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AB-336 School library pilot program.(2001-2002)

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AB336:v96#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Assembly  March 26, 2001
Amended  IN  Assembly  April 24, 2001
Amended  IN  Senate  July 09, 2001

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2001–2002 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 336

Introduced  by  Assembly Member Goldberg
 (Coauthor(s): Assembly Member Alquist, Liu, Salinas, Strom-Martin, Vargas, Wyland)

February 16, 2001

An act to add and repeal Article 5 (commencing with Section 52059.5) of Chapter 6.1 of Part 28 of the Education Code, relating to pupil performance.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 336, as amended, Goldberg. School library pilot program.
Under existing law, the Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999 establishes the Public Schools Performance Accountability Program that consists of the state Academic Performance Index, the Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program, and the Governor’s High Achieving/Improving Schools Program. Existing law authorizes invited schools that score below the 50th percentile on the specified achievement tests to receive planning grants under the Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program.
This bill would require, until July 1, 2006, the State Department of Education to select and allocate funds to 7 low-performing school districts that will commit to pay 1/2 of the costs of a credentialed library media teacher and a classified library technician in one low-performing school in the district for a 5-year pilot program to study the impact that a certain full service school library program has on pupil achievement. The bill would require each school participating in the pilot program to implement an independent and free reading program to provide specific reading opportunities for pupils in the school. The bill would require a contractor to analyze the pilot program and conduct other specified analyses. The bill would require an analysis of the pilot program to be sent to the Governor, the Legislature, the Secretary for Education, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction by June 30, 2006.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) California’s public schools employ approximately 1,090 credentialed library media teachers, or one for every 5,342 pupils. The national average is one school library media teacher for every 882 pupils.
(b) There is significant research that indicates that a direct relationship exists between public access to a school library and a credentialed school library media teacher and pupil success. Studies have also indicated that pupil access to the library media center is significantly greater in schools with a professional school library media teacher than in schools without one.
(c) Pupils at schools with a better funded school library media center tend to achieve higher average scores, whether their schools and communities are rich or poor and whether adults in the community are well educated or not.
(d) Low-performing schools whose pupils are reading below grade level can benefit dramatically from having a quality library media program with a full-time library media teacher supported by a classified library technician. The library media program supports the curriculum taught by every classroom teacher, provides resources and instruction beyond the textbook, and provides an opportunity to fully implement free reading programs for all at-risk pupils.
(e) The state needs to develop reliable research of its own to determine whether it makes sense to begin committing significant financial resources to establish full service school library media programs in the state’s low-performing schools.

SEC. 2.

 Article 5 (commencing with Section 52059.5) is added to Chapter 6.1 of Part 28 of the Education Code, to read:
Article  5. School Library Pilot Program

52059.5.
 (a) The State Department of Education shall select and allocate funds to seven school districts that have been deemed to be low-performing and that will commit to pay one-half of the cost of a credentialed library media teacher and one-half of the cost of a classified library technician in one low-performing school in the district as a part of a pilot study on the impact that a full service school library program designed to implement a schoolwide independent reading program and compliment the regular standards-based curriculum offered by the school has on pupil achievement.
(b) The department shall select the seven low-performing schools to participate in a five-year pilot program based on various factors, including the academic performance index of the school, the percentage of pupils reading below grade level, the level of improvement or lack of improvement in the school’s ranking on the Academic Performance Index, the size of the school, and the socioeconomic and ethnic breakdown of the pupils at the school. The department shall, to the extent possible, select schools that are broadly representative of the diversity of the state, including schools located in rural, urban, and suburban areas that are distributed equitably throughout northern, central, and southern California.
(c) For the schools participating in the pilot program, the credentialed library media teacher shall be an integral part of the schoolwide action plan established in subdivision (e) that will, in part, require the library media teacher to work cooperatively with every teacher and principal at the schoolsite to develop and implement an independent and free reading program, help teachers determine a pupil’s reading level, order books that have been determined to meet the needs of pupils, help choose books at pupils’ independent reading levels, and assure that pupils read a variety of genres across all academic content areas.
(d) The department shall provide one-half of the cost of a credentialed library media teacher and one-half of the cost of a classified library technician for the seven schools selected to participate in the pilot program.
(e) Each school participating in this pilot program shall develop an academic action plan consistent with the schoolwide action plan called for in the Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program established pursuant to Section 52054 and the school library plan called for in the California Public School Library Act of 1998 established pursuant to Article 7 (commencing with Section 18180) of Chapter 2 of Part 11. As a part of this action plan, the school shall implement an independent and free reading program to provide specific reading opportunities for pupils in the school, as determined by the teaching staff of the school.
(f) A contractor shall analyze the Standardized Testing and Reporting Program test scores from the five years preceding the pilot program and compare them to the scores from the five years during the pilot program for all seven of the schools involved in the pilot study. The contractor shall analyze the Standardized Testing and Reporting Program test scores of seven schools that are demographically similar to the seven schools involved in the pilot study. The test scores of those demographically similar schools shall be from the five-year period of the pilot study. The contractor shall analyze the role of the school library media center and the credentialed library media teacher in the implementation of the academic content at each grade level in all seven of the schools involved in the pilot study. The contractor shall also analyze the programs of existing school library media centers that are professionally staffed. The study would specifically analyze the impact on the reading scores of pupils who have participated in the independent free reading program organized by the library media teacher.
(g) The analysis of the pilot program established in this article shall be sent to the Governor, the Legislature, the Secretary for Education, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction by June 30, 2006.
(h) The implementation of this program is subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act.

52059.6.
 For purposes of this section, the following terms shall be defined as follows:
(a) “Classified library technician” means a noncredentialed individual employed as a classified employee who assists the credentialed library media teacher in the provision of library services consistent with Section 45343.
(b) “Independent and free reading program” means independent reading by a pupil at school and at home that is based on the interest and choice of the pupil and that may be performed in conjunction with school sponsored reading motivational programs.
(c) “Library media teacher” means a classroom teacher who possesses or is in the processes of obtaining a library media teacher services credential consistent with Section 44868.

52059.7.
 This article shall become inoperative on July 1, 2006, and, as of January 1, 2007, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, which becomes effective on or before January 1, 2007, deletes or extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.