At its Sept. 9 meeting, several members of the State Board of Education expressed concerns regarding draft Local Control and Accountability Plan template and instructions changes. The changes incorporated requirements in Senate Bill 98 and Assembly Bill 130 — legislation passed in response to the pandemic — and board members said the document has strayed too far from its original intent.

“When I think about what the LCAP was intended to do — to be a strategic document to guide instructional planning and provide services to our most needy students — I’m afraid that it has turned into a complex accounting document that only CPAs [certified public accountants] can understand and only CPAs can fill out,” said board member Sue Burr. “How can we return to what the original intent was while still keeping the needed accountability?”

Several public commenters, including CSBA Legislative Advocate Carlos Machado, expressed similar concern. In a letter submitted to the board prior to the meeting by the Coalition of Education Management and Labor, of which CSBA is a part, education leaders throughout the state noted that “the LCAP is long past the point where one can reasonably claim that it is simple and transparent for members of the community, as was originally intended. Adding components to either document that are not required in statute will further cloud the level of transparency.”

Another issue, Burr said, is that the budget was put together at a time when many thought the educational landscape and the state of the pandemic were going to look much rosier than they are now with the surge in COVID-19 delta variant infections.

The LCAP currently requires that local educational agencies describe specific actions and budgeted expenditures that will increase or improve services for low-income students, English learners and foster youth in proportion to the increase in funds allocated to support those student groups. Among the numerous proposed changes, AB 130 also requires this summary table to include a calculation of the total difference between the total budgeted expenditures of planned actions reported in the contributing summary table of the LCAP and the total estimated actual expenditures. If LEAs ultimately spent less than planned in this area, they must provide a description of how unused funds will be used moving forward, including a demonstration that the planned uses of those funds satisfy the requirements for specific actions to be considered as contributing toward meeting the increased or improved services requirement.

While schools have received a significant influx of state and federal funds, they’re also struggling to hire the staff that they need. “I just worry that we’re setting up our LEAs for failure by a circumstance that has changed,” Burr said. “I feel like we have legislation that is still in a place that we’re not, and we’re not going to be for a long time. I don’t want to be implementing things … that really are not workable.”

Board Vice President Ilene Straus asked that when California Department of Education staff returns in November with a final draft of the document, that they identify areas where the LCAP is redundant and could be trimmed without compromising accountability. Additional stakeholder feedback on these proposed changes can be provided at LCFF@cde.ca.gov before the November meeting.

Per CDE’s recommendation, the board approved the continued use of adjusted blueprints for the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments in English language arts/literacy and mathematics for the 2021–22 administration. The shortened blueprints — identical to those used in the 2020–21 academic year — reduce the amount of time students spend on the summative assessments, allowing for increased instructional time and flexibility in scheduling, as well as minimizing the risk of connectivity or network issues. Additionally, individual student overall scale scores and achievement levels can continue to be reported, though there is a reduction in the detailed student performance information reported to educators, parents and guardians, and claim-level results for individual students as well as target reports for groups of students cannot be reported until 2022–23.

New student board member Rana Banankhah noted that, as someone who took the exams last year with the shortened blueprint, she and her peers were able to complete the assessments even in the face of connectivity issues and other challenges. “I think it’s important to note that while there might be somewhat of a tradeoff in how detailed the reports are, this is offset by the fact that more students are able to fully complete their test in class,” Banankhah said.

SBE Board President Linda Darling-Hammond said she felt confident in the technical advisory group that advises the Smarter Balanced Consortium’s judgment of the stability and reliability of the scores. She also highlighted that while California is off to a good start in the face of COVID’s delta variant this year relative to many other states, there is no way to predict where things will be months down the road and ensuring flexibility now will benefit students and LEAs in the spring.