BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 359| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- THIRD READING Bill No: SB 359 Author: Mitchell (D) Amended: 6/2/15 Vote: 21 SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 8-0, 4/15/15 AYES: Liu, Huff, Block, Hancock, Leyva, Mendoza, Pan, Vidak SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 5/28/15 AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza, Nielsen SUBJECT: California Mathematics Placement Act of 2015. SOURCE: California State Conference of the NAACP Silicon Valley Community Foundation DIGEST: This bill requires each local educational agency serving grades 8 or 9 to develop and implement a fair, objective, and transparent mathematics placement policy. ANALYSIS: Existing law: 1)Requires students to successfully complete two courses in mathematics as a condition of graduation from high school. (Education Code § 51225.3) 2)Requires that one of those courses, or "a combination of the two courses" required for graduation meet or exceed the rigor of the 1997 content standards for Algebra 1. (EC § 51224.5) SB 359 Page 2 3)Established the Academic Content Standards Commission for the purpose of developing the California Common Core Standards in English language arts and mathematics, and required the State Board of Education to reject or adopt those standards by August 2, 2010. (EC § 60605.8) This bill: 1)Establishes the California Mathematics Placement Act. 2)Requires the governing board of each local educational agency (LEA) serving grade 8 or grade 9, or both, to develop and implement a fair, objective, and transparent statewide mathematics placement policy that does all of the following: a) Systematically takes current academic objective measures into consideration, such as statewide assessments, student grades, and diagnostic placement tests. b) Includes at least one progress checkpoint during the academic year to permit reevaluation of individual student progress. c) Requires examination of student placement data annually to ensure that there is no disproportionate impact in the course placement of students by race, gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic background. d) Requires the LEA to report the aggregate results of this examination to the LEA's governing board and prominently post the examination results on the LEA's website. This report may be included as part of the LEA's accountability report of its local control and accountability plan. e) Offers clear and timely recourse for each student and his or her parent who questions the student's placement. 3)Requires the governing boards of each LEA to adopt the mathematics placement policy in a regularly scheduled public meeting. 4)Requires each LEA to ensure that its mathematics placement policy is posted prominently on the LEA's website. SB 359 Page 3 5)Clarifies that this bill applies only to LEAs that do not have a mathematics placement policy as of January 1, 2016. 6)Defines "local educational agency" as a county office of education, school district, state special school, or direct-funded charter school. 7)States legislative findings and declarations relative to mathematics misplacement. Comments How do schools currently determine math placement? Current law is silent with regard to mathematics placement policies or practices. According to Appendix A of the 2013 Mathematics Framework, which was adopted by the State Board of Education on November 6, 2013: Most districts typically rely on teacher recommendations and course grades to determine course placement (Bitter and O'Day 2010, p. 6), with standardized mathematics test scores, student/parent preferences, and counselor recommendations also factoring into the decision (Hallinan 2003). Teacher and counselor placement recommendations include subjective judgments about "students' personalities, behavior and motivation" in addition to test score performance. [http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ma/cf/documents/aug2013apxacoursep lace.pdf] Why include grade 8? This bill requires each LEA serving grades 8 or 9 to develop and implement a mathematics placement policy. This bill includes grade 8 because many students take Algebra I in grade 7, or earlier, and are affected by placement decisions in grade 8. This bill sunshines math placement practices by requiring LEAs to have a policy with specific elements, ensuring schools consistently use objective measurements, apply the practice uniformly, and make students and parents aware of the placement policies. This bill does not require the policies of LEAs to accept completion of Algebra I in middle school as satisfying high school graduation requirements. Students who successfully complete Algebra I in grade 8 and are not required SB 359 Page 4 to take Algebra I in high school would still be required to complete two mathematics courses while in high school. FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.:YesLocal: Yes According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, this bill imposes unknown, potentially significant costs for LEAs without a mathematics placement policy to develop and implement one in accordance with the requirements of this bill. Costs to the state would depend on the number of LEAs that would be required to develop a placement policy as these activities, as well as implementing the policy, could be determined to be a reimbursable state mandate. SUPPORT: (Verified6/1/15) California State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (co-source) Silicon Valley Community Foundation (co-source) Association of California School Administrators Bayer California School Boards Association Education Trust-West Equal Justice Society Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area Public Advocates San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce San Mateo County Office of Education St. James Community Foundation OPPOSITION: (Verified6/1/15) None received SB 359 Page 5 ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: According to the Education Trust-West, some students are disadvantaged by unfair math placement practices that require students to repeat Algebra or other classes after having already passed the course in the eighth grade. Due to bias or opinions that are not based on data or evidence, some high schools require entering freshmen to retake their college preparatory math course. This reduces the total number of college preparatory courses taken in high school, weakens the student's preparation for university-level coursework, and potentially threatens his or her chances for admission to competitive institutions. Prepared by:Lynn Lorber / ED. / (916) 651-4105 6/2/15 12:52:20 **** END ****