BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1451
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Date of Hearing: April 1, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Das Williams, Chair
AB 1451 (Holden) - As Amended: March 25, 2014
[Note: This bill is doubled referred to the Assembly Education
Committee and will be heard as it relates to issues under its
jurisdiction.]
SUBJECT : Public schools: concurrent enrollment in secondary
school and community college.
SUMMARY : Authorizes the governing board of a school district
to enter into a formal concurrent enrollment partnership with a
community college district located within its immediate service
area, with the goals of helping high school pupils achieve
college and career readiness, improve high school graduation
rates, reduce community college remediation rates, and develop
seamless pathways from high school to community college career
technical education (CTE) programs and/or preparation for
transfer; and removes certain restrictions on concurrent
enrollment. Specifically, this bill :
1)Generally finds and declares that concurrent enrollment
provides important educational opportunities for high school
pupils, increases college participation rates, improves the
level of preparation of pupils in the area of CTE, saves money
for both the state and the students, and provides for more
effective use of facilities; additionally finds that the
existing limits on concurrent enrollment programs inhibit the
ability of school districts and their students to make maximum
use of California Community Colleges (CCC).
2)Specifies a pupil concurrently enrolled may receive community
college and high school credit for community college courses
that he or she completes as determined to be appropriate by
the governing boards of the school district and the CCC
district.
3)Exempts courses that are necessary in addressing deficiencies
in English language arts or mathematics for pupils who have
not demonstrated college-readiness on an Early Assessment
Program assessment or a successor common core aligned
assessment from the 5% cap.
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4)Allows for the governing board of a school district to enter
into a concurrent enrollment partnership agreement with the
governing board of a CCC district located within its immediate
service area, with the goal of developing a seamless pathway
from high school to community college for CTE or preparation
for transfer, improving high school graduation rates, or
helping high school pupils achieve college and career
readiness.
5)Authorizes a participating school district to adopt a
concurrent enrollment partnership agreement with a CCC
district partner that is approved by the governing boards of
both districts; and, as a condition of, and before adopting, a
concurrent enrollment partnership agreement, a CCC district
and a school district, at a regularly scheduled open public
hearing of their respective governing boards, shall take
testimony from the public and approve or disapprove the
proposed concurrent enrollment partnership agreement.
6)Specifies that the concurrent enrollment partnership agreement
shall outline the terms of the partnership and may include,
but not necessarily be limited to, the scope, nature, and
schedule of courses offered, and the criteria to assess the
ability of pupils to benefit from those courses; and, the
agreement may establish protocols for information sharing,
joint facilities us, and parent consent for pupils.
7)Specifies that the agreement shall identify a point of contact
for the participating school district and CCC district; and,
copies of the agreement must be filed with the Superintendent
of Public Instruction and the Chancellor of the CCC before the
state of a program pursuant to this measure.
8)Specifies that a CCC district shall not provide physical
education course opportunities to secondary school pupils, as
specified.
9) Specifies that a participating school district shall not
receive a state allowance or apportionment for an
instructional activity for which a CCC district has been, or
shall be, paid an allowance or apportionment.
10)Allows a participating high school to monitor the progress of
its pupils attending a community college, as specified.
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11)Requires that for each agreement entered into, the affected
CCC district and school district shall report annually to the
CCC Office of the Chancellor all of the following information:
a) The total number of secondary school pupils enrolled in
each program, classified by the school district;
b) The total number of successful course completions of
secondary school pupils enrolled in each program,
classified by the school district; and,
c) The total number of successful course completions of
students in courses equivalent to those courses tracked, as
specified, in the general community college curriculum.
12)Specifies the annual report shall also be transmitted to all
of the following:
a) The Legislature;
b) The Director of Finance; and,
c) The Superintendent of Public Instruction.
13)Exempts pupils attending a middle or early college high
school and participants of the concurrent enrollment
partnership program from certain existing concurrent
enrollment policies, as specified.
14)Ensures that both affected secondary and postsecondary
Education Codes reflect the created partnership agreement.
15)Specifies that notwithstanding existing law or any other
open course provision, as specified, or regulations adopted by
the Board of Governors for the CCC, a CCC district may limit
enrollment in a community college course to solely high school
pupils if the course is offered at a high school campus, is
not otherwise offered at the high school, and one or more of
the following circumstances are satisfied:
a) The community college course is offered by a middle or
early college high school; and b) the community college
course is offered pursuant to a partnership agreement.
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16)Specifies that for purposes of allowance and apportionments
of the State School Fund, a CCC district conducting a closed
course on a high school campus shall be credited with
additional units of full-time equivalent students (FTES)
attributable to the attendance of eligible high school pupils.
17)Allows a CCC district to allow a pupil attending a middle or
early college high school or a pupil participating in a
partnership agreement to enroll in up to a maximum of 15 units
if those units are required for the pupil's partnership
program, and if either of the following circumstances is
satisfied:
a) The units constitute no more than four community college
courses per term; and, b) the units are part of an academic
program offered at the middle or early college high school
that is designed to allow students to earn enough credit to
graduate with an associate's degree or CTE certificate, or
are part of a partnership agreement.
18)Authorizes the governing board of a CCC district
participating in a partnership agreement, in whole or in part,
to exempt special part-time or full-time students taking up to
a maximum of 15 units per term from the fee requirements, as
specified.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Authorizes the governing board of a school district, upon
recommendation of the principal of a student's school of
attendance, and with parental consent, to authorize a student
who would benefit from advanced scholastic or vocational work
to attend a community college as a special part-time or
full-time student. Additionally, current law prohibited a
principal from recommending, for community college summer
session attendance, more than 5% of the total number of
students in the same grade level and exempted from the 5% cap
a student recommended by his or her principal for enrollment
in a college-level summer session course if the course in
which the pupil was enrolled met specified criteria. These
exemptions were repealed on January 1, 2014 (Education Code �
48800, et seq.).
2)Requires the CCC Chancellor's Office to report to the
Department of Finance and Legislature annually on the amount
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of FTES claimed by each CCC district for high school pupils
enrolled in non-credit, non-degree applicable, degree
applicable (excluding physical education), and degree
applicable physical education courses; and provides that, for
purposes of receiving state apportionments, CCC districts may
only include high school students within the CCC district's
report on FTES if the students are enrolled in courses that
are open to the general public, as specified. Additionally,
current law requires the governing board of a CCC district to
assign a low enrollment priority to special part-time or
full-time students in order to ensure that these students do
not displace regularly admitted community college students (EC
� 76001 and � 76002).
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Concurrent enrollment background . Concurrent
enrollment provides pupils the opportunity to enroll in college
courses and earn college credit while still enrolled in high
school. Currently, a pupil is allowed to concurrently enroll in
a CCC as a "special admit" while still attending high school, if
the pupil's school district determines that the pupil would
benefit from "advanced scholastic or vocational work."
Special-admit students have typically been advanced pupils
wanting to take more challenging coursework or pupils who come
from high schools where Advanced Placement or honors courses are
not widely available. Additionally, programs such as middle
college high schools and early college high schools use
concurrent enrollment to offer instructional programs for
at-risk pupils that focus on college preparatory curricula.
These programs are developed through partnerships between a
school district and a CCC. During summer session at a CCC,
principals are limited to recommending no more than 5% of their
pupils in each grade level to enroll at a CCC during a summer
session. Existing law provides certain exemptions to this
process (as aforementioned in current law above). These
exemptions expired on January 1, 2014.
This bill reinstates the exemptions and calls for them now to
sunset on January 1, 2017.
According to a February 2014 report by Education Commission of
the States (ECS), the number of U. S. public high schools
offering concurrent enrollment programs is growing, with 82%
providing such opportunities in 2011-12, the most recent
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national data available. Academic research and state experience
highlight the benefits of concurrent enrollment programs for
improving college rates, particularly for minority and/or
low-income students. Additionally, ECS finds that with the
possible exception of the state of Massachusetts, minority
and/or low-income students tend to be underrepresented in
statewide concurrent enrollment programs.
Purpose of this bill . The author states, "AB 1451 will [help]
prepare secondary pupils integrate into collegial environments,
provide gifted students more rigorous academic opportunities,
provide assistance to students studying for the California High
School Exit Exam, provide exposure to college as a drop-out
prevention tool for high school administrators, generate
interest in higher education for students without college
aspirations, and expand opportunities for the development of job
training programs that prepare students for vocational careers."
What is exempted ? Current law exempts a high school student
recommended by the principal for enrollment in a community
college summer session course from the 5% cap if:
1)The course is a lower division Intersegmental General
Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) course that applies to
the General Education breadth requirements of the California
State University (CSU).
2)The course is a college-level occupational course for credit,
and is part of a sequence of vocational or career technical
education courses that leads to a degree or certificate, as
specified.
3)The course is necessary to assist a pupil who has not passed
the California High School Exit Exam, and the student is in
the senior year, as specified.
This bill adds courses that are necessary to address the
deficiencies in English language arts or mathematics of a pupil
who has not demonstrated college-readiness on an Early
Assessment Program assessment or a successor common core aligned
assessment to the exemption list of the 5% cap.
How many ? According to the CCC Chancellor's Office statutorily
required report on special admit enrollments: 26,604 special
admit students were claimed systemwide, in summer 2013, with
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22,432 of the students successfully completing and passing their
courses. The summer 2013 numbers have slightly increased when
compared to the previous last couple of years; however, the 2013
numbers remain significantly lower when compared to summer 2007,
when of the 68,708 special admit students claimed systemwide,
53,387 successfully competed and passed their courses.
Double-dipping ? There is a common perception that concurrent
enrollment courses require a state to "pay twice" for a student
to take a single course. However, according to ECS, "If the
dual enrollment opportunity is strong, rather than paying twice,
states are paying earlier." ECS concludes that the state is
consolidating two payments into one if the community college
course that the high school pupil takes is transferable to the
postsecondary institution where he or she later enrolls.
Impact of budget cuts on CCC . General Fund reductions combined
with increased student demand has left the CCC unable to provide
course offerings to fully meet student needs. Funding for the
CCC has been cut $809 million, or 12%, over the past three
years. According to a March 2013 report by the Public Policy
Institute of California (PPIC), course offerings have declined
from 420,000 to 334,000 since 2008-86,000 or 21% of course
offerings-and most were credit courses necessary to transfer or
obtain a degree or certificate. PPIC estimates that since 2008,
600,000 students have not been able to enroll in classes, and
another 500,000 students were on waiting lists for Fall 2012
courses.
When there is greater demand than there are course offerings,
course registration priorities play an important role in
managing enrollment by determining which groups of students are
enrolled in needed courses and which students get turned away.
Conflicting legislation . AB 1540 (Hagman), which passed out of
this committee with a vote of 12 -0 on March 18, 2014, would,
among other things, specify that the governing board of a school
district may authorize a pupil, at the recommendation of a
community college dean of a computer science department or
another appropriate community college computer science
administrator, and with parental consent, to attend a community
college during any session or term as a special part-time or
full-time student and to undertake one or more computer science
courses offered at the community college.
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AB 2352 (Chesbro), which is scheduled to be heard in this
committee on April 22, 2014, would, among other things, remove
early and middle college high school students concurrently
enrolled at a CCC from receiving low priority admission status.
These measures appear to be in direct conflict with AB 1451.
Staff recommends, should all the measures pass out of this
committee, that they eventually be amended to address potential
chaptering out issues.
Related Legislation . There have been many bills introduced in
the last several years that attempt to address concurrent
enrollment and the 5% cap, including, but not limited to the
following bills: AB 160 (Portantino, 2011), which was held on
the Senate Appropriations Committee Suspense file, removed
certain restrictions on concurrent enrollment and authorized
school districts to enter into partnerships with CCC districts
to provide high school pupils opportunities for advanced
scholastic work, career technical or other coursework at CCC
campuses. AB 230 (Carter), Chapter 50, Statutes of 2011,
exempted a pupil attending a middle college high school from the
requirement that CCC governing boards assign a low enrollment
priority to concurrent enrollment students if that pupil is
seeking to enroll in a CCC course that is required for the
pupil's middle college high school program. SB 1437 (Padilla),
Chapter 718, Statutes of 2008, extended the sunset date from
January 1, 2009 until January 1, 2014 for which this bill seeks
to further extend the sunset. SB 1303 (Runner), Chapter 648,
Statutes of 2006, exempted from the specified 5% cap on CCC
summer session enrollment, a pupil recommended by his or her
principal if the pupil met specified criteria.
AB 1540 (Hagman) and AB 2352 (Chesbro), see "conflicting
legislation" section of this analysis.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Federation of Teachers
California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office (sponsor)
California Communities United Institute
Kern Community College District
Los Angeles Community College District
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Los Rios Community College District
Pasadena Community College District
Peralta Community College District
Rancho Santiago Community College District
South Orange County Community College District
Yuba County Community College District
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Jeanice Warden / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960