitate the sharing and transfer of
data from one segment to another and ultimately to include
linkages to workforce data, to the strategic plan being
created by the CIO working group established in the SB 1298
(Simitian), Chapter 561, Statutes of 2008. It also
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authorized the use of federal grant funds received pursuant
to the ARRA and provided for statewide data systems to fund
the activities required of the CIO working group. Passed
the Senate with a vote of 31-7 on September 11, 2009.
SBX5 2 (Simitian), Chapter 1, Statutes of 2010, Fifth
Extraordinary Session, among other things, declared the
Legislature's intent to create a preschool through higher
education (P-20) statewide longitudinal educational data
system in order to inform education policy and improve
instruction and to be used for state-level research to
improve instruction and to require the SDE, the CTC, the
CCC, the UC, the CSU , and any other state education agency
to be required to disclose, or redisclose, personally
identifiable pupil records to this P-20 system. Passed the
Senate with a vote of 28-0 on December 17, 2010.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/10/11)
Association of California School Administrators
Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges
Children Now
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids California
The Education Trust-West
The Little Hoover Commission
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
on-going California efforts, existing California law, as
well as assurances provided to secure funding form the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) all
support the need to link K-12 and higher education records.
This bill is an effort to facilitate the implementation of
a comprehensive longitudinal P-20 statewide data system for
California. This is necessary because much of the current
student data is collected and stored in many separate data
systems. While useful for the specific segments, there is
a need to bring this information together in a manner that
allows tracking of student achievement across the P-20
continuum. There is also a critical need to provide the
educational data necessary to comply with federal funding
and reporting requirements and to evaluate programs in
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order to spend limited education dollars wisely.
CPM:cm 5/10/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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