BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                           1435 (Perez)
          
          Hearing Date:  08/17/2009           Amended: 04/29/2009
          Consultant:  Dan Troy           Policy Vote: ED 8-0
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
          BILL SUMMARY:   AB 1435 would require the advisory committee on  
          matters relating to the Academic Performance Index (API) to make  
          recommendations to the Superintendent of Public Instruction  
          (SPI) concerning the inclusion of results of English language  
          development tests and of English language proficiency in the  
          API.  The SPI, with approval of the State Board of Education,  
          would be required to include the English language development  
          test and English language proficiency and growth in proficiency  
          as part of the API.
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____
                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions         2009-10      2010-11       2011-12     Fund
           
          Panel recommendations  $200 to $300, one-time           General

          Implementation         Unknown prior to panel  
          recommendations,General
                                 but likely in the millions
          _________________________________________________________________ 
          ____

          STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the  
          Suspense File.
          
          The SPI established, pursuant to SB 1 X1 (Alpert), Chapter 3,  
          Statutes of 1999-2000 First Extraordinary Session, an advisory  
          committee to advise the SPI and the State Board of Education  
          (SBE) on matters concerning the creation of the API.  SB 1 X1  
          also requires the SPI, with the approval of the SBE, to develop  
          the API to measure the performance of schools, and to include a  
          variety of indicators in that measure, including, but not  
          limited to, achievement test results, attendance rates, and  
          graduation rates.  Currently only achievement test results are  
          incorporated into the API, and the API is configured to produce  
          scores measuring a school's static performance at each grade  










          level, in each content area, in each year, at one point in time.  
           In addition, the SPI produces a comparison of static (API)  
          performance from one year to the next.

          The California English Language Development Test (CELDT) is the  
          assessment used for measuring student's language acquisition and  
          English language proficiency pursuant to both state and federal  
          law.  The CELDT has three purposes:  1) It identifies students  
          who are limited English proficient, 2) it determines the level  
          of English language proficiency for these students, and 3) it  
          assesses the progress of these students in acquiring the skills  
          of listening, reading, speaking, and writing in English.  In  
          2008-09, 1.33 million English learner pupils were administered  
          the CELDT.  

          The costs for the panel to provide recommendations are estimated  
          at between $200,000 and $300,000.  The costs for altering the  
          API to actually incorporate are unknown prior to the panel's  
          recommendations, but would likely be in the millions.