Pupil assessment.

The Leroy Greene California Assessment of Academic Achievement Act states the intent of the Legislature to provide a system of individual assessment of pupils that has the primary purpose of assisting teachers, administrators, and pupils and their parents to improve teaching and learning. Existing law establishes the Standardized Testing and Reporting Program pursuant to which each school district, charter school, and county office of education is required to administer to each of its pupils in grades 2 to 11, inclusive, the standards-based achievement tests. These provisions are inoperative on July 1, 2014, and as of January 1, 2015, are repealed. This bill would state the intent of the Legislature that the reauthorization of the statewide pupil assessment program bring together elementary and secondary school policy leaders, the segments of higher education, and postsecondary career technical and vocational programs to develop criteria and create pathways in which assessments taken by middle and high school pupils are aligned with college and career readiness, as specified. The bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education, in consultation with certain entities and using certain assessment results, to recommend specific uses of these assessments by certain higher education entities for specified purposes. The bill would require the Superintendent and state board, on or before January 1, 2018, to present to the Governor and the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature a schedule and plan. The bill would require the State Department of Education to use specified federal funds or any other available and appropriate state and federal funds to implement these provisions.