ACSA is seeking member help to encourage Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign Assembly Bill 429, Brownley, D-Santa Monica, a measure that would help California gain a competitive edge for federal Race to the Top grants.
Proposed guidelines by the U.S. Department of Education would require states interested in applying for $4 billion in Race to the Top grants to create data systems that track student progress and measure performance from pre-kindergarten through college.
Years of standardized tests in California have not helped parents, teachers or even students know with any accuracy whether students are improving from one grade to the next. The tests were designed only to measure students’ knowledge against a set of standards for a specific grade, but not to show whether they are improving over time.
AB 429 requires an advisory committee of the superintendent of public instruction to recommend development of a longitudinally valid assessment system for students in grades K-12, and forward the recommendations to the State Board of Education, Legislature and Department of Finance. The recommendations must be consistent with federal law and guidance, so as to maximize the state’s federal funding opportunities for programs such as the Race to the Top incentive grants.
AB 429 will allow parents and teachers to track individual students’ year-to-year progress in a variety of academic areas. The bill has no opposition and received bipartisan support through the legislative hearing process.
ACSA requests that members mail and fax the governor asking him to sign AB 429 and list reasons why it will improve their school district’s system of academic accountability.
ACSA’s Governmental Relations Department has prepared a sample letter that can be e-mailed directly by clicking here.
ACSA is additionally calling on members to help encourage the governor to sign Assembly Bill 1435, Perez, D-Cathedral City, a measure that would require the Public School Accountability Advisory Committee to make recommendations regarding the inclusion of the California English Language Development Test, and the feasibility of adding English learner proficiency, as part of the Academic Performance Index.
AB 1435 would call upon the PSAA to make recommendations for inclusion of CELDT results into the API to the state superintendent of public instruction, and then forward to the State Board of Education for approval by 2010.
The current CELDT assessment serves the important purposes of not only identifying students who are limited English proficient, but also in gauging their progress toward full English proficiency over time. The inclusion of this data in the API not only will help schools demonstrate how well they are doing with instructing EL students, but can also assist schools and teachers to refine their instructional practices and strategies working with English learners.
ACSA believes AB 1435 is an important measure that will improve the state’s public school accountability system.
ACSA requests that members mail and fax letters to the governor asking him to sign AB 1435 and list reasons why it would improve their school districts’ system of academic accountability. A sample letter is available by clicking here, and can automatically be e-mailed to the governor.