BILL ANALYSIS �
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Date of Hearing: May 7, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
AB 2481 (Bradford) - As Amended: March 28, 2014
SUBJECT : Elementary and secondary education: Length of school
day and school year: Analysis
SUMMARY : Requires the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) to
provide the Legislature with a cost-benefit analysis regarding
various potential changes to the length or structure of school
days or school years in public elementary and secondary schools.
Specifically, this bill :
1) Requires, on or before December 1, 2015, the LAO to
provide the Legislature with a cost-benefit analysis
regarding various potential changes to the length or
structure of school days or school years in public
elementary and secondary schools.
2) Specifies the objective of this task is to provide
increased educational benefits and improved life outcomes
to disadvantaged and underperforming pupils.
3) Requires the analysis to weigh the potential benefits of
these improvements compared to the potential costs of the
improvements, including, but not limited to, increased
school operating costs for personnel and facilities, and
may propose creative solutions in this regard.
4) Requires the analysis to specifically consider the
decline in academic achievement occurring each year during
the summer vacation period from interruption of
instruction.
EXISTING LAW:
1) Establishes the minimum school day for pupils in
Kindergarten as 180 minutes and the maximum school day for
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pupils in Kindergarten as 4 hours, exclusive of recess.
2) Establishes the minimum school day for pupils in grades
1, 2, and 3 as 230 minutes, as specified.
3) Establishes the minimum school day for pupils in grades
4 through 8 as 240 minutes, as specified.
4) Establishes the minimum school day for pupils in high
school as 240 minutes, as specified.
5) Specifies the school year begins on the first day July
and ends on the last day of June.
6) Establishes the minimum number of school days as 175
instructional days.
7) Requires charter schools, as a condition of
apportionment, to offer, each fiscal year, the following
minimum number of instructional minutes:
a) To pupils in Kindergarten, 36,000 minutes
b) To pupils in grades 1, 2, and 3, 50,400
minutes
c) To pupils in grade 4 through 8, 54,000 minutes
d) To pupils in grades 9 through 12, 64,800
minutes
8) Permits school districts and charter schools to shorten
the number of instructional days by up to five days without
fiscal penalty.
9) Permits a school district to establish, maintain, and
operate its educational program under a continuous school
program that is conducted throughout the entire school
year.
FISCAL EFFECT : Non-fiscal
COMMENTS : The phenomenon of "summer slide" refers to the loss
of academic knowledge, skills, or learning during extended
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period of non-instruction, such as summer break. According to
the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson, "while
some students end their summer with new friends from camp,
memories of family vacations, and newly learned skills from a
variety of activities, many children-particularly those from
low-income families-return to school having lost months of
learning." In highlighting this issue Superintendent Torlakson
also identifies the body of research that documents and explores
this reality:<1>
Research spanning 100 years shows that children
experience learning loss when they do not engage in
educational activities during the summer (White, 1906;
Entwisle & Alexander, 1992; Cooper et al., 1996, Downey et
al., 2004).
Schools are doing their job. According to a longitudinal
study by John Hopkins University, students' learning gains
during the school year were nearly equal regardless of
socioeconomic status (Alexander, Entwisle, Olson, 2007).
Summer learning loss is cumulative. Over time, the
difference between the summer learning rates of low-income
and higher-income students contributes substantially to the
achievement gap (Sloan, McCombs, Schwartz, Bodilly,
McCinnis, Lichter, Cross, 2011).
Research has shown low-income children to be nearly
three grade equivalents behind their more affluent peers in
reading by the end of the fifth grade as a result of summer
learning loss (National Summer Learning Association [NSLA],
2009).
California parents consistently cite summer as the most
difficult time to ensure that their children have
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<1> http://www.cde.ca.gov/eo/in/summerlearning.asp . Accessed on
April 29, 2014.
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productive things to do (Public Agenda, 2010).
Additional research shows that elementary school summer loss can
be directly linked to the 9th grade achievement gap, and as a
result, low socio-economic students are less likely to graduate
from high school and are less likely to enter college.<2> The
Partnership for Children and Youth estimate that "students lose
about two months of grade level equivalency in mathematical
computation skills over the summer ? and more than 2 moths in
reading achievement."<3> By the end of 5th grade, this has
caused low income students to fall nearly 3 grade equivalents
behind their more affluent peers.
Superintendent Torlakson also cites a growing body of research
indicates that high quality summer learning programs make a
difference and points to a 2012 evaluation that found programs
in Fresno, Los Angeles, and Sacramento achieved the following
results:
Participants increased their Instructional grade level
by over 1/3 of a grade on the San Diego Quick vocabulary
assessment, ending the summer with vocabulary skills much
closer to their grade level.
Similarly, English Learners across communities
demonstrated statistically significant increases in their
grade-level vocabulary skills, a gateway to English
language fluency.
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<2> SummerMatters: Implementing the Local Control Funding
Formula, Leveraging Summer for Student Success. Partnership for
Children and Youth, January, 2014.
<3> SummerMatters: Implementing the Local Control Funding
Formula, Leveraging Summer for Student Success. Partnership for
Children and Youth, January, 2014.
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Parents report programs help youth prepare for the
challenge of transitioning from elementary to middle
school, a period when many youth begin to disengage from
school.
Summer program participants demonstrated high and
sustained school day attendance rates, which is critical
for youth to succeed in school.
Arguments in support. According to the author's office, this
bill is motivated by research demonstrating the disproportionate
effects of the summer slide on poorer students. On study found
that the achievement gap between privileged and poorer students
grew during the summer, and not during the school year. While
other research substantiates these findings, this bill addresses
the lack of a comprehensive cost benefit analysis that can be
used by the Legislature or by school districts to establish a
state or local policy.
Opportunities Under the Local Control Funding Formula
The flexibility in spending under the new Local Control Funding
Formula (LCFF) provides districts with new opportunities to do
more to prevent students from falling behind in the summer.
With a renewed emphasis on serving low income students under the
concentration grant, there is room for implementation of
successful programs that are tailored to the needs of each
school district. By providing schools and school districts with
the costs and benefits of some of the options available to
address this issue, this bill is a timely solution to this
problem.
Contract for the study. The cost-benefit analysis required by
this bill would be in addition to the existing workload of the
LAO, which is not likely to have staff with both the time and
the expertise to perform the analysis at the required level of
detail. Accordingly, staff recommends that the bill be amended
to require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to contract
with an academic institution or research organization to conduct
the analysis and report to the Legislature.
Prior Legislation
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SCR 93 (DeSaulnier), Res. Chapter 80, Statutes of 2010,
recognized June, 2010, as Summer Learning and Wellness Month.
In part, SCR 93 expressed a finding by the Legislature that the
"summer slide" affects children from low-income families
disproportionately. Unequal summer learning opportunities
during elementary school years are responsible for about
two-thirds of the ninth-grade achievement gap between youths
with lower and higher income parents. As a result, youths with
low-income parents are less likely to graduate from high school
or enter college.
SB 798 (DeSaulnier), Chapter 479, Statutes of 2010, specifies
that in any fiscal year in which the total amount appropriated
for the federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st
CCLC) Program (a federal program which provides funding for
before and after school activities to pupils in kindergarten
through grade 12) for that fiscal year exceeds the total amount
appropriated for the 2008-09 fiscal year, the excess amount
shall be allocated on a priority basis for direct grants to
community learning centers, as specified.
AB 2145 (2000) (Reyes), creates the 21st Century Education Act
to extend the calendar year annually for all K-12 schools by 2
days until the school year has been extended from 180 days to
220 days. This bill was held in the Assembly Appropriations
Committee.
AB 2162 (2000) (Mazzoni), Chapter 190, Statutes of 2000,
authorizes schools in the Immediate Intervention/Underperforming
Schools Program (II/USP) to increase the number of instructional
days and length of their teacher contracts.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Jill Rice / ED. / (916) 319-2087
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