Riverside County Assessment Network (RCAN)

Meeting

October 23, 2015 – 9:00 a.m.Riverside County Office of Education Conference Center

CLOSING THE BOOKS ON 2015

By the numbers…

• 2,631 total bills introduced in 2015

• 941 bills reached the governor’s desk

• 808 bills signed by the governor; 133 vetoed

• 596 bills amending the Education Code reached the governor’s desk—the most of any other code section

• 569 bills were signed; 27 vetoed

Education “wins” again with 596 bills

Notable bills

• AB 288 (Holden) College and Career Access Pathways partnerships

• SB 172 (Liu) CAHSEE suspension

• SB 359 (Mitchell) California Mathematics Placement Act of 2015

• SB 750 (Mendoza) English language education

• AB 575 (O’Donnell)/SB 499 (Liu) Teacher Evaluation

AB 288-College & Career Pathways Partnerships

• Authorizes school district and CCC boards to enter into a College and Career Pathways partnership, with the goal of developing seamless pathways from high school to CCC for CTE or preparation for transfer

• Sunsets the CCAP authority on January 1, 2022

• Specifies the conditions that must be met prior to the adoption of the CCAP agreement, including public comment at a public board meeting

• Authorizes CCC districts to assign priority enrollment and registration, limit enrollment in a course only offered at a HS campus, and caps special part-time students to 15 units per term

• Requires school districts to outline the terms of the partnership, including the total number served, number students to be claimed by CCC district, courses offered, protocols for sharing information and facilities, parental consent, and school point of contact

• Prohibits CCC districts from:– entering into a CCAP agreement with a school district outside its service area unless there

is an agreement between the CCC districts– providing PE courses that do not assist in attaining the goals of the CCAP– assessing students a course fee

AB 288…continued

• Establishes requirements relative to instructors, agreements shall certify:– No CCC instructors teaching a course on a HS campus have been convicted of any sex offense or

controlled substance abuse– No CCC instructors/HS teachers have been displaced / terminated as a result of the same course

taught by their counterpart– No reduction in access to the same course at the CCC– Both the CCC and school district comply with local bargaining agreements– Which district is the employer– Remedial courses taught by CCC faculty at the HS campus will only be offered to students who do

not meet their grade level standard in math, English, or both at 10 th or 11th grade interim assessments; and requires both faculty and teachers to work together to deliver innovative remedial intervention

• Specifies funding provisions

• Requires CCC districts and school districts to report specified information to the CCC Chancellor on an annual basis

• Authorizes the CCC Chancellor to void any CCAP not in compliance; and, requires CCC Chancellor to prepare a report by January 1, 2021 for the Legislature, SPI, and DOF

SB 172--CAHSEE suspension

• Suspends the administration, and requirement to pass, the exit exam as a condition of receiving a graduation diploma or high school graduation for the 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18 school years.

• Requires LEA governing bodies to grant a graduation diploma to any student who completed grade 12 in the 2003-04 or subsequent school year and met all the graduation requirements other than passing CAHSEE; sunsets this provision on

July 31, 2018.

• Requires the SPI to convene an advisory panel to provide recommendations on the continuation of the exit exam and on alternative pathways to satisfy high school graduation requirements; specifies the make up of the panel.

• Requires the recommendations to be included in the SPI’s report on the expansion of the state’s assessment system, which is due to the SBE, legislative policy and fiscal committees, and DOF by March 1, 2016.

• For FAQs go to http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/hs/cahseesuspendfaq.asp

SB 359--California Mathematics Placement Act of

2015• Enacts the California Mathematics Placement Act of 2015

• Requires, on or before the 2016-17 school year, a school district’s governing board that serves students entering grade 9 to develop and adopt a fair, objective, and transparent Math Placement Policy at a regularly scheduled meeting, and to post the policy on the LEA’s website.

• Requires the Math Placement Policy to:– Take multiple objective academic measures of student performance into

consideration, such as the statewide mathematics assessments, including interim and summative assessments, placement tests aligned to state-adopted content standards in mathematics, classroom assignment and grades, and report cards.

– Include at least one placement checkpoint within the first month of the school year to ensure accurate placement and permit reevaluation of individual student progress.

SB 359—continued…

• Requires an analysis of aggregate student placement data annually to ensure that students who are qualified to progress in math courses based on their performance on objective academic measures are not held back in a disproportionate manner on the basis of their race, ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic background. The LEA shall report the aggregate results of this examination to the governing board or body of the local educational agency.

• Offers clear and timely recourse for each student and his or her parent or legal guardian who questions the pupil’s placement.

• Addresses, for non-unified school districts, the consistency of math placement policies between elementary and high school districts.

• Authorizes governing boards to adopt similar policy for students transitioning between elementary and middle school or elementary and junior high school.

• Applies to LEAs that don’t have a policy that meets this criteria as of January 1, 2016

SB 750--English language education

• Expands the definition of “long-term English learner” to include students:– enrolled in school for 6 years or more (rather than more than 6 years)– who have regressed to a lower English language proficiency level on the state adopted

test

• Expands the definition of “an English learner at risk of becoming a long-term English leaner,” by expanding the:– grade level of students eligible to be classified from 5-11 to 3-12 – number of year of U.S. school enrollment from 4 to 5 years– authority for the SPI to determine the appropriate scores on any successor English language

proficiency and English language arts standards based achievement tests for the purpose of identifying “an English learner at risk of becoming a long-term English learner.”

• Prohibits the exclusion of students from the report of “long-term English learners” or “English learners at risk of becoming a long-term English learners” based upon an absence of English language standards test results.

• Encourages the SPI to revisit the determined successor test scores for these purposes after 3 years of assessment data on the successor test.

• Expands the CDE notice requirements to include the posting of the statewide number of “long-term English learners” and “English learners at risk of becoming long-term” on the department’s website.

Teacher evaluation bills

AB 575 (O’Donnell) and SB 499 (Liu) are both two-year bills.

AB 575 would require the governing board of each school district and the governing body of each county office of education to adopt and implement a best practices teacher and administrator evaluation system by July 1, 2018.

SB 499 would repeal and replace various provisions of existing law governing the evaluation of certificated employees and, beginning July 1, 2018, would require school districts to implement a best practices teacher evaluation system. This bill would also repeal and replace provisions of existing law regarding school administrator evaluations.

Key point: The criteria for developing the evaluation is subject to the collective bargaining agreement.

KEY ISSUES TO ANTICIPATE IN 2016

Fiscal outlook for 2016

DOF – YTD $692 million above Budget Act forecast

SCO – First quarter revenues outpacing estimates – 7.5% ahead of last year at this time

UCLA Anderson Forecast–– Forecast for national economy in next two years is healthy– California real personal income will outpace the nation– California labor market will outperform national market– Affordable housing in California will remain problematic

Temporary tax extension initiatives

Version 1: “School Funding and Budget Stability Act”– Sponsored by CTA and others– Maintain high-income surtax through 2030 and allow ¼ cent sales tax to expire

Version 2: “Invest in California’s Children Act”– Sponsored by California Hospital Association, SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West,

Common Sense Kids Action– Maintain high-income surtax (in perpetuity) and establish even higher rates for

“super earner couples” earning more than $2 million per year– Half of revenues would be dedicated to K-14 education– 40 percent would be dedicated to California’s Medi-Cal program– 10 percent would be dedicated to Pre-K and early childhood development programs

• If both qualify for ballot, initiative with highest vote total would go into effect (assuming both are approved by voters)

• Latest polls show nearly half of California voters favor temporarily extending Prop. 30’s sales and income tax hikes, but support falls to just 32% when asked if they should be made permanent

Kindergarten through Community College Public Education Facilities Bond

Act of 2016

Sponsored by CASH and CA Building Industry Association

Eligible for November 2016 ballot

$9 billion school facilities bond– $3 billion for K-12 modernization– $3 billion for K-12 new construction– $2 billion for Community Colleges– $500 million for charter schools– $500 million for Career Technical Education– Makes no changes to existing State School Facilities program

Faces political challenges– CTA likely to oppose– Governor and key legislators do not support maintaining the existing

program

Additional policy issues in 2016

Teacher Evaluation– AB 575 and SB 499 still eligible to advance– Vergara case may impact many discussions

Local Reserve Cap– SB 799-Key issue: Manage budgets under existing

statutory restrictions, or accept “watered down” legislative solution?

Assessment & Accountability– State Board– CCEE– Legislature

Thank you!

Jeff Vaca, jvaca@rcoe.usLeticia Garcia, lgarcia@rcoe.usCindy Livers, clivers@rcoe.us