LCFF accountability calls for smaller API subgroup tracking
As a part of the new Local Control Funding Formula tentatively approved by legislative leaders and Gov. Jerry Brown this week, school districts will be required to track and report the academic progress of subgroups of students as small as 30 members.
The proposed funding formula, which provides billions of dollars to districts with high concentrations of educationally-disadvantaged students, will also call on districts to meet new accountability mandates aimed at ensuring the additional funds are being used properly.
According to a briefing memo provided by legislative staff Tuesday, districts will be required to develop three-year “local control accountability plans” that will need to be updated annually to show both the goals and the progress of all targeted students.
Under the plan, small pockets of students will no longer be invisible within the state’s primary student performance evaluation tool, the Academic Performance Index. For the first time, as part of the proposal, foster care students will be included as a subgroup in the API.
The plan will require that the subgroup size as defined in the API, be reduced from 100 students to 30.
If approved as drafted, the accountability program calls on the California State Board of Education to adopt regulations governing how the targeted funds will be spent. It is contemplated that in some cases, districts would be given authority to spend the money “school-wide” when the concentration of disadvantaged students at a single site is high enough.
The accountability plans that districts will create, will require input from parents and the community. They will focus