BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1458
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 8, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 1458 (Steinberg) - As Amended: July 5, 2012
Policy Committee: Education Vote:8-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill makes changes to the Academic Performance Index (API),
the state's accountability system for schools and districts.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)GF administrative costs of approximately $250,000 to the State
Department of Education to meet the requirements of this
measure, including additional staff to research the
appropriate indicators to recommend for the inclusion in the
API.
2)This bill, commencing with the 2014-15 school year, requires
no more than 40% of the API at the secondary level to consist
of assessment results. As such, it is unclear if local
education agencies (LEAs) are currently collecting appropriate
data to incorporate additional indicators into the API. If
the state needs to collect additional data beyond what is
currently collected, there will be GF/98 costs, likely in the
hundreds of thousands to millions, to LEAs.
3)GF/98 cost pressure, likely in excess of $4.5 million, to
implement a program of school quality review that features
locally convened panels to visit schools, observe teachers,
interview pupils, and examine pupil work. This bill requires
the enactment of this provision to be contingent upon funding
in the budget for this purpose.
This measure does not specify parameters or elements of this
review; the state, however, currently is required under
federal law to assist LEAs that do not meet federal
accountability requirements. The state meets this requirement
SB 1458
Page 2
by funding School District Intervention and Assistance Teams.
This cost estimate is based on this process.
SUMMARY, continued
1)Authorizes the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI),
with approval of the State Board of Education (SBE), to
incorporate into the API the rates at which pupils
successfully promote from one grade to the next in middle and
high school and successfully matriculate from middle to high
school.
2)Requires, commencing with the 2014-15 school year and each
year thereafter, results of the standards-based achievement
tests and the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) to
constitute no more than 40% of the value of the API for
secondary schools. Further authorizes the SPI to incorporate
in the API for secondary schools valid, reliable, and stable
measures of pupil preparedness for postsecondary education and
career.
3)Requires results of the standards-based achievement tests to
constitute at least 40% of the value of the API for primary
and middle schools.
4)Authorizes the SPI, with the approval of the SBE, to develop
and implement a program of school quality review that features
locally convened panels to visit schools, observe teachers,
interview pupils, and examine pupil work, if an appropriation
for this purpose is made in the annual Budget Act.
5)Requires the SPI to annually provide to LEAs and the public a
transparent and understandable explanation of the individual
components of the API and their relative values within the
API. Further repeals the existing annual dropout and
graduation report to the Legislature.
6)Prohibits an additional element chosen by the SPI and the SBE
from being incorporated into the API until at least one full
school year after the SBE's decision to include the element
into the API.
7)Requires the SPI, on or before October 1, 2013, to report to
the Legislature and recommend to the SBE for adoption a
method(s) for increasing the emphasis on pupil mastery of
SB 1458
Page 3
standards in science and social science through the system of
public school accountability or other means.
8)Requires the SPI, on or before October 1, 2013 and in
consultation with the Public Schools Accountability Act (PSAA)
advisory committee, to report to the Legislature an
alternative method(s), in place of decile rank, for
determining eligibility, preferences, or priorities for any
statutory program that currently uses decile rank as a
determining factor.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . In May 2010, Superintendent of Public Instruction
Jack O'Connell released The Multiple Pathways to Student
Success: Envisioning the New California High School report,
which details the need for high schools to offer an
instructional approach that effectively integrates both
academic and career technical content, problem-based
instructional strategies, work-based learning opportunities,
and support services to prepare all students to pursue
multiple options beyond high school graduation. In order to
promote this transformation of high school curriculum, the
report recommends expanding the number of measures within the
API to include rates of completion of college entrance
requirements, career technical education program completion
and certification, school graduation rates, and dropout
recovery rates.
According to the author, "It is time for the API to evolve to
encompass a more comprehensive set of expectations and
aspirations for school performance, such as graduation and/or
dropout rates, and, as appropriate, measures of pupil
preparedness for college and career."
2)SB 1X (Alpert), Chapter 3, Statutes of 1999, established the
PSAA , 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 (i.e., standards-based assessments)
in English language arts, mathematics, and history-social
science, and science (where applicable) and the CAHSEE.
SB 1 X5 (Steinberg), Statutes of 2010, required the SPI and
SB 1458
Page 4
the SBE, in consultation with the PSAA and by January 1, 2011,
to make recommendations to the governor and Legislature on
methods to incorporate a measure of the degree to which pupils
graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge
necessary to attain entry-level employment in business and
industry and/or postsecondary education into the API, as
specified. It is unclear whether this information has been
provided to the governor and Legislature.
3)Should the Legislature delegate significant policy authority
to the SPI and SBE ? Apparently in response to the Governor's
veto of a previous bill, this bill authorizes the SPI, with
the approval of the SBE, to develop and implement a program of
school quality review that features locally convened panels to
visit schools, observe teachers, interview pupils, and examine
pupil work. This measure, however, does not specify the
elements of this review, who will conduct them, or whether or
not all schools or a portion of them will be subject to this
quality review. Staff recommends these issues be addressed.
4)Previous legislation . SB 547 (Steinberg) proposes to sunset
the API on July 1, 2014 and replaced it with the Education
Quality Index which is comprised of multiple newly established
indices to reflect the overall performance of the state's
public schools, districts, and pupils. This bill was vetoed by
the governor in October 2011 with the following message:
"This bill is yet another siren song of school reform. It
renames the API and reduces its significance by adding three
other quantitative measures."
"While I applaud the author's desire to improve the API, I
don't believe that this bill would make our state's
accountability regime either more probing or more fair."
"SB 547 would also add significant costs and confusion to the
implementation of the newly-adopted Common Core standards
which must be in place by 2014. This bill would require us to
introduce a whole new system of accountability at the same
time we are required to carry out extensive revisions to
school curriculum, teaching materials and tests. That doesn't
make sense."
SB 1458
Page 5
"Finally, while SB 547 attempts to improve the API, it relies
on the same quantitative and standardized paradigm at the
heart of the current system. The criticism of the API is that
it has led schools to focus too narrowly on tested subjects
and ignore other subjects and matters that are vital to a
well-rounded education. SB 547 certainly would add more things
to measure, but it is doubtful that it would actually improve
our schools. Adding more speedometers to a broken car won't
turn it into a high-performance machine."
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081