(a) The Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges shall establish a common assessment system to be used as one of multiple measures, consistent with existing regulations, for the purposes of community college placement and advisement. The system shall include all of the following objectives:

(1) Selection of an existing commercially available and centrally delivered system of student assessment that provides a single common assessment instrument for use by community colleges in the curriculum areas of English, mathematics, and English as a second language.

(2) Creation of a secure, centrally housed assessment test data warehouse that shall collect all of the following:

(A) All available assessment scores generated by assessed students at all community colleges.

(B) All available K-12 assessment data for students at all community colleges. The use of this data shall be limited to placing and advising community college students to enhance their success with and completion of their postsecondary education objectives.

(C) Other data or student transcript information that is used for the purpose of student placement.

(3) Creation of an Internet Web portal that can be accessed by community college personnel and students and that provides all of the following:

(A) An assessment profile, generated for each student upon request, that includes all assessment information available in the data warehouse created pursuant to paragraph (2). This profile shall be accessible for counseling, matriculation, and course placement purposes.

(B) A pretest application that emulates the structure of the student assessment created pursuant to paragraph (1) that students can practice on and familiarize themselves with before taking future assessments.

(C) An advisement tool that provides students with information about the importance of taking the common assessment to be placed in college-level courses in English, mathematics, or English as a second language and the historical success rates of students who place in various levels of remedial coursework.

(b) In developing the common assessment, the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges shall work in collaboration with the State Department of Education and the California State University when developing a common college-readiness standard that will be reflected in the creation of assessment instruments.

(c) The Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges shall submit a report to the Legislature and the Governor on the progress of the implementation of the common assessment system by December 31, 2012.

(d) The provisions of this section shall be operative upon the receipt of state, federal, or philanthropic funds sufficient to cover the costs of the common assessment system.

(Added by Stats. 2011, Ch. 615, Sec. 1. (AB 743) Effective January 1, 2012. Section conditionally operative, by its own provisions.)