The State Board of Education may waive the minimum schoolday requirements of Section 46112 to enable school districts to establish experimental educational programs in reading and mathematics. A waiver shall be granted pursuant to this section only if:
(a)
The State Board of Education has approved the experimental program.
(b)
The total weekly minutes of instruction in the experimental program are equivalent to the total number of minutes per week which would be required by Section 46112.
Participating school districts shall conduct pretesting and posttesting of pupils enrolled in such experimental educational programs to determine the academic achievement of such pupils. Such tests shall be approved by the State Board of Education. Participating school districts shall also conduct control testing programs of pupils not enrolled in such experimental educational programs. Pupils in the control group shall be selected to be, as nearly as practicable, comparable in ability and socioeconomic background to pupils enrolled in the experimental programs.