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
| SBE Meeting | Proposed Transition to New Accountability System | Development of LCFF Evaluation Rubrics | Update on LCAP Template / Implementation Process |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 2015 | SBE Information Memorandum on states’ emerging accountability systems. | SBE Information Memorandum that summarizes research related to indicators of college and career readiness, early warning systems, and indicator selection. | Field test the electronic LCAP template. |
| July 2015 SBE Meeting | Review and reflections of emerging college and career accountability systems from other states that can inform the design of California’s system. | Present SBE updated evaluation rubrics development plan and seek feedback regarding policy frame for the evaluation rubrics. | N/A |
| July 2015 - September 2015 Development Activities completed by CDE/SBE/ & WestEd Staff | Develop an Information Memorandum that reviews California accountability components relative to the LCFF state priorities and SBE guiding principles. | Develop evaluation rubrics prototypes. Analyze data and present findings in an SBE Information Memorandum to define California context for the LCFF evaluation rubrics. | Analysis of LCAP electronic template pilot. |
| September 2015 SBE Meeting | Present recommendations for proposed policy framework that articulate expectations for districts, schools, charter schools and county offices of education. These recommendations will create support structures to foster transparency, flexibility, and equity. | Present recommendations for proposed policy framework to structure the evaluation rubrics prototype to align with the SBE’s policy frame. Discuss the decision points on standards and expectations for improvement and parameters for local metrics to support the proposed framework. | Report on LCAP electronic template pilot test results. |
| September 2015 - December 2015 Development Activities | Analysis of “underbrush” of the existing accountability statutes and regulations that may need to be modified to align with and support California’s new accountability system. | Provide process to gather user feedback for select components of the evaluation rubrics based on state representative sample of LEAs participating in User Acceptance Testing (UAT). | N/A |
| November 2015 SBE Meeting | Recommendations for a Framework and Implementation Plan for Accountability System – Comprehensive design architecture with specifications reflecting policy implications for a new accountability system. | Update on UAT piloting select components of the LCFF evaluation rubrics design options and integration of data. | Lessons learned from submitting Year 2 LCAP and first year Annual Update. |
| January 2016 SBE Meeting | Develop components that provide useful information that helps parents, districts, charter schools, and county offices of education and policymakers make important decisions. | Present the SBE with final design features of the evaluation rubrics based on user pilot experiences and feedback. | Present the proposed electronic LCAP template to be released in February 2016. |
| March 2016 | Discuss strategies to build capacity and increase support for districts, charter schools and county offices. | Present the SBE with update on use and evaluation of the rubrics prototype. | Discussion on efforts to diagnose and respond to challenges through school-based quality improvement. |
| May 2016 | Present system elements that encourage continuous improvement focused on student-level outcomes, using multiple measures for state and local priorities. | Finalize evaluation rubrics based on guidance from the SBE, feedback from LEAs, COEs and as appropriate input from stakeholders. | N/A |
| July 2016 | Promote system-wide integration and innovation. | Final LCFF Evaluation Rubrics for SBE Adoption. | N/A |
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.
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SBE News Release for July 9, 2015 - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education):