BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
AB 1548 (Mullin) - Standardized Tests: Reports
Amended: July 2, 2014 Policy Vote: Education 4-2
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 4, 2014
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
This bill may meet the criteria for referral to the Suspense
File.
Bill Summary: AB 1548 requires, until January 1, 2017, any
company that administers standardized college admission tests to
report annually to the California Postsecondary Education
Commission (CPEC) or its successor agency, and the
Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) regarding the number
of test scores for each type of standardized test that were
canceled or invalidated, and the associated reasons for
cancellation or invalidation.
Fiscal Impact: This bill's reporting requirements on test
sponsors are unlikely to result in direct state costs. To the
extent that the data collection and reporting requirements are
seen to be onerous, test sponsors have the ability to pass on
the workload to schools (as a condition of being allowed to
administer college admission tests) or to pass on costs directly
to students and schools by raising testing fees.
Background: Existing law, with regard to college admissions
tests, defines a "standardized test" as any test administered in
California at the expense of the test subject which is used for
the purposes of admission to, or class placement in,
postsecondary educational institutions or their programs, or any
test used for preliminary preparation for those tests.
Existing law further specifies that a standardized test
includes, but is not limited to, the Preliminary Scholastic
Aptitude Test (PSAT), the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), the
College Board Achievement Tests and Advanced Placement (AP)
Tests, the ACT Assessment, the Graduate Record Examination
(GRE), the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), the Law School
Admission Test (LSAT), the Dental Admission Testing Program, the
Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), and the Miller
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Analogies Test. (Education Code � 99151)
Existing law imposes a number of requirements on test sponsors
or test agencies (defined as any individual, partnership,
corporation, association, company, firm, institution, society,
trust, or joint stock company) that develop, sponsor or
administer standardized tests. Among those requirements are the
provisions for submitting certain required student and testing
data to the CPEC.
Existing law establishes the CPEC to be responsible for
coordinating public, independent, and private postsecondary
education in California and providing independent policy
analysis and recommendations to the Legislature and the Governor
on postsecondary education issues. In 2011, Governor Brown
vetoed CPEC funding, resulting in its closure in November 2011.
Although the Governor eliminated all general fund support for
CPEC, its statutory authority remains intact.
Existing law also specifies that whenever the test agency
determines that substantial evidence exists to support the
cancellation or invalidation of a test score, the test agency
shall provide the test subject with a choice of the following
options:
a) A cancellation of the test scores in question, with full
refund of all test fees.
b) Opportunity to take the test again privately and without
charge.
c) Opportunity to seek judicial review of the matter.
However, these options are not applicable in instances of
inadequate or improper test conditions. Finally, current law
also provides that a test sponsor who violates any of these
provisions is liable for a civil penalty not to exceed $750 per
violation.
(Education Code � 99150 et. seq.)
Proposed Law: This bill requires, until January 1, 2017, any
standardized college admission test sponsor to report annually
to the CPEC, or its successor agency, and the SPI regarding the
number of test scores for each type of standardized test that
were canceled or invalidated, and the associated reasons for
cancellation or invalidation. The report is not to include
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identifiable information on the test subjects.
In addition, this bill requires that reporting currently
required under law to be sent to the CPEC, now also be sent to
the SPI.
Staff Comments: This bill would require the testing sponsors of
any standardized admissions test, including the PSAT, SAT, the
College Board Achievement Tests and AP Tests, the ACT
Assessment, the GRE, MCAT, LSAT, the Dental Admission Testing
Program, and the GMAT, to report to the CPEC or its successor
agency, and the SPI regarding the number of test scores for each
type of standardized test that were canceled or invalidated, and
the associated reasons for cancellation or invalidation.
It is unclear whether the intent of this bill is to require
sponsor reporting only when the sponsor cancels or invalidates a
test or group of tests, or each instance of score cancellation
(most commonly initiated by a student test-taker) must be
reported. As written, the bill applies the requirements to all
test scores "that were canceled or invalidated," which would
include instances in which a student decides to stop taking a
test for whatever reason and cancel his or her own scores. This
would include every time a student gets sick and stops taking a
test, decides her or she is not prepared, etc. If the test
sponsor were required to report the reasons why each test was
cancelled, it is unclear whether that reason is simply that the
student elected to cancel, or whether the bill intends to find
out why the student cancelled his or her scores. In either case,
the actual tracking work would fall to the entity administering
the test; for the SAT and PSAT, that is typically a school.
To the extent that test sponsors consider the new required
reporting onerous or expensive, they can pass the cost on to
students and schools by raising the price of their tests. For
most of the tests this bill applies to, the costs would be
entirely borne by test-takers. There are, however, exceptions.
The PSAT, in particular, is commonly given in schools during a
school day. Many high schools throughout the state opt to
administer the test to all 11th grade students, and it
increasingly common for schools to encourage 9th and 10 grade
students to take the test as "practice" for standardized
admissions tests. Many of the schools that administer the PSAT
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widely pay for the test and offer it free to students, in order
to encourage them to take it. If the price of the PSAT
increases, schools that pay for it would see a cost increase. If
the cost of AP tests were to rise, there would be additional
cost pressure on the state to provide more test fee waiver money
to schools.