Community colleges: student assessments: pilot project: California Community Colleges Common Assessment.

Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. The Seymour-Campbell Matriculation Act of 1986 requires, contingent on the appropriation of funds for the purposes of the act, matriculation services to be made available by the colleges. The act requires those services to include assessment and counseling upon enrollment, including administration of assessment instruments to determine student competency in computational and language skills. This bill would include in that act a requirement for the board to establish a pilot project, with specified objectives, that seeks to create a centrally delivered system of student assessment to be used as one of multiple measures, consistent with specified law, for the purposes of community college placement and advisement. The bill would require the board to convene an advisory committee for the pilot project and report on specified progress by February 28, 2011. The bill would require the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, in developing the California Community Colleges Common Assessment, to use the existing test item banks created by the California State University and the K-12 system as part of the state's college readiness assessment. The bill would require the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to work with the California State University to align and leverage the state's college readiness assessment to facilitate the implementation of the California Community Colleges Common Assessment.