BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Carol Liu, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 1425
AUTHOR: Block
INTRODUCED: February 21, 2014
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: April 24, 2014
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Kathleen Chavira
SUBJECT : Retroactive awarding of degrees.
SUMMARY
This bill requires that the Chancellor of the Community
Colleges develop or identify a commercially available utility
to conduct systemwide automatic degree audits and requires
all community colleges to award degrees retroactively, as
specified.
BACKGROUND
Current law specifically establishes the mission and function
of the California Community Colleges as offering academic and
vocational instruction at the lower division level and
authorizes the community colleges to grant the associate in
arts and the associate in science degree. (Education Code �
66010.4)
ANALYSIS
This bill :
1) Requires the Board of Governors to require all community
colleges to retroactively award degrees. More
specifically it requires each college to:
a) Beginning in Spring 2015-16:
i) Identify students who
have completed the units required to receive a
degree, certificate, or completed transfer
requirements during the prior five academic
years.
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ii) Notify the identified students of
their eligibility for a degree or certificate.
iii) Provide the student with a choice to
opt out or receive the degree/certificate.
b) Annually, prior to the beginning of
spring term, identify students who are within 12
semester (18 quarter) units of completing a degree
or certificate or achieving the minimum
requirements for transfer and to notify these
individuals of the courses needed to complete
degree, certificate, or transfer requirements.
2) Requires the Chancellor of the Community Colleges to
develop or identify a commercially available utility to
conduct systemwide automatic degree audits and requires
that the utility complies with pertinent privacy
security requirements, is centrally housed, enables
campus staff to monitor student progress, and is
accessible to staff and students through an Internet Web
portal that provides specified degree related
information.
3) Requires each community college district, with the
Chancellor's assistance, to study and evaluate the
effectiveness of degree audit activities established by
the bill's provisions and the effectiveness of any other
programs or services designed to facilitate students'
completion of their educational goals and courses of
study.
4) Requires the Chancellor to submit a report to the
Legislature and Governor on the progress in implementing
the bill's provisions by December 31, 2017, and:
a) Requires that the report include
metrics to be determined and reported, as
specified, and that this information be
disaggregated by ethnicity, gender, disability, age
and socioeconomic status, to the extent available.
b) Requires that the report include an
assessment of the effectiveness of programs and
services in attaining specified objectives.
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5) Makes the bill's provisions inoperative until the Board
of Governor's certifies that sufficient funds from
state, federal or private sources have been received to
implement the online degree audit system, and requires
that this certification be promptly posted on the Board
of Governor's Internet Web site.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill . According to the author, while the
Student Success Act of 2012 requires community colleges
to provide orientation, advising and educational
planning tools, and current law does not require the
institution to monitor and notify students of their
progress toward the defined educational goal.
According to an examination of US Department of
Education datasets by the Institute for Higher Education
Policy, approximately 15 percent of traditional-age
students in any cohort had completed more than 60 units
yet held no degree and were no longer enrolled anywhere.
If applied to the 2.4 million students currently
enrolled at the California community colleges, this
statistic represents hundreds of thousands of students
who may have completed their degrees or are very close
to doing so.
2) Project Win-Win . Project Win-Win is an initiative
undertaken in partnership by the Institute of Higher
Education Policy (IHEP) and the State Higher Education
Executive Officers and funded principally by Lumina
Foundation for Education. The initiative involves 64
community colleges and four-year institutions authorized
to award associate's degrees located in nine states
(Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio,
Oregon, Virginia, and Wisconsin). These institutions
identify former students whose records qualify them for
an associate's degree, and the institutions award the
degrees retroactively. The institutions also identify
students who were near completion of an associate's
degree and seek to bring them back to complete the
degree.
According to the IHEP, as of August 2011, twenty four
institutions had identified over 44,000 students in the
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initial "universe of interest" and 15 institutions had
completed degree audits on 12,000 students (with 2,800
deemed eligible for associate's awards, and 6,200
potential completers). The initiative projects these
numbers nationally and estimates a potential 15 to 16
percent increase in the number of associate's degrees
awarded. It is unclear how many of these students were
actually awarded or completed degrees.
3) Degree audit programs . According to a research memo
prepared for the Chancellor's Office by WestEd in
January 2012, a survey of the California Association of
Community College Registrars and Admissions Officers
found that 21 of the 112 community colleges had degree
audit systems in place, with seven more planning
implementation within the year. It was noted that the
initial process for establishing the audit system is
labor intensive and requires annual updating to address
changes in curriculum. According to the memo, there is
little empirical evidence of the impact of degree audit
and education planning systems on student outcomes.
4) Timeline ? According to the Chancellor's office, several
activities (including the development of integrated
tools for education planning and degree audit to support
students and a Course Identification Numbering System
project) which could facilitate the adoption of a
centralized automated degree audit program are currently
underway. It is unclear when this work will be
completed. The degree audit activities required by this
bill must be implemented beginning in the Spring of
2015-16, if funding for this purpose becomes available.
In light of the foundational work necessary to
successfully implement a centralized system, and the
complexities involved in implementing a degree audit
system, is this a reasonable timeline?
5) Prior legislation . AB 868 (V. Manuel Perez, 2010)
required every community college district to develop and
implement an online degree audit system. AB 868 was
referred to this committee but its hearing was cancelled
at the request of the author.
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SUPPORT
Access College Foundation
Al Wooten Jr. Heritage Center
ALL Management Corporation
Binational Center for the Development of Oaxacan Indigenous
Communities
Boys & Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles Harbor
Bresee Foundation
Bright Prospect
California Communities United Institute
California Competes
Campaign for College Opportunity
Center for Student Opportunity
Children Youth and Family Collaborative
Community Partners
Determined to Succeed
Fulfillment Fund
Gradguru
Heart of Los Angeles
Inner City Struggle
Institute for College Access and Success
Japanese Community Youth Council
Kid City Hope Place
LA Coalition of Essential Schools
Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
Los Angeles Education Partnership
Los Angeles United Methodist Urban Foundation
Mar Vista Family Center
North Bay Leadership Council
Project Grad
South Central Scholars
Southern California College Access Network
Study Smart Tutors
Transformative Action Institute
United Friends of the Children
Young Invincibles
Youth Alliance
OPPOSITION
None received.
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