Bill Text: CA SB1322 | 2011-2012 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Pupil assessments: public hearings.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-04-25 - Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author. [SB1322 Detail]
Download: California-2011-SB1322-Introduced.html
BILL NUMBER: SB 1322 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Senator Wyland
FEBRUARY 23, 2012
An act to amend Section 52056 of, and to add Section 60648.5 to,
the Education Code, relating to pupil assessments.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1322, as introduced, Wyland. Pupil assessments: public
hearings.
(1) Existing law requires each school district, charter school,
and county office of education to administer to each of its pupils in
grades 2 to 11, inclusive, designated achievement tests. Existing
law establishes the Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999 and
requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop an
Academic Performance Index (API), which consists in part of the
results of the tests administered pursuant to the Standardized
Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program, to measure the performance of
schools and to rank schools based on the value of the API. Existing
law requires schools to report their ranking, including a description
of the components of the API, in their annual school accountability
report card. Existing law requires the governing board of each school
district to discuss the results of the annual ranking at the next
regularly scheduled meeting following the annual publication of the
API and school rankings by the Superintendent and encourages that
meeting to include a discussion that examines STAR test results by
school, grade, and subgroup, as specified.
This bill would require the governing board of a school district
to conduct a public hearing to discuss, analyze, and compare the
results of the API, STAR test scores, and school rankings and would
instead require that public hearing to include a discussion that
examines STAR test results by school, grade, and subgroup, as
specified.
Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district
to conduct an assessment of the reasons for a school's performance
results, by grade, and adopt an improved performance plan, as
specified, for specified low performing schools.
This bill would instead require the governing board of a school
district to perform these functions.
(2) This bill would require the governing board of a school
district to notify in writing specified persons and entities if it
chooses to hold a public hearing at one of its regularly scheduled
meetings to discuss pupil achievement on the reading, English
language arts, and mathematics portions of the achievement tests
administered pursuant to the STAR program and pupil progress toward
meeting the optimum performance levels on those tests.
(3) By requiring school districts to perform additional duties
relating to public hearings for pupil assessments, this bill would
impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates
determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these
statutory provisions.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 52056 of the Education Code is amended to read:
52056. (a) The High Achieving/Improving Schools Program is hereby
established. Commencing in June 2000, and every June
thereafter, Every June, the Superintendent
of Public Instruction , with approval of the
State Board of Education state board ,
shall rank all public schools based on the Academic Performance Index
(API) established pursuant to Section 52052. The schools
shall be ranked by the value of the API in decile categories by grade
level of instruction provided and shall include three categories:
elementary, middle, and high school. The schools shall also be ranked
by the value of the API when compared to schools with similar
characteristics. Commencing in June 2001, the
The Superintendent of Public Instruction
shall also report the target annual growth rates of schools and the
actual growth rates attained by the schools. For purposes of this
section, similar characteristics include, but are not limited to, the
following characteristics, insofar as data is available from the
State Department of Education's department's
data: pupil mobility, pupil ethnicity, pupil socioeconomic
status, percentage of teachers who are fully credentialed, percentage
of teachers who hold emergency credentials, percentage of pupils who
are English language learners, average class size
per grade level, and whether the schools operate multitrack
year-round educational programs. The Superintendent of
Public Instruction shall annually publish these rankings on
the Internet.
(b) All schools shall report their ranking, including a
description of the components of the API, in their annual school
accountability report card pursuant to Sections 33126 and 35256.
(c) Following the annual publication of the API and
, scores on tests administered pursuant to the
Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program set forth in
Article 4 (commencing with Section 60640) of Chapter 5 of Part 33,
and school rankings by the Superintendent of Public
Instruction , the governing board of each
a school district shall discuss the
results of the annual ranking at the next regularly scheduled meeting
conduct a public hearing to discuss, analyze, and
compare the results . The governing board is strongly
encouraged to shall include in the discussion an
examination of STAR test scores by school, grade, and
subgroup enumerated by and in accordance with subclause (II)
of clause (v) of subparagraph (C) of paragraph (2) of subsection (b)
of Section 6311 6311(b)(2)(C)(v)
(II) of Title 20 of the United States Code , of scores
on the tests administered pursuant to the Standardized Testing and
Reporting (STAR) Program set forth in Article 4 (commencing with
Section 60640) of Chapter 5 of Part 33 .
(d) If the average STAR test score of the school is below the 50th
percentile, or if the test scores of more than 25 percent of the
pupils of a school are below the 50th percentile, the school district
governing board may shall do both of
the following:
(1) Conduct an assessment of the reasons for the performance
results of the school, by grade.
(2) Adopt an improved performance plan that includes methods
determined by the district to have been used by schools with similar
pupil populations elsewhere in the district or state and
significantly higher pupil scores. If it is deemed not feasible to
adopt those methods, the plan shall explain why an alternate approach
is preferable. If a school district governing board adopts an
improved performance plan, it shall reevaluate the plan at each
future annual meeting described by subdivision (c), until STAR test
scores reach a level above those specified in this subdivision.
SEC. 2. Section 60648.5 is added to the Education Code, to read:
60648.5. (a) If the governing board of a school district holds a
public hearing at a regularly scheduled meeting to discuss pupil
achievement on the reading, English language arts, and mathematics
portions of the achievement tests administered pursuant to this
article and pupil progress toward meeting the optimum performance
levels on those tests, the governing board shall do so in the manner
specified in this section.
(b) The governing board may not place this discussion on the
consent calendar.
(c) The governing board of a school district shall notify in
writing all of the following persons and entities of each public
hearing held for the purpose specified in subdivision (a):
(1) Representative parent organizations at the schoolsite,
including the parent teacher associations, clubs, or organizations,
and schoolsite councils. The Legislature encourages school districts
to notify parents directly through appropriate means.
(2) All local major media outlets.
(3) The mayor of a city located in the district.
(4) All members of a city council of a city located in the
district.
(5) All members of the county board of supervisors of a county
located in the district.
(6) The county superintendent of schools.
(7) The county board of education.
SEC. 3. If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this
act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local
agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant
to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of
the Government Code.
