CA SB 744

Title: Community colleges: credit for students with prior learning.
Author: Christopher Cabaldon

Summary
SB 744, as introduced, Cabaldon. Community colleges: credit for students with prior learning. Existing law requires the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to establish, by March 31, 2019, an initiative to expand the use of course credit at the California Community Colleges for students with prior learning. Existing law required the chancellor to submit, by January 1, 2020, a report on the initiative to the Legislature.This bill would delete those requirements and would instead require the chancellor to award credit for competency-based educational opportunities that recognize students’ prior learning and help students advance toward a credential or degree while reducing redundant study and student expenses. The bill would require the office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to establish competencies, with the advice of appropriate faculty and employers, that are focused on the knowledge and skills a student needs to demonstrate in order to pass a course and to earn a degree or credential, or to transfer to a baccalaureate degree program. The bill would describe methods for awarding credit pursuant to these provisions as including, but not being limited to, military service, credit by examination, and evaluation of training, certifications, apprenticeships, licenses, and service learning, as provided. The bill would require the chancellor’s office, on or before September 1, 2027, to submit a report to the Legislature on the credits awarded pursuant to these provisions.Existing law establishes a system through which state funds are apportioned to community college districts based on specified formulas and identifies certain noncredit community college courses and classes that are eligible for that state apportionment funding.This bill would require individualized evaluation, assessment, and portfolio review of students’ prior learning and competencies for the awarding of credit pursuant to the above-described provisions to be eligible for state apportionment funding.

Status
Read second time. Ordered to third reading.

Bill Documents
CA SB 744 - 02/21/25 - Introduced
02/21/25 - CA SB 744 (02/21/25 - Introduced)