02/20/2013 08:00 AM Senate EDUCATION
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB40 | |
| Presentation: Center for Alaska Education Policy Research-university of Alaska-anchorage | |
| Adjourn |
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| = | SB 40 | ||
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
February 20, 2013
8:00 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Gary Stevens, Chair
Senator Mike Dunleavy, Vice Chair
Senator Charlie Huggins
Senator Berta Gardner
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Bert Stedman
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SENATE BILL NO. 40
"An Act making special appropriations for new engineering
buildings for the University of Alaska in Anchorage and
Fairbanks; and providing for an effective date."
- MOVED SB 40 OUT OF COMMITTEE
PRESENTATION: CENTER FOR ALASKA EDUCATION POLICY RESEARCH-
UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA-ANCHORAGE
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
BILL: SB 40
SHORT TITLE: APPROP: UNIV. ENGINEERING BUILDINGS
SPONSOR(s): SENATOR(s) ELLIS
01/28/13 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
01/28/13 (S) EDC, FIN
02/06/13 (S) EDC AT 8:00 AM BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
02/06/13 (S) Heard & Held
02/06/13 (S) MINUTE(EDC)
WITNESS REGISTER
MATTHEW MOSER, Staff
Senator Johnny Ellis
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Offered to answer questions related to SB 40
on behalf of the sponsor.
DR. DIANE HIRSHBERG, Director
University of Alaska-Anchorage (UAA) Center for Alaska Education
Policy Research (CAEPR)
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented information about CAEPR.
DR. TERRI AKEY, Co-Director
Center for Research, Evaluation, and Assessment (CREA)
Education Northwest
Portland, Oregon
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented information about collaboration
between CAEPR and the Department of Education and Early
Development (DEED), the legislature, and other educational
entities.
ACTION NARRATIVE
8:00:36 AM
CHAIR GARY STEVENS called the Senate Education Standing
Committee meeting to order at 8:00 a.m. Present at the call to
order were Senators Gardner, Huggins, Dunleavy, and Chair
Stevens.
SB 40-APPROP: UNIV. ENGINEERING BUILDINGS
8:00:53 AM
CHAIR STEVENS announced that the first order of business would
be SB 40, which makes appropriations for engineering facilities
at the University of Alaska - Anchorage and Fairbanks. He noted
it was the second hearing of SB 40 and his intention was to move
the bill out of committee.
SENATOR HUGGINS [moved to adopt SB 40, labeled 28-LS0083\A, as
the working document.]
CHAIR STEVENS objected for purposes of discussion.
8:02:07 AM
MATTHEW MOSER, Staff, Senator Johnny Ellis, offered to answer
questions related to SB 40 on behalf of the sponsor.
SENATOR HUGGINS asked how many students were enrolled in the
engineering programs in Anchorage and Fairbanks (UAA) and (UAF).
MR. MOSER replied that 1,137 students are enrolled at both
campuses. He suggested Kit Duke might have the breakdown between
the two campuses.
SENATOR GARDNER stated that present enrollment of engineering
students is nearly 1,200 students at the University of Alaska.
8:04:12 AM
SENATOR HUGGINS said the question remained about how many are
enrolled in UAF.
CHAIR STEVENS said that information will be provided before the
meeting ends. He asked if there was any public testimony. Seeing
none, he closed public testimony.
8:05:04 AM
At ease
8:08:08 AM
CHAIR STEVENS brought the committee back to order.
MR. MOSER related that 60 percent of undergraduate engineering
students attend UAF and 40 percent attend UAA; 682 at UAF and
454 at UAA.
SENATOR HUGGINS stated support for the development of the
engineering program. He cautioned about future deficit spending.
SENATOR DUNLEAVY noted that university projects total over $300
million. He said there would be further discussion of cost in
the Senate Finance Committee. He agreed it will be difficult to
fund every request.
8:09:50 AM
CHAIR STEVENS stated that this is the Education Committee whose
goal it is to determine what is good for the students of Alaska.
He said SB 40 represents a good project; however, whether it is
affordable is another question.
SENATOR HUGGINS commented on declining oil production and the
efforts to turn that around.
8:11:00 AM
CHAIR STEVENS removed his objection.
8:11:18 AM
SENATOR HUGGINS moved to report SB 40 from committee with
individual recommendations. There being no objection, the motion
carried.
8:11:53 AM
At ease
^PRESENTATION: Center for Alaska Education Policy Research-
University of Alaska-Anchorage
PRESENTATION: Center for Alaska Education Policy Research-
University of Alaska-Anchorage
8:12:57 AM
CHAIR STEVENS announced that he was pleased to have a
presentation by people from the Center for Alaska Education
Policy Research (CAEPR).
DR. DIANE HIRSHBERG, Director, University of Alaska-Anchorage
(UAA) Center for Alaska Education Policy Research (CAEPR),
presented information about CAEPR. She related that CAEPR was
founded by UAA in 2010 and used foundation money to get started.
Last year the legislation appropriated funds for CAEPR to do
research. In addition, CAEPR researches contracts and grants,
such as those for the Institute for Social and Economic Research
(ISER). The university recognized that there was no single place
that policy makers could look to for information about policy
issues.
DR. HIRSHBERG referred to information in committee members'
packets about the program's core values and mission. She pointed
out that CAEPR also provides "rapid response" research. Faculty
has been funded at all three UA campuses in order to encourage
more policy research. She said that CAEPR also collaborates with
partners in the Lower 48 to ensure that their work is grounded
in national research and current. She listed ways that CAEPR is
trying to build its research capacity, such as mentoring
undergraduate research.
8:16:32 AM
DR. HIRSHBERG addressed specific work CAEPR is doing under the
legislative appropriation. She said the study of recent
graduates of UA programs came from a question about why only 40
percent to 50 percent of teaching graduates were in the
classroom after the first year. The conclusion was that the
graduates are not necessarily mobile enough to move to open
teaching jobs in rural communities. There also has not been much
hiring in large districts and turnover has been low. She said
that study was paid for out of UA foundation funds.
8:18:01 AM
She said CAEPR has been working on a State of the State project
that was funded by the legislature. It involved compiling
critical data from K-12 education in one place in order to
facilitate decisions made by the legislature. That project
should be completed by the end of March.
DR. HIRSHBERG reported that CAEPR is also engaged in a statewide
survey of teachers to try to understand what is affecting their
decisions to stay in or to leave teaching. The focus is
primarily on rural Alaska and the cost of teacher turnover in
six districts in the state.
She related that there will be an update on CAEPR's Supply and
Demand Report, which is funded by UA K-12 outreach programs.
Also, the Anchorage School District is funding research on how
districts are spending their money and a comparison of
investment and educational outcomes.
8:21:54 AM
She summarized other contracts and grants CAEPR is working on.
DR. HIRSHBERG reported that CAEPR is now working with the Alaska
State Policy Research Alliance (ASPRA).
SENATOR GARDNER commented that she would look at school
districts with the best educational outcomes in order to figure
out what really works in a school district. She asked if that
sort of analysis is being done.
DR. HIRSHBERG replied that CAEPR has not systematically looked
at that issue. One of the goals regarding the research of how
districts spend their money is to select rural districts that
have higher student outcomes in order to examine the allocation
of resources in those schools.
She said that CAEPR is at the point of refocusing its intent
language for its goals for next year. She thought that Senator
Gardner's suggestion could be included. She welcomed other
suggestions by legislators, noting that Representative Austerman
will be one of the key people involved in crafting intent
language.
8:24:30 AM
SENATOR GARDNER asked what language would be changed.
DR. HIRSHBERG clarified that it is language that was intended to
cast a wide net, but also had some underlying intent language
which needs to be focused.
SENATOR HUGGINS opined that the current education system needs
to be changed. He recalled when UAF lost its teacher
certification. He used an Olympic analogy to explain that
schools need to evolve.
8:28:06 AM
DR. HIRSHBERG explained that CAEPR is both examining the
education system and looking at what is working elsewhere and
has been proven to be more effective. She noted that Alaska is
unique in its geography and in its challenges. She used Hawaii
as an example of implementing innovative programs that address
similar challenges.
SENATOR HUGGINS agreed with Dr. Hirshberg that the demographics
in Alaska are unique. He suggested Alaska has to tailor its
programs to its students.
CHAIR STEVENS thanked Dr. Hirshberg for her presentation.
8:31:41 AM
DR. TERRI AKEY, Co-Director, Center for Research, Evaluation,
and Assessment (CREA), Education Northwest, presented
information about collaboration between CAEPR, the Department of
Education and Early Development (DEED), the legislature, and
other educational entities. She related that three years ago
CREA began to collaborate with CAEPR on education policy. She
said with the help of funding from Education Northwest they put
together a project called the Regional Educational Laboratory
(REL) Contract. There are 10 such Contracts around the country
and the goal of the Contract is to provide assistance to states,
districts, and schools around using evidence and building
research and analytic capacity to use available data.
8:33:37 AM
DR. AKEY explained that CREA also administers the Comprehensive
Center Contract, which provides support to DEED. She said
through the REL contract CREA has the opportunity use the
Research Alliance to help build capacity in the education field
to use information and evidence and data to make good decisions.
This is a shift from previous contracts that tended to be more
external. Stakeholders meet together to request more information
about an educational problem. She noted there are nine such
alliances across the five-state region.
8:35:02 AM
DR. AKEY said that the alliance in Alaska is called the Alaska
Statewide Education Policy Alliance. It is very unique and is
broader than most, drawing in many entities that have a stake in
education. It is in the second year of a five-year contract. The
first year was spent in organizing the members and deciding upon
the issues to address.
DR. AKEY explained that what emerged from the conversation was a
focus on college and career readiness and post-secondary
transitions for Alaska students, with a specific focus on Alaska
Native Students. She said CREA, along with CAEPR, the Department
of Labor (DOL), and Alaska Commission on Post-Secondary
Education, is currently involved in a study that looks into
where students go after high school; college, technical school,
or career. A goal is to establish a definition of what college
and career readiness is and develop indicators that can be used
to track progress.
8:38:00 AM
DR. AKEY discussed the interaction of CREA with DOL in efforts
to developing a capacity to answer educational research
questions.
She said at the end of the five-year contract, CREA hopes to
leave the state with a set of useful studies and to have a self-
sustaining process in place. The goal is to develop a model of
policy decision making in the education field that can continue
to sustain itself with the systems that are in place in the
state.
DR. AKEY summarized that Alaska's alliance is receiving
attention at the national level. Recently, in a national meeting
the commissioner of NCES, the Department of Education branch
that hosts the program, called out the alliance as a good model.
8:40:04 AM
CHAIR STEVENS thanked the presenters.
SENATOR GARDNER asked Dr. Akey if there would be preliminary
reports along the way.
DR. AKEY said yes. The report will be coming out in October. On-
going reports will also be shared with Senator Stevens.
CHAIR STEVENS said he would distribute that information to the
committee.
8:41:41 AM
There being no further business to come before the Senate
Education Committee, Chair Stevens adjourned the meeting at 8:41
a.m.
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