BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Carol Liu, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 2548
AUTHOR: Ting
AMENDED: May 23, 2014
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: June 25, 2014
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Daniel Alvarez
SUBJECT : Postsecondary education: eligibility studies.
SUMMARY
This bill requires the California Department of Education
(CDE) to periodically conduct studies of the percentages of
California public high school graduates estimated to be
eligible for admission into the University of California
(UC) and the California State University (CSU), also known
as the freshman eligibility study.
BACKGROUND
Current law:
1) Requires each local education agency (LEA) to offer
a course of study that prepares prospective pupils for
admission to state colleges and universities.
2) Requires the State Superintendent of Public
Instruction (SPI) to assist school districts to ensure
that all public high school pupils have access to a
core curriculum that meets the admission requirements
of the UC and CSU.
3) Identifies the intent of the Legislature that each
public high school provide the full pre-collegiate
program, provide adequate course sections in
pre-collegiate programs to accommodate all of its
pupils, and regularly counsel pupils to enter those
programs and courses.
4) Establishes the California Postsecondary Education
Commission (CPEC) to be responsible for the
coordinating public, independent and private
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postsecondary education in California and to provide
independent policy analyses and recommendations to the
Legislature and Governor on postsecondary education
issues. Among the many products that CPEC produced
was the eligibility study, and was additionally
charged, among other things, with reviewing proposals
for new academic and vocational programs, and
expansion of campuses or the creation of new satellite
campuses, and act as a clearinghouse for postsecondary
education information and maintain a comprehensive
database on students based on unique student
identifiers. (Education Code � 66900 et. seq.)
ANALYSIS
This bill requires the California Department of Education
(CDE) to periodically conduct studies of the percentages of
California public high school graduates estimated to be
eligible for admission into the University of California
(UC) and the California State University (CSU). In
addition, this bill:
1) Requires the CDE to work collaboratively with the UC
and CSU to use existing vendors to conduct the study
as efficiently as possible.
2) Requires the eligibility study to be conducted no more
frequently than every four years.
3) Includes legislative findings and declarations in
support of the need for periodic eligibility studies,
as specified.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill. According to the author's office,
this bill would implement the Legislative Analyst
Office (LAO) recommendation to authorize an updated
freshman eligibility study, a valuable tool that
measures whether the state's public university systems
are accessible to the students they are supposed to
serve, and helps determine whether the University of
California and California State University are
properly budgeted to ensure student access and
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success. This bill would designate CDE to periodically
conduct the eligibility study in light of CPEC's
defunding, and since CDE had assisted CPEC in the past
to implement the study in previous years.
2) Last eligibility study was in 2007 . In December 2008,
the CPEC released the last (to date) university
eligibility study for the class of 2007. The CPEC,
California State University, and the University of
California conducted a study to estimate the
percentage of public high school graduates who meet
the admission requirements for the two university
systems. At that time the study found that 13.4
percent of California public high school graduates
were eligible for UC, and 32.7 percent were eligible
for CSU. Furthermore, at that time, the UC
eligibility rate had fallen since the last report in
2003, but the CSU rate had increased sharply. The
study also indicated the gap in university eligibility
between racial/ethnic groups had narrowed slightly,
but eligibility rates for Black and Latino graduates
were still well below the rates for Asians and Whites.
3) Eligibility study . Eligibility studies are conducted
by collecting transcripts from a sample of high
schools throughout the state. Each transcript is
reviewed by university staff to see if the pattern of
courses, grades, and test scores would make the
student eligible for admission. Schools are typically
contacted in November and transcripts are collected
over the following several months. For the 2008
released report, more than 72,000 transcripts from 158
schools were evaluated.
4) LAO Report . In February 2014, the LAO released, "A
Review of State Budgetary Practices for UC and CSU."
As part of their review, LAO recommended the
Legislature authorize an updated freshman eligibility
study. The LAO states that information from such a
study is necessary to determine whether UC and CSU
currently are drawing from less or more than their
Master Plan eligibility pools. If the study concludes
the universities are drawing from beyond their
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eligibility pools, this information suggests that
enrollment levels currently are too high. If the
study concludes the universities are drawing from too
small a pool of students, this information suggests
enrollment levels are too low.
5) According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee ,
unknown General Fund costs to CDE in the range of
$500,000 to $1.1 million to conduct a study of the
percentages of California public high school graduates
estimated to be eligible for admission into the UC and
the CSU.
Staff recommends an amendment on page 4, line 4 before
the period, insert: , and shall be completed within
18 months from when state or nonstate funds are made
available for this purpose.
SUPPORT
American Nurses Association / California
San Francisco Unified School District
OPPOSITION
None on file.