BILL ANALYSIS �
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Date of Hearing: April 30, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
AB 2178 (Levine) - As Amended: March 28, 2014
SUBJECT : Pupil instruction: Blended Learning Pilot Program
SUMMARY : Establishes the Blended Learning Pilot Program (pilot
program). Specifically, this bill :
1)Makes findings and declarations related to blended learning
programs.
2)Defines "blending learning" as a formal education program in
which a pupil learns at least in part through online delivery
of content and instruction with some element of pupil control
over time, place, and pace and at least in part at a
supervised location away from home.
3)Requires the State Board of Education (SBE) to administer this
program for the purpose of exploring various models of
innovation and document best and promising practices in the
emerging educational delivery model known as blended learning.
4)Permits the pilot program to operate for three years,
commencing with the 2015-16 school year.
5)Requires the SBE to establish an application process and
timeline to ensure pilot program participants are selected and
applicable waivers are approved before the commencement of the
2015-16 school year.
6)Permits the SBE to solicit and receive grants from private
not-for-profit foundations and organizations for purposes of
funding the administration of the pilot program.
7)Permits a school district, county office of education, charter
school, or charter school management organization to
participate in the pilot program and specifies that a single
applicant may include more than one school if each school in a
single application shares a common educational model and
administrative structure.
8)Requires each application to include, at minimum the
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following:
a) A written proposal describing the blended learning
program offered by the applicant and the specific pupil
population served by the applicant.
b) Evidence of the applicant's track record of success in
operating a blended learning program and of the applicant's
track record of success in serving the target pupil
population, and particularly in closing the achievement gap
for high-need pupils, including English learners, pupils
living in poverty, foster youth, and other pupil subgroups
identified as underperforming.
c) A written plan for documenting and reporting its
promising practices and pupil outcomes during the term of
the pilot program, including specific educational goals and
outcomes that align with the applicant's local control and
accountability plan.
d) A description of any partnerships the applicant has
developed with individuals and organizations outside of the
applicant organization, including, but not limited to,
blended learning policy and research entities, academic
institutions, educational technology experts, community
organizations, and local employers.
e) Evidence of support for the application by individuals
and organizations outside of the applicant organization.
f) A description of specific statutes for which the
applicant requests a waiver and a description of the
educational benefit to be achieved as a result of the
waiver and any alternative conditions, procedures, or
requirements that may be applied as an alternative to the
statutes proposed to be waived.
1)Permits the SBE to select up to 20 applicants in accordance
with specified criteria that includes the viability and
reasonableness of the applicant's planned program.
2)Permits the SBE to amend a waiver request submitted by an
applicant, consider alternative waivers, or impose additional
terms on an applicant as a condition of a waiver receipt at
the SBE's discretion.
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3)Specifies that an applicant for the pilot program shall be
deemed a school district for the purposes of requesting and
receiving waivers under this pilot program and that any
waivers granted by the SBE shall further the intent of the
pilot program to offer greater flexibility to further
innovation and pupil achievement in blended learning programs.
4)Exempts a charter school or charter school management
organization participating in the pilot program from the
following:
a. The requirement that classroom-based instruction must
occur under the immediate supervision and control of a
certificated teacher who is an employee of the school; and
b. The requirement that limits funding for online
instruction to no more than 70% of the funding to which the
charter school would otherwise be entitled to receive.
5)Requires a charter school participating in this pilot program
to notify its authorizing entity of its participation in the
pilot program and requires the charter school to provide its
authorizing entity a copy of any waiver that is approved as a
result of participation, but also specifies that approval of
an associated waiver is not to be considered a material
revision to the school's charter.
6)Permits the SBE to terminate the participation of a
participant in the pilot program, and any associated waivers,
for good cause.
7)Requires each pilot program participant to submit a report to
the SBE on its progress and outcomes.
8)Requires the SBE, no later than December 31, 2018, to submit a
report to the Legislature on the results of the pilot program,
including recommendations on whether to continue any of the
waivers for the schools that participated in the pilot program
and whether any other changes in the law are supported as a
result of the outcomes achieved in the participating schools.
9)Repeals these section on January 1, 2019, unless a later
statute is enacted that deletes or extends that date.
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EXISTING LAW
1) Permits the SBE to approve requests by governing boards
of local school districts or a county board of education to
waive all or part of any section of the Education code or
any regulation adopted by the SBE, with specified and
limited exceptions.
2) Establishes the eligibility requirements for
apportionment funding for charter schools that offer
nonclassroom-based instruction and specifies that a charter
school may receive apportionment funding for such
instruction pursuant to regulations adopted by the SBE.
3) Requires that, for purposes of apportionments based on
classroom-based instruction, charter school pupils be under
the immediate supervision and control of a certificated
teacher who is an employee of the school.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
Background . Blended learning is a method of instruction that
combines on-line or technology learning and more traditional
face-to-face or classroom interactions. Blended learning
programs are being used across the state in various public
school settings. There is a number of different blended
learning models that schools may choose to implement, including:
Face-to-Face Driver: The teacher decides when to
implement online learning on a case-by-case basis, to help
supplement the curriculum.
Rotation: In this model, students move on a fixed
schedule between online learning (which is most often
self-paced) and traditional teacher instruction in a
classroom, usually organized by small student groups.
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Flex: In this model, the online platform dominates
student instruction. On-site teachers provide support as
needed through tutoring or small-group sessions.
Online Lab: Courses are taught entirely online. Labs
rely heavily on software modules, but online teachers are
also available.
Self-Blend: Most often seen in high schools across the
country, the self-blend model lets students take online
courses to enhance traditional classroom learning.
Online Driver: This program is designed so that an
online platform delivers the entire curriculum. Check-ins
with a teacher are often optional, though occasionally they
are mandatory.<1>
The proposed pilot will include only hand-picked, "successful"
programs. This bill creates a three year pilot program for up
to 20 schools or organizations to explore whether statutory
changes are necessary to better implement and support the
growing number of blended learning programs across the state.
The findings and declarations in this bill presuppose the
benefits of a blended learning program by stating "[e]arly
results are showing that a blended learning environment can
improve pupil achievement, particularly for those pupils with
the greatest needs." Because this pilot program requires an
applicant to have a proven track record of success in delivering
blended learning programs, the only conclusion that can be
reached is that "successful programs are successful."
Waiver authority. Charter schools do not have the same waiver
authority as school districts, in large part because they are
already exempt from most provisions of the Education Code.
However, this bill grants charter schools participating in the
---------------------------
<1> The Rise of K-12 Blended Learning: Profiles of Emerging
Models
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pilot project the same general waiver authority as school
districts. A school district can only apply for a waiver from
the SBE upon a vote of its governing board after a public
hearing. Charter schools are not governed by publicly elected
boards, and there is no parallel process required for charter
schools to seek public input from the families they serve prior
to requesting a waiver.
One pilot, many schools, no teachers. This bill exempts charter
schools participating in the pilot from the requirement that
classroom-based instruction must occur under the immediate
supervision and control of a certificated teacher who is an
employee of the school. At the same time, this bill authorizes
charter school management organizations to apply for
participation in the pilot program. As their name implies,
charter school management organizations manage more than one
charter school, and this bill specifically permits an applicant
to include more than one school. So, an unknown number of
charter schools could be involved through management
organizations, and each one would be exempt from the requirement
that their pupils receiving classroom-based instruction be under
the immediate supervision and control of a certificated teacher.
A funding windfall. This bill also exempts charter schools
participating in the pilot from existing funding provisions
relating to nonclassroom-based instruction. Specifically,
existing law requires the SBE to adopt regulations to determine
funding for charter school nonclassroom-based instruction, and
further provides that funding for nonclassroom-based instruction
shall not be more than 70 of the amount of funding to which the
charter school would otherwise be entitled. Exempting charter
schools from this provision would result in at least a 43%
increase in their funding for nonclassroom-based instruction,
with no requirement for a corresponding increase in services
provided to pupils.
Self evaluation. This bill does not require an independent
evaluation of the results of the pilot. Instead, it requires
each school in the pilot to submit a report at the end of each
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year on its progress and outcomes. Participating schools would
define their own standards and criteria for measuring progress
and outcomes, so there would be no standard metric with which to
compare outcomes across schools.
Online instruction has not been shown to be effective . The use
of online instruction has grown in recent years, but there have
been few well-controlled studies of its effectiveness with K-12
students. This is the main finding from a review of the
research reported by the U. S. Department of Education (USDOE)
in September 2010 ("Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in
Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning
Studies"). The USDOE report contains the findings of a
meta-analysis of research on online learning, which concludes
that "on average, students in online learning conditions
performed modestly better than those receiving face-to-face
instruction." However, the report cautions against generalizing
this finding to the K-12 population, because only five of the 45
studies in the analysis involved K-12 instruction. (The others
involved medical training, higher education, and other non-K-12
instruction.) All of the five K-12 studies involved blended
instruction, in which online learning is combined with
face-to-face instruction. Because blended instruction often
includes additional instructional time, the positive effects
observed with this approach may be the result of the additional
time on task, and cannot be attributed to the media, per se,
according to the USDOE report.
More recent studies indicate online instruction alone is not as
effective as regular classroom instruction:
A 2011 study of charter school performance in
Pennsylvania by the Center for Research on Education
Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University found that each of
that state's 8 online charter schools ("cyber schools")
significantly underperformed brick and mortar schools and
regular (non-virtual) charter schools in reading and math.
A review of virtual schools in Wisconsin by the Gannett
Wisconsin Media Investigative Team found that students
receiving online instruction "often struggle to complete
their degrees and repeat grades four times as often as
their brick-and-mortar counterparts," and they "trail
traditional students in every subject but reading."
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A 2011 report from the Office of the Legislative Auditor
in Minnesota reported that full-time online students were
more likely to completely drop out of school and made less
progress on state standardized math tests than students in
traditional schools.
A 2011 report from the Ohio Department of Education
rated only three of Ohio's 27 virtual schools as
"effective" or "excellent."
A 2006 performance audit by the Colorado Department of
Education of that state's virtual schools found that, "in
the aggregate, online students performed poorly on the CSAP
(Colorado State Assessment Program) exams and had higher
repeater, attrition, and dropout rates."
The Florida Virtual Academy, a statewide virtual school,
reports that 81% of its students who complete their courses
receive a passing grade. However, the Tampa Bay Times
reports that the Virtual Academy's records show that
two-thirds of students who enroll in a course don't finish
it. When dropouts are included, the actual pass rate is
28%. The Times was unable to get Virtual School Florida
Comprehensive Assessment Test scores from either the
Virtual School or the Florida Department of Education.
One of the largest providers of on-line instructional software
is K12, Inc., a private, for-profit publicly traded corporation.
K12, Inc. materials are used extensively in California,
primarily by charter schools. The NCAA recently announced that
it will stop accepting coursework from 24 schools nationwide (13
in California) that use the K12, Inc. curriculum, because "their
courses were found to not comply with the NCAA's nontraditional
course requirements." Other K12, Inc. schools are currently
being evaluated by the NCAA for compliance with its "core course
and nontraditional course requirements." All of the 13 schools
in California that are affected by this decision are charter
schools that would be eligible to participate in the pilot
established by this bill and, by doing so, receive a minimum 43%
increase in their funding.
An alternative approach. As acknowledged in this bill's
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findings and declarations, many local education agencies are
already implementing some form of blended learning. In fact,
the findings and declarations state that we already know that "a
blended learning environment can improve pupil achievement."
However, they also state that unspecified changes are needed to
remove unspecified constraints to further innovation imposed by
existing law. In the past, the Legislature has often directed
the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) to conduct evaluations of
existing programs and to make recommendations regarding to
continue, discontinue, or revise the program based on its
findings. Those recommendations inevitably involve statutory
and regulatory changes to the program. The Committee may wish
to consider an LAO evaluation as an alternative to the pilot
program established by this bill.
Arguments in Support. According to the California Charter
School Association, the sponsors of this bill, "our current
education policies support two paths to instruction: the
traditional classroom model and the virtual classroom model.
Yet, blended learning operates in the middle of that spectrum."
Blended learning models allow students to increase or decrease
the pace of each lesson without influencing the pace of their
classmates, yet retaining that crucial access to a qualified
classroom teacher. This bill is designed to provide a
comprehensive analysis of blended learning on a state-wide level
with the intention of influencing possible statutory changes
that might improve the adoption and implementation of blended
learning.
Arguments in Opposition. Opponents of this bill contend that
such innovative and experimental blended learning programs are
already in operation and may continue under the existing funding
structures. The opponents are concerned that relaxed scrutiny
will result in public funds being used to subsidize private
industry's role in on-line learning by focusing on enrollment
rather than instruction. With concerns about low pay and high
numbers of student contacts for on-line instructors, opponents
urge the committee to consider that existing statutes and
regulations already permit a charter school to receive a funding
determination for non-classroom based instruction. This
determination requires that any on-line instruction be conducted
for the instructional benefit of the pupil and authorizes the
SBE to consider, among other factors, the school's total budget
expended on certificated employee salaries/benefits, the
school-site, and the teacher-to-pupil ratio.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Charter Schools Association Advocates
Rocketship Education
Students First
Opposition
California Teachers Association
National Organization for Women-California
Analysis Prepared by : Rick Pratt / ED. / (916) 319-2087