BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 247
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 26, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
SB 247 (Liu) - As Amended: May 24, 2013
SENATE VOTE : 27-11
SUBJECT : Pupil Assessment
SUMMARY : Reauthorizes the Standardized Testing and Reporting
(STAR) Program and eliminates grade 2 assessments from this
program. Specifically, this bill :
1)Makes existing provisions of pupil assessment provisions
within the Education Code inoperative beginning July 1, 2014.
2)Adds almost identical language to those provisions made
inoperative pursuant to (1) above, that renews the current
assessment system, with the exception of grade 2 assessments
and technical, non-substantive changes to these sections with
an operative date of July 1, 2014.
3)Requires the California Department of Education (CDE), by
November 1, 2014, to identify to school districts existing
assessments in language arts and mathematics that are aligned
to the Common Core State Standards and are appropriate for
diagnostic use by classroom teachers for use in grade 2.
4)Specifies that the savings from the elimination of the grade 2
achievement assessments be used by local education agencies
(LEAs) should they choose to administer the grade 2 diagnostic
assessment.
EXISTING LAW:
Existing State Law
1)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to
design and implement a statewide pupil assessment program and
requires school districts, charter schools, and county offices
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of education to administer to each of its pupils in grades 2
to 11, inclusive, certain achievement tests, including a
standards-based achievement test pursuant to the STAR Program.
Existing Federal Law
1)The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) requires
schools to demonstrate their success in terms of the academic
achievement of every student.
2)With academic content standards in place, states must test
every student's progress toward those standards by using
assessments that are aligned with the standards. Beginning in
the 2005-06 school year, tests in mathematics and reading had
to be administered every year in grades 3 through 8 and once
in grades 10 through 12. Beginning in the 2007-08 school year,
science achievement testing was also required.
3)Each state, school, and LEA is expected to make adequate
yearly progress (AYP) toward meeting state standards. Test
results are sorted to measure the progress of all students,
including students who are economically disadvantaged, are
from racial or ethnic subgroups, have disabilities, or have
limited English proficiency.
4)State, school, and LEA performance is publicly reported in the
School Accountability Report Cards (SARC).
5)If a Title I school or LEA fails to make AYP for two or more
consecutive years in specific areas, it is identified for
Program Improvement (PI).
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations Committee,
this bill has the following fiscal effects:
1)Eliminate Grade 2 assessment . Annual state savings of
approximately $2 million as follows: $1.2 million apportioned
to school districts for testing, and $800,000 in test
development costs.
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2)Savings redirection (partial) . Redirects the $1.2 million in
savings back to school districts choosing to purchase and
administer diagnostic exams.
COMMENTS : Background. California's state assessment program is
comprised of three major testing components, the STAR Program,
the English language development test (the California English
Language Development Test (CELDT) is the adopted test), and a
high school exit examination (the California High School Exit
Examination (CAHSEE) is currently the designated test). The
program also includes a number of smaller, more specialized
assessments.
The STAR Program, initially authorized in 1997, requires testing
of students in English language arts, mathematics, science, and
history/social science at specified grade levels. In 2003, the
California Standards Tests (CST) replaced a nationally published
test as the primary battery of STAR tests; the CSTs include only
questions written specifically for California's content
standards. Today, the STAR Program includes the CSTs, the
California Alternate Performance Assessment (CAPA) administered
to students with significant cognitive disabilities, the
California Modified Assessment (CMA) administered to students
whose disabilities preclude them from achieving grade-level
proficiency on an assessment of the California content standards
with or without testing accommodations, and a national
norm-referenced test in Spanish that is administered to Spanish
speaking English learners who have been in school in the United
States less than 12 months or who are receiving instruction in
Spanish. Results for STAR tests are reported for the individual
pupil, but no school, district, or state-wide accountability
attaches to these individual results; the state and federal
accountability systems are primarily based on the aggregated
STAR test scores from all pupils in a school or school district.
The State Board of Education (SBE) adopted common core academic
content standards in English language arts and mathematics on
August 2, 2010. In 2011, the Legislature called for a
reauthorization of the statewide pupil assessment system that
contemplated the SPI's recommendations, alignment to the Common
Core State Standards, and the use of consortium developed
assessments. AB 250 (Brownley), Chapter 608, Statutes of 2011.
California is currently participating in the Summative
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Multi-state Assessment Resources for Teachers and Educational
Researchers (SMARTER) Balanced Consortium (SBAC). SBAC is a
national consortium of 25 states that have been working
collaboratively to develop a student assessment system aligned
with the Common Core State Standards. In time for
administration during the 2014-15 school year, SBAC will develop
an assessment system with the following major deliverables:
1) Online computer adaptive summative assessments. This
type of assessment can be used to describe student
achievement and growth of student learning as part of
program evaluation and school, district, and state
accountability systems. It will measure English language
arts and mathematics in grades 3 through 8 and grade 11
across the full range of the Common Core State Standards.
Because California's schools may struggle to transition to
an online computer adaptive system, the SBAC has ensured it
will make available a paper-and-pencil administration
option for the summative assessment available to states for
three years following the launch of the assessment system
(through 2016-17). The paper-and-pencil option is designed
to help bridge the transition to online assessments for
states where access to computers for test administration
remains a challenge in 2014-15.
2) Optional interim and formative assessments that help
teachers identify the specific needs of each student so
they can help students progress toward being college and
career ready.
3) Teacher involvement at all stages of item and test
development, including item writing, scoring, and design of
reporting systems.
4) An online reporting system that provide educators access
to information about students' progress toward college and
career readiness as well as students' specific strengths
and weaknesses.
This bill reauthorizes the STAR program as the statewide
assessment of academic achievement. This bill does not,
however, specify which assessment must be used in order to
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fulfill the stated requirements. Instead, this bill relies on
the SPI and the SBE to develop, adopt, and approve an assessment
instrument. This bill permits, but does not require, the SPI
and SBE to adopt and approve the use of consortium developed
assessments, including the SBAC, as the assessment instrument.
Elimination of Grade 2 Testing
This bill eliminates the requirement for LEAs to administer
achievement assessments in Grade 2. While ESEA does not require
testing of grade 2 pupils, California's STAR Program includes
assessments administered to pupils in grade 2 in English
language arts and mathematics. This decision stemmed from the
concern that without grade 2 testing, parents and teachers will
not have this data sufficiently early in a pupil's educational
career in order to make adjustments to that student's
instruction. This bill continues to make available diagnostic
assessments for Grade 2 to address the concerns of those who
rely on these assessments as an indicator of the need for
adjustments to a pupil's educational program. However, such an
assessment would no longer be provided by the state and LEAs
would be required to purchase these assessments at their own
expense.
Related Legislation
AB 484 (Bonilla), pending in the Senate Education Committee,
extends authorization for the state's K-12 assessment system
from July 1, 2014, to January 1, 2024, renames it the California
Measurement of Academic Performance and Progress for the 21st
Century (CalMAPP21), suspends non-core subject area California
Standards Assessments (CSTs) administered under the Standardized
Testing and Reporting (STAR) program beginning in the 2013-14
school year, until new assessments addressing the Common Core
State Standards (CCSS) are developed and implemented. This bill
differs from SB 247 in that it identifies the SBAC assessment as
the assessment that must be used to satisfy the requirements for
a statewide pupil assessment program.
SB 490 (Jackson), pending in the Assembly Higher Education
Committee, encourages California State Universities
participating in the Early Assessment Program to sequence their
pre-collegiate level courses and transfer-level courses in
English language arts and mathematics to Common Core State
Standards.
Previous Legislation
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AB 250 (Brownley), Chapter 608, Statutes of 2011, extends the
operative date of the state's assessment system by one year, and
streamlines the assessment system so as to give the state
flexibility to adapt to changes in federal law and transition to
high-quality assessments that are aligned to the Common Core
State Standards.
SB 1 5X (Steinberg) Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009-10, in relevant
part, establishes the Standards Commission to develop academic
content standards in reading/language arts and mathematics,
present recommended academic content standards to the SBE by
July 15, 2010, and requires the SBE to adopt or reject the
recommended standards by August 2, 2010.
SB 376 (Alpert), Chapter 828, Statutes of 1997, created the STAR
Program and authorized assessments in grades 2-11 until January
1, 2002.
SB 233 (Alpert), Chapter 722, Statutes of 2001, reauthorized the
STAR Program until January 1, 2005.
SB 1448 (Alpert), Chapter 233, Statutes of 2004, reauthorized
the STAR Program until January 1, 2011, with the exception of
second grade testing which was to be phased out over a three
year period (until July 1, 2007).
AB 356 (Hancock) of 2004, among other things, would have
provided for a diagnostic assessment, rather than standardized
testing, in grade 2 as part of the STAR program. AB 356 was
held on the Senate Floor (no vote was taken).
SB 740 (Hancock) of 2011, eliminated the requirement for grade 2
STAR tests and required the CDE to make available to school
districts existing diagnostic assessments that are appropriate
for grade 2. This bill was held on the Assembly Appropriations
Committee's suspense file.
SB 800 (Hancock) of 2009, was nearly identical to SB 740
(Hancock) of 2011. SB 800 failed passage in the Senate
Education Committee on a 4-5 vote on April 15, 2009.
AB 476 (Torlakson) of 2009, would have eliminated STAR testing
in the grade 2. At the time of enrollment, AB 476 required the
Superintendent of Public Instruction to contract for an
independent evaluation of the STAR Program. AB 476 was vetoed by
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the Governor, whose veto message read:
The objectives of this bill are duplicative of
work already being done by a variety of sources.
Not only have there been reviews of California's
standards and assessment system by the United
States Department of Education's peer review
process, the California Department of Education
has a process which has included an independent
alignment study and review of test items by
various content and test development experts.
Finally, this bill circumvents the State Board
of Education in the selection of the independent
evaluator and approving the evaluation and its
recommendations.
AB 1353 (Huff) of 2007, would have extended grade 2 assessments
to January 1, 2011, but was not heard.
SB 80 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review), Chapter 174,
Statutes of 2007, extended second grade testing until July 1,
2011.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Association of California School Administrators
California Federation of Teachers
EdVoice
Public Advocates
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Jill Rice / ED. / (916) 319-2087