Assembly Member Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) and principal co-author Assembly Member Gene Mullin (D-San Francisco) have introduced a CTA-sponsored measure aimed at making California's academic testing more effective and more efficient.
Specifically, AB 356 proposes to streamline and improve California's jumbled tri-partite testing scheme:
AB 356 would address all three competing testing mandates, simplifying and combining them into one overall strategy designed to maximize student learning. It would also protect funding needed to support the state's High Priority Schools Grant Program, which is threatened by the state's more than $33 billion budget deficit.
AB 356 would maximize effectiveness and efficiency - saving valuable tax dollars and maximizing instructional time. The measure would make it possible to allocate those budget savings to other Proposition 98 education programs that directly benefit the classroom.
AB 356 would:
- Coordinate three testing imperatives under which California schools are now operating: it would align the High School Exit Examination (HSEE) and the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program with mandated assessments in the Federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). It would bring California's testing in line with the requirements of the federal NCLB. The bill would also eliminate the flawed rewards and sanctions provisions in state law.
- Increase instructional time for California's youngest students - grades 2 and below - by limiting the amount of class time that can be devoted to unnecessary and redundant testing.
- Use the HSEE as a primary testing instrument but eliminate it as a high school graduation requirement. Instead, students would be judged for graduation purposes against California's high standards via multiple measures of their academic achievement. The change would give districts the option of maintaining HSEE passage as a graduation requirement.
- Eliminate the time spent drilling the youngest students on test taking strategies, allowing teachers to focus on helping students master the knowledge and skills required to meet the state's high academic content standards for their grade level.
The measure is expected to see its first consideration in the Assembly Education Committee.
CTA Members:
E-mail Assembly Members Hancock (Assemblymember.Hancock@assm.ca.gov) and Mullin (Assemblymember.mullin@assm.ca.gov) to express your support for the CTA-sponsored measure.