School accountability: Academic Performance Index: graduation rates.

The Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999 requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction, with the approval of the State Board of Education, to develop an Academic Performance Index (API) that measures the performance of schools and the academic performance of pupils. Under existing law, the API consists of a variety of indicators, including graduation rates for pupils in secondary schools, and is used to measure the progress of specified schools and to rank all public schools for the purpose of the High Achieving/Improving Schools Program. Existing law requires the Superintendent to determine the accuracy of high school graduation rate data before including that data in the API, and to provide an annual report to the Legislature on graduation and dropout rates, as specified. This bill would authorize the Superintendent to develop and implement a specified program of school quality review to complement the API, if an appropriation for this purpose is made in the annual Budget Act. The bill would require the Superintendent to annually provide to local educational agencies and the public an explanation of the individual components of the API and their relative values, as specified, and would prohibit an additional element from being incorporated into the API until at least one full school year after the state board's decision to include the element into the API. The bill would also require the Superintendent to annually determine the accuracy of graduation rate data, and would delete the requirement that the Superintendent report annually to the Legislature on graduation and dropout rates. The bill would authorize the Superintendent to incorporate into the API the rates at which pupils successfully promote from one grade to the next in middle school and high school and matriculate from middle school to high school, as well as pupil preparedness for postsecondary education and career. The bill would delete the requirement that the API be used to measure the progress of specified schools and to rank all public schools for the purpose of the High Achieving/Improving Schools Program. To the extent this bill would require school districts to report additional data for purposes of inclusion in the API or other school quality review, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law provides that pupil scores from certain standards-based achievement tests and the high school exit examination be incorporated into the API, as specified. Under existing law, the results of these tests constitute at least 60% of the value of the index. This bill would instead require that these test results constitute no more than 60% of the value of the index for secondary schools, commencing with the baseline API calculation in 2016, and for each year thereafter. This bill would require the Superintendent, on or before October 1, 2013, to report to the Legislature a method for increasing emphasis on pupil mastery of standards in science and social science through the system of public school accountability or by other means and an alternative method or methods, in place of decile rank, for determining eligibility, preferences, or priorities for any statutory program that uses decile rank as a determining factor. This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 52052 of the Education Code, proposed by AB 1668, to be operative only if AB 1668 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective January 1, 2013, and this bill is chaptered last. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.