BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1497|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 1497
Author: Negrete McLeod (D)
Amended: 8/21/12
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 8-0, 4/18/12
AYES: Lowenthal, Alquist, Hancock, Huff, Liu, Price,
Simitian, Vargas
NO VOTE RECORDED: Runner, Blakeslee, Vacancy
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 79-0, 8/23/12 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Annual dropout report
SOURCE : School for Integrated Academics and
Technologies
DIGEST : This bill prohibits a pupil who has dropped out
of school, re-enrolled, and dropped out again from being
counted more than once when computing dropout rates for the
Annual Report on Dropouts in California and when compiling
data for the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data
System (CALPADS).
Assembly Amendments add language to incorporate additional
changes in Section 48070.6 of the Education Code, proposed
by AB 2662 (Assembly Education Committee), to be operative
only if AB 2662 and this bill are both chaptered and become
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effective January 1, 2013, and this bill is chaptered last.
ANALYSIS : Existing law establishes CALPADS, which
contains student demographic, program participation, grade
level, enrollment, course enrollment and completion,
discipline, and statewide assessment data. CALPADS is
designed to facilitate program evaluation, assessment of
student achievement over time, the calculation of more
accurate dropout and graduation rates, the efficient
creation of reports to meet state and federal reporting
requirements, and the ability to create ad hoc reports and
respond to questions. Data for CALPADS is collected from
local education agencies, which are required to retain and
report specified individual pupil and staff records.
Existing law:
1. Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to
submit, by
August 1, 2011, and annually thereafter, the Annual Report
on Dropouts in California. This report is to include
the following information:
A. One-year dropout rates for each of grades 7-12.
B. Four-year cohort dropout rates for grades 9-12.
C. Two-or three-year cohort dropout rates for middle
schools.
D. Grades 9-10 promotion rates.
E. Percentage of high school pupils for each of
grades 9-12 who are on track to earn sufficient
credits to graduate.
F. The average number of school moves that pupils
make between grades 6-12.
G. "Full year" dropout rates for alternative schools,
including dropout recovery high schools.
H. An explanation of the method used to calculate
"full year" dropout rates for alternative schools.
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I. Passage rates on the high school exit exam.
J. Other available data relating to dropout or
graduation rates or pupil progress toward high school
graduation.
2. Requires the report to include all of the following when
cohort dropout rates can be calculated accurately using
longitudinal data:
A. Rates at which pupils graduate in four, five, and
six years.
B. Percentage of high school graduates and dropouts
who completed coursework that met admission criteria
for the University of California and the California
State University (completed a-g courses).
C. Percentage of high school graduates and dropouts
who completed at least two classes in career
technical education (CTE).
D. Percentage of high school graduates and dropouts
who completed both a-g and CTE courses.
E. Behavioral data by school and district, including
suspensions and expulsions.
F. Truancy rates.
G. Rates of pupils to earn a General Education
Degree.
H. Chronic absentee rates.
Dropout rates are determined using a four-year cohort; a
cohort dropout rate is the number of cohort students who
dropped out of school over the course of four years divided
by the number of first time 9th graders from full four
years prior plus students who transfer in and minus
students who transfer out during the last four years.
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The California Department of Education (CDE) began
reporting cohort graduation and dropout rates on the CDE
DataQuest Web site in August 2011, beginning with 2009-10
data. Only the four year cohort graduation rates were
available for the first Annual Report on Dropouts (class of
2009-10). Five year cohort rates will be available for the
class of 2010-11, and six year cohort rates will be
available for the class of 2011-12.
Existing law defines a "dropout recovery high school" as a
high school in which at least 50% of the pupils have been
designated as dropouts pursuant to the exit/withdrawal
codes developed by the CDE. Graduation rates for dropout
recovery high schools are not included in the Academic
Performance Index (API).
This bill prohibits a pupil from being included more than
one time in the dropout rates indicated in the Annual
Report on Dropouts in California.
Comments
Inquiry to United States Department of Education . The
Chair of the Senate Education Committee and the author of
this bill recently sent an inquiry to the United States
Secretary of Education, asking for guidance on how to
account for former dropouts who reengage in school but
again drop out. A response has not yet been received.
What about the data? This bill prohibits a pupil from
being included in the dropout rates indicated in the Annual
Report on Dropouts in California. Data from the CALPADS is
used to develop the dropout report, but this bill does not
prohibit a pupil from being counted twice in the CALPADS
data. Dropout rates are used for other purposes in
addition to the annual dropout report, such as the API.
The Senate Education Committee staff recommends an
amendment to prohibit CALPADS from counting a pupil as a
dropout more than one time, thereby ensuring that any use
of the dropout data will include the same data.
First annual dropout report . The first Annual Report on
Dropouts in California was released in August 2011, and
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showed that slightly more than 18% of pupil who started
high school in 2006 dropped out before reaching graduation
in 2010. The 18.2% statewide dropout rate was for the
first time based on four-year cohort information collected
about individual students using data from CALPADS. Dropout
rates continue to show gaps between students who are
Hispanic, African American, or English learners and their
peers. The report also revealed that, among other things,
more than 17,000 or 3.5%, pupils in 8th grade dropped out
of school before entering 9th grade.
This report did not include all the information required by
law because some data was not available at the time. Most
of the data is now available and will be included in the
next annual report. However, CDE indicates that data will
not be available and is not in the scope of the CALPADS
contract relative to dropouts who completed a-g courses or
CTE courses, or both.
Prior legislation . SB 473 (Price, 2011) would have added
to the Annual Report on Dropouts in California the number
of schools that offer dropout prevention or recovery, and
would have required the CDE to list those schools on its
Web site. The bill was held in the Assembly Appropriations
Committee.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, no
additional General Fund/ Proposition 98 (GF/98) costs to
the state to implement this bill.
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/23/12)
School for Integrated Academics and Technologies (source)
San Francisco Unified School District
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author, "Students
who are initially part of a given 4-year cohort who drop
out are removed from the cohort so that if they reenroll
and dropout again, they are counted as a dropout from their
original cohort but are not counted as a dropout a second
time. Confusion occurs when dropouts who reenroll after
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the graduation date of their cohort and then drop out
again. These students should not be counted as a dropout a
second time even though they are outside of the original
cohort. This is particularly important as states attempt
to raise graduation rates as a component of Adequate Yearly
Progress. The risk of entering program improvement because
the school or district is willing to reengage students who
demonstrate a 4 in 5 likelihood of dropping out again
should not be a consequence of this nation's education
policy."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 79-0, 8/23/12
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall,
Bill Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford,
Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos,
Carter, Cedillo, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Davis, Dickinson,
Donnelly, Eng, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Furutani,
Beth Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gatto, Gordon, Gorell,
Grove, Hagman, Halderman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hill,
Huber, Hueso, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Lara,
Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mansoor, Mendoza, Miller,
Mitchell, Monning, Morrell, Nestande, Nielsen, Norby,
Olsen, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel P�rez, Portantino, Silva,
Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Swanson, Torres, Valadao,
Wagner, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A. P�rez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Roger Hern�ndez
PQ:km 8/24/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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