BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
AB 2057 (Bonilla) - Consortium Alternative Performance
Assessments
Amended: July 2, 2014 Policy Vote: Education 5-2
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 11, 2014
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 2057 adds as a state assessment a consortium
alternate performance assessment in English language arts (ELA)
and mathematics for grades 3-8 and 11 that is aligned to the
Common Core standards, instead of the existing California
Alternate Performance Assessment (CAPA) in the 2014-15 school
year, and provides that is be administered as a field test. This
bill requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to
report certain information regarding the status of consortium
alternative performance assessments to the Legislature, and
local educational agencies (LEAs), as specified.
Fiscal Impact:
CAPA: Eliminating the ELA and mathematics assessments will
make $1.1 million (General Fund) available to use toward a
consortium alternate performance assessment. (The remaining
$1.1 million allocated to the CAPA in the 2041 Budget Act
would still be used to administer the science assessment).
Up to $70 million in one-time costs to the CDE to develop
or contract to develop an alternate performance assessment
aligned to the Common Core standards. See staff comments.
Background: The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act (IDEA) requires students with exceptional needs to
participate in statewide assessments with appropriate
accommodations when necessary, and requires students who are
unable to participate in the assessments, even with
accommodations, to be given an alternate assessment. (United
States Code, Title 20, Section 1412(a)(16) and Education Code �
60640).
The CAPA is the test currently administered to approximately
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39,000 students with exceptional needs statewide.
Recently, state law required a new assessment system, the
California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress
(CAASPP) to include:
1) A consortium summative assessment in English language arts
(ELA) and mathematics for grades 3 to 8 and grade 11 that
measures the Common Core standards.
2) Science grade level assessments in grades 5, 8, and 10 that
measure the prior
science standards until a successor assessment that is
aligned to the Next
Generation Science Standards is implemented.
3) The CAPA in grades 2-11 in ELA and mathematics, and
science in grades 5, 8,
and 10 that measure the prior science standards until a
successor
assessment that is aligned to the Next Generation Science
Standards is implemented.
4) The Early Assessment Program.
5) A primary language assessment. (EC � 60640)
The National Center and State Collaborative (NCSC) is a project
funded by the United States Department of Education (DOE),
Office of Special Education Programs, and is led by five centers
and 26 states to develop an alternate assessment based on
alternate achievement standards, and aligned to the Common Core
standards, for students with the most significant cognitive
disabilities in grades 3-8 and 11. The CDE has participated in
this consortium since October 2012.
Proposed Law: This bill adds as a state assessment a consortium
alternate performance assessment in ELA and mathematics for
grades 3-8 and 11 that is aligned to the Common Core standards,
instead of the existing CAPA in the 2014-15 school year.
Specifically, this bill:
1) Adds a consortium alternate performance assessment in ELA
and mathematics for grades 3-8 and 11 that measures the
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Common Core standards, and prohibits administration of the
CAPA in those subjects.
2) Requires the CDE to apply to the United States Department
of Education for a waiver of the requirement that all
students participate in the statewide assessments to
instead allow students to participate in the field test
only (without also taking the CAPA).
3) Requires schools to administer, in the 2014-15 school year
and subject to approval by the United States Department of
Education, the consortium alternate performance assessment
tests as field tests.
4) Requires the state board of education to adopt a consortium
alternate performance assessment and fully implement it by
the 2015-16 school year.
5) Eliminates grade 2 from the alternate assessment.
Staff Comments: Absent this bill, schools will administer the
CAPA in spring 2015. The 2014 Budget Act allocated $2.2 million
for this purpose. Subsequently, the state would have options for
how to proceed with future alternate performance assessment
tests, including the decision to either use a consortium-created
test, or to develop a California-specific alternate performance
assessment. This bill eliminates the CAPA, requires the CDE to
provide a replacement alternate performance assessment, and
specifies an implementation timeline.
Eliminating the CAPA in ELA and mathematics would free up $1.1
million for use toward a different assessment. This bill
specifies that the CAPA be replaced with "a consortium alternate
performance assessment" but not a specific assessment.
Contextually, it is likely that the author intends this to be
the NCSC computer-based assessment, but the vagueness of the
language would leave that authority with the SBE and the CDE.
Costs would ultimately depend on the details of the alternate
performance assessment that replaces the CAPA. The NCSC has not
developed ongoing costs projections for administering its
assessment, and those costs would partially depend on the number
of participating states. The CDE has indicated that is possible
that the new assessments could be administered for approximately
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the same cost as the CAPA, but it is equally possible that costs
could rise substantially. Test development is costly. To the
extent that the CDE has to take a lead role in developing test
items to be able to administer an alternate performance
assessment, costs could be $1-$5 million per assessment, per
grade level. To develop an assessment for each of the tested
grades (3-8, and 11) could drive new costs of $14 million - $70
million (General Fund).