California Community Colleges: common assessment system.

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 require the board to establish a common assessment system with specified objectives, including selection of an existing commercially available and 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 Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to work in collaboration with the State Department of Education and the California State University when developing a common college-readiness standard that will be reflected in the creation of assessment instruments. The bill would require the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to submit a report to the Legislature and the Governor on the progress of implementation of the common assessment system by December 31, 2012, and would require the above provisions to become operative upon the receipt of state, federal, or philanthropic funds to cover the costs of the common assessment system.