A new piece of legislation was signed by Governor Jerry Brown in late September that could change the way California schools are annually ranked. Standardized testing currently accounts for a significant portion of how schools are ranked, but the bill will reorganize the way the Academic Performance Index is calculated.
The piece of legislation is entitled SB-1458 and was written by Senate President Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat from Sacramento. The bill will go into effect in 2016, and will require that standardized testing constitutes no more than 60% of the index ranking.
In essence, the intent of the bill is to reduce the emphasis on standardized tests in California, such as the STAR tests and high school exit examination, and transfer the focus to other aspects of pupil success, which include graduation rates, and success in college preparatory courses.
The Legislative Counsel’s Digest, which can be found on the California Legislative Information website, summarizes this requirement:
“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 would make the reports on school rank more relevant because local factors are considered rather than a cut and dry examination.
“I’m pleased the governor agrees that test scores alone are hardly a true indicator of the success or failure of our students. Life is not a bubble test, and that system has failed our kids,” Steinberg explained in a news release.
A similar sentiment can be detected on Placer’s campus.
“When curriculums are geared towards STAR tests, students are only taught how to regurgitate information,” reveals Greg Robinson, Placer Social Science teacher.
As a teacher of United States history, Robinson knows what students should be taking away from his course, but feels restricted by the requirements of some standardized testing.
“Some standardized tests work, but our current version is bad. It is great that we will be working towards a more accurate reflection of what we are doing, because the API score is very myopic in focus; it does not reveal much about the school,” Robinson added
While the API score has caused frustration and the intent of the bill is to reorganize it, the index is not condemned. Section 1b of the bill details this stance:
“The API has been limited…by an overreliance on the Standardized Testing and Reporting Program as the chief indicator of a school’s performance. Statute requires dropout and graduation rates to be included in a school’s API score, but those rates have not yet been incorporated. The API does not indicate the degree to which a school has prepared its pupils for success in postsecondary education and career.”

The bill has definite potential for positive reform. It is designed to shift the emphasis away from students memorizing names, dates, formulas, and definitions, and towards a comprehensive, working knowledge of subject matter that will benefit California’s youth for many years to come.

These potential benefits have been recognized by many businesses in California that are being forced to employ an increasingly inept workforce. Business organizations such as the  California Building Industry Association and the California Manufacturers and Technology Association have given the bill considerable backing, in the hopes that it will lead to a generation of workers with a depth and breadth of necessary knowledge.

To be sure, standardized tests are not just a series of dull days for students. They have caused frustration for teachers, and have at times resulted in skewed perceptions of schools performance. Happily, California Senate has recognized this problem and taken steps towards being proactive.