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.