SBE News Release for July 9, 2015

For Immediate Release
July 9, 2015

Contact
Julie White
916-319-0691

State Board Sets Principles and Timeline for Developing
State Accountability System

The California State Board of Education (SBE) has set guiding principles and an initial timeline for establishing California’s new state accountability system. The new system will center around the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs) and annual updates. The guiding principles articulate the Board’s goals for system planning. The timeline outlines future topics for discussion as well as specific details for the development of evaluation rubrics.

“The state’s new accountability system will take into account multiple measures across the eight state priority areas outlined in LCFF, allowing us to focus on a broader set of outcomes than in the past,” explained SBE president Mike Kirst.

In May, Board members expressed a shared opinion that the October 2015 deadline for the evaluations rubrics, tools to help measure district and charter progress toward state priorities and local goals, needed to be adjusted. Stakeholders agreed and advocated for a revised timeline with lawmakers and the governor. As a result, recent legislation signed by the governor extends the deadline to October 2016 for the SBE to establish the rubrics.

The additional development time will be used to ensure the evaluation rubrics are built on a solid foundation of research and data analysis. It is also consistent with SBE’s overall timeline for developing a state accountability system.

“Our timeline ensures cohesion among the LCFF, local plans and evaluations rubrics,” explained Kirst. “Stakeholders must continue to be engaged and informed so they can weigh in on our deliberations,” added Kirst.

Guiding Principles for Accountability System Planning

Articulate the state’s expectations for districts, charter schools and county offices of education.

• Promote a broad understanding of the specific goals that need to be met at each level of the educational system.

Foster equity.

• Create support structures, including technical assistance for districts and schools, to promote success for all students regardless of background, primary language, or socioeconomic status.
• Continue to disaggregate data by student subgroup for both reporting and accountability purposes.

Provide useful information that helps parents, districts, charter schools, county offices of education and policymakers make important decisions.

• Assist and engage parents, educators and policymakers through regular communication and transparent, timely reporting of data so they can take action appropriate to their roles.

Build capacity and increase support for districts, charter schools and county offices.

• Seek to build capacity at all levels by reinforcing the importance of sound teaching and learning practices and providing necessary support to help schools reach their goals.
• Create multiple ways to celebrate district and school success based on state identified and locally designated metrics. Intervene in persistently underperforming districts to build capacity along a continuum of increasing support and attention through state and regional mechanisms of support. Ensure there are services and skills necessary to meet the needs of the students and families they serve.

Encourage continuous improvement focused on student-level outcomes, using multiple measures for state and local priorities.

• Focus on ongoing improvement of student outcomes, including college- and career-readiness, using multiple measures that reflect both status and growth. This means, in part, making determinations based on some version of the following two foundational questions:
  • How well is this school/district performing?
  • Is the school/district improving?
• Tie accountability determinations to multiple measures of student progress, based on the state priorities, integrating data from various forms of assessment, some of which will be locally-determined. Balance validity and reliability demands with the ability to clearly and simply explain results to stakeholders, including the use of a multiple measures dashboard.

Promote system-wide integration and innovation.

• Purposely and effectively integrate each accountability system component, including groups and technologies, creating a coherent, effective and efficient support structure for districts, charter schools and county offices of education.
• Recognizing that there is a new context for accountability in the state, the coming years will provide new insights at all levels of the educational system. To that end, it is important to encourage continued learning, innovation, and improvements related to the accountability system as a whole, core elements of the system, and the impact of the system on individual schools and districts.

Initial Timeline for Establishing a State Accountability System

For more information about the Board’s efforts on school accountability, please contact Julie White, SBE Communications Director at jwhite@cde.ca.gov or visit the California State Board of Education Web site [http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/].

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