BILL NUMBER: AB 1940INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Holden FEBRUARY 19, 2014 An act to add and repeal Section 52245 of the Education Code, relating to pupil instruction. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 1940, as introduced, Holden. Advanced placement program: pilot grant program: STEM courses. Existing law contains legislative findings and declarations stating that advanced placement courses, among other things, help to improve the overall curriculum at schools where they are provided and provide a cost-effective means for high school pupils to obtain college-level coursework experience. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to annually update the information on advanced placement available on the Internet Web site of the State Department of Education to include current information on the various means available to school districts to offer or access advanced placement courses, and to annually communicate with high schools that offer advanced placement courses in fewer than 5 subjects and inform them of the various options for making advanced placement courses and other rigorous courses available to pupils who may benefit from them. This bill, until July 1, 2017, would establish a pilot grant program overseen by the department for purposes of awarding grants to cover the costs associated with a high school establishing or expanding its advanced placement curriculum in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, as specified. The bill would require the Superintendent and the College Board to submit no later than July 1, 2017, a specified report to the appropriate committees of the Legislature describing the effectiveness of the grant program. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 52245 is added to the Education Code, to read: 52245. (a) There is hereby established a pilot grant program for the purpose of awarding grants to cover the costs associated with a high school establishing or expanding its advanced placement curriculum in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. (b) A high school may apply to the department for grant funding pursuant to this section if all of the following conditions are met: (1) The school offers five or fewer advanced placement courses. (2) The school lacks advanced placement courses in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. (3) The school has identified pupils who have demonstrated through their scores on the preliminary SAT that they have high potential to be successful in one or more advanced placement courses in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. (c) (1) No later than July 1, 2017, the Superintendent and the College Board shall submit a report to the Legislature describing the effectiveness of the pilot grant program established pursuant to this section. The report shall include both of the following: (A) Number of pupils who have access to advanced placement courses in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. (B) Success rates in the advanced placement courses in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics that include core demographics, including, but not limited to, gender and race. (2) A report submitted pursuant to this subdivision shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code. (d) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2017, and, as of January 1, 2018, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that becomes operative on or before January 1, 2018, deletes or extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.