SB3803sam001 97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Sen. Kimberly A. Lightford

Filed: 3/23/2012

09700SB3803sam001 LRB097 19790 NHT 67807 a

AMENDMENT TO SENATE BILL 3803

AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend Senate Bill 3803 by replacing everything after the enacting clause with the following:

"Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the College Completion Report Card Act.

Section 5. College completion report card.

(a) Within 3 months after the effective date of this Act, the Illinois P-20 Council shall collaborate with the Board of Higher Education, the Illinois Community College Board, and the Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities to convene a committee headed by the chairperson of the Illinois P-20 Council's Joint Educational Leadership Committee or his or her designee. The purpose of the committee shall be to advise the Illinois P-20 Council on the development of a template for a college completion report card. The chairperson of the Joint Educational Leadership Committee or his or her designee shall be responsible for selecting members of the committee. The template for the report card shall be completed on or before January 1, 2014. After development, the Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board shall collaborate to collect data annually for submission to the State longitudinal data system and publicly report college completion metrics, as well as report to and advise the Illinois P-20 Council on progress.

The report card must be (i) clearly linked to performance funding metrics and the goals of the Public Agenda and (ii) simple to read and clearly indicative of minority and low-income student access, student progress, and progress towards increasing college completion. The report card template may include, but need not be limited to, the following:

(1) student and institutional demographics, including gender, age, race, full or part-time status, average class size, and number of students in developmental education, career and technical education, and undergraduate and graduate programs;

(2) tuition and fees, as well as average cost after financial aid and average educational loan burden;

(3) the results of each postsecondary educational institution's performance funding metrics from the previous year or equivalent metrics for private educational institutions;

(4) leading indicators or momentum points, which, based on existing research studies, can be reasonably considered predictors of student certificate or degree completion, such as the following:

(A) term to term persistence;

(B) course success rate;

(C) percentage of students who complete required developmental coursework in their first year of study;

(D) percentage of students who complete required developmental coursework in their second year of study;

(E) number of credit hours completed in their first and second years; and

(F) students who passed gatekeeper English or mathematics courses by their year of study; and

(5) other measures of student success, which shall be identified by the committee, such as licensure rates in relevant programs, transfer with or without a degree, and the number of students who successfully transition into college coursework from adult education programs.

The committee shall take into account existing data initiatives and sources, including without limitation the longitudinal data system, in order to minimize unnecessary additional data collection or reporting and to make sure of existing common data definitions. Where possible, the data shall be collected from the colleges and universities in such a way that allows the metrics to be disaggregated by age, gender, income, and race and ethnicity. It shall be the responsibility of the governing body of the longitudinal data system to identify which data is immediately available and make recommendations for which measures may reasonably be included in the report cards and for future collection of the most useful data that is not currently available.

(b) On or before September 30, 2014 and on or before September 30 of each year thereafter, the Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board shall prepare a State report card and completion report cards for each institution that enrolls one or more students who receive Monetary Award Program grants under Section 35 of the Higher Education Student Assistance Act and other institutions at the discretion of the Board of Higher Education. On or before November 30 of each year, report cards must be made easily accessible from each institution's Internet website, if any, and annually updated versions must be made available via the Illinois Student Assistance Commission's Internet website. Annually updated community college report cards must be easily accessible through the Illinois Community College Board's and Board of Higher Education's Internet websites. Updated report cards for 4-year colleges and universities under the authority of the Board of Higher Education must be easily accessible through the Board of Higher Education's Internet website. Updated report cards must be provided to all potential students when they apply, either electronically or in printed form.

(c) The committee shall provide to the Illinois P-20 Council recommendations for more detailed data dashboards, which shall be publicly available and may be used by public college, university, and agency leaders to identify solutions to improving certificate or degree completion. These dashboards may include additional data to help institutions and policymakers develop effective policies to improve completion, such as, but not limited to, performance funding measures, average time and credits to obtain a degree, average number of developmental courses taken, completion rates of students by courses taken, majors, certificates, and degrees. Where possible and useful, data shall also be disaggregated by race, ethnicity, age, gender, part-time or full-time attendance, and income. It shall be the responsibility of the governing body of the longitudinal data system to identify which data is immediately available and make recommendations for future collection of the most useful data that is not currently available. The Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board may require institutions to implement additional data collection, if necessary and useful and by the most economic means, to better understand barriers to certificate or degree completion. The Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board shall provide such data as is required to populate the dashboards to the longitudinal data system and shall make the dashboards easily accessible through the Board of Higher Education's and the Illinois Community College Board's Internet websites.

Section 10. Redesigning the report card. It shall be the duty of the Illinois P-20 Council, in collaboration with the governing body of the State longitudinal data system, to periodically review the report card and dashboard measures and format under Section 5 of this Act and reconvene the committee established under Section 5 of this Act, if necessary, in order to recommend such changes as may be necessary to ensure the usefulness of both.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.".