BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2095
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Date of Hearing: April 21, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 2095 (Brownley) - As Amended: April 12, 2010
SUBJECT : Instructional materials: English language development
SUMMARY : Requires State Board of Education (SBE) policies
relative to the adoption of curriculum framework and
instructional materials to provide for the inclusion of the
English language development (ELD) standards and strategies as
well as strategies for addressing the needs of pupils with
disabilities in the four core subjects of mathematics, English
language arts, science and history social science, as specified.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires SBE policies ensure that curriculum frameworks and
instructional materials include the ELD standards as adopted
by the SBE and ELD strategies in the four core subjects of
mathematics, English language arts, science and history social
science.
2)Requires SBE policies ensure that curriculum frameworks and
instructional materials include strategies to address the
needs of students with disabilities in the four core subjects
of mathematics, English language arts, science and history
social science.
3)Specifies that criteria for evaluating instructional materials
shall include directions to publishers to align lessons and
teachers editions, as appropriate, with the ELD standards and
that strategies to address the needs of English learners are
incorporated at every grade level and subject.
4)Requires the SBE to adopt instructional materials:
a) Supporting ELD, including supplemental and ancillary
materials; and,
b) Materials in other subjects for which the SBE determines
to be necessary or desirable including but not limited to
materials that support the instructional needs of students
with disabilities.
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5)Requires the criteria developed by the Curriculum Development
and Supplemental Materials Commission (Curriculum Commission)
for evaluating instructional materials to include direction to
publishers for incorporating instructional strategies to
address the needs of students with disabilities in both
lessons and the teacher's edition as appropriate, at every
grade level and subject.
6)Requires the governing board of each school district
maintaining one or more high schools to ensure that English
learners (ELs) and students with disabilities are provided
appropriate instructional materials in all four core subjects.
7)Authorizes, as an option for fulfilling up to 50% of the 80
hours of follow up training pursuant to the Math and Reading
Professional Development program (MRPDP), eligible elementary
and secondary teachers to participate in 40 hours of
instruction in the application of the Response to Intervention
(RtI) model and instructional strategies that address the
learning needs of students with disabilities, as specified.
8)Stipulates that if a local educational agency chooses to offer
the follow up professional development as specified in this
bill, the local educational agency (LEA) shall contract with a
training provider that is approved by the SBE and meets the
specified criteria.
9)Authorizes the SPI to appoint an advisory committee to ensure
the quality and effectiveness of the training established by
this bill and requires that if an advisory committee is
established, the majority of the committee shall be made up of
professionals with expertise in addressing the needs of
students with disabilities or expertise in implementing RtI
strategies and programs.
10)Expresses the intent of the Legislature that upon the
reauthorization of the Standardized Testing and Reporting
(STAR) Program commencing in 2013-2014 the following
requirements shall be set forth:
a) Performance measures must meet the highest standards of
educational measurement to ensure that they are valid and
reliable measures of student achievement and be developed
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according to the principles of universal design;
b) English learners must be assessed in a manner that
distinguishes content knowledge from linguistic proficiency
in English and in accordance with the number of years of
instruction in English. Primary and secondary language
assessments should be an integral component of the
reauthorized STAR program;
c) Accommodations of assessments for English learners must
be based upon research on high stakes testing
accommodations for ELs;
d) Assessments for students with disabilities must
incorporate the individualized education program (IEP)
requirements for accommodations and modifications and other
testing requirements and the state shall not invalidate the
scores of students who use accommodations or modification
for purposes of accountability; and,
e) Performance measures must be balanced and require
evidence of students' ability to reason, analyze and
evaluate multiple sources of information, and solve
challenging, real-world problems.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires the SBE to adopt at least five basic instructional
materials for all applicable grade levels in each of the
following categories:
a) Language arts, including spelling and reading;
b) Mathematics;
c) Science;
d) Social Science;
e) Bilingual or bicultural subjects; and,
f) Any other subject, discipline, or interdisciplinary
areas for which the SBE determines to be necessary.
2)Requires the Curriculum Commission to recommend curriculum
frameworks to the SBE and develop criteria for evaluating
instructional materials submitted for adoption so that the
materials adopted adequately cover the subjects in the
indicated grade levels.
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3)Establishes the MRPDP, administered by the Superintendent of
Public Instruction (SPI) with the approval of the SBE and
authorizes LEAs to receive incentive funding to provide
training in mathematics and reading to teachers and
instructional aides and paraprofessionals, who directly assist
with classroom instruction in mathematics and reading.
4)Authorizes a 40-hour follow up component of professional
development in mathematics and reading for teachers of ELs
that have previously completed the initial 40 hours of
intensive professional development. Specifies that training
providers must be SBE-approved to conduct the 40-hour
training.
5)States legislative intent that the reauthorization of the
statewide pupil assessment program include a plan for
transitioning to a system of high-quality assessments as
defined in the Race to the Top (RTTT) regulations, alignment
with new content standards, any common assessments that are
aligned with those standards, and elements that meet
requirements established by the reauthorization of the federal
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).
6)Establishes the California Assessment of Academic Achievement,
which includes the STAR program, and makes it inoperative on
July 1, 2013 and repeals its provisions on January 1, 2014,
unless a later enacted statute deletes or extends the dates it
becomes inoperative and is repealed.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : ELs comprise a significant portion of California's
public school population. About 1.5 million of the state's 6.3
million pupils were identified as ELs during the 2008-09 school
year, making up 24.2% of the state's total public school
enrollment and speaking over 50 different languages. ELs begin
school at a considerable disadvantage relative to their native
English speaking peers, as they enter school with different
levels of English fluency and must overcome the overwhelming
task of learning the academic curriculum and a new language
concurrently.
In the same school year, 678,105 pupils or about 10.8% of the
state's enrollment were identified as eligible for special
education services. About 43% of these pupils had a specific
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learning disability, 25% had a speech or language impairment, 8%
had autism and the remaining 24% had a disability from one of
the remaining 10 disability categories that are less common.
California continues to grapple with the challenge of closing
the achievement gap between subgroups of students and meeting
the educational needs of all students in public schools. This
bill seeks to provide tools for teachers to address the needs of
pupils with disabilities and of ELs in an effort to close the
persistent achievement gap. This bill provides for the
inclusion of ELD and teaching strategies for addressing the
needs of ELs in curriculum frameworks in math, English language
arts, history social science and science and requires the SBE to
adopt instructional materials to support ELD for EL pupils.
Additionally, this bill provides for the inclusion of strategies
to address the needs of pupils with disabilities in the
frameworks and instructional materials and adds an extra option
of professional development in RtI strategies within the
existing MRPDP.
Instructional strategies for English learners : ELs begin school
at a considerable disadvantage relative to their native English
speaking peers, as they enter school with varying levels of
English proficiency. California continues to grapple with the
challenge of closing the achievement gap that separates ELs from
native English speakers and meeting the educational needs of
this population of students.
California Department of Education (CDE) data shows that in
2009, only 34% of ELs performed proficient or advanced in the
4th grade English language arts (ELA) California Standards Test
(CST), as compared to 69% of English-only pupils that performed
at those levels. In 4th grade math, 47% of ELs and 70% of
English-only pupils performed proficient or advanced.
An argument could be made that the data indicates that the
current curriculum is not sufficient or is inadequate to promote
the academic success of ELs and that this population of students
needs more explicit support to address the academic deficits
that often emerge as result of the language barriers.
In 1974 the United States Supreme Court ruled in Lau vs. Nichols
414 U.S. 563 that students who were not proficient in English
had a constitutional right to equal access to a meaningful
education in the public schools. The decision states, "Under
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these state-imposed standards, there is no equality of treatment
merely by providing students with the same facilities textbooks,
teachers and curriculum; for students who do not understand
English are effectively foreclosed from any meaningful
education. . . . We know that those who do not understand
English are certain to find their classroom experiences wholly
incomprehensible and in no way meaningful." The ruling
established that the learning needs of ELs must be addressed in
order for them to advance in learning English and in their
academic achievement.
The Proposition 227 Year 5 evaluation, Effects of the
Implementation of Proposition 227 on the Education of English
learners, K-12, finds that one of the key factors that leads to
EL success includes having systematic, carefully designed plans
for the provision of ELD instructional services. The study
recommends the state to develop an ELD curriculum framework
based on the state's ELD standards to help ensure that
standards-based curriculum materials and instructional practice
are adopted in districts serving ELs. Additionally, one of the
papers from the Getting Down to Facts research studies, Resource
Needs for California's English Learners, notes that one of the
elements that contribute to EL success is a comprehensive
instructional program that addresses both ELD and the core
curriculum.
This bill, consistent with the research studies, requires the
SBE to include ELD and strategies for meeting the needs of EL
pupils in the four content areas and requires the adoption of
instructional materials that support ELD. Although the SBE
adopted ELD standards in 1997, these standards have not made
their way into the curriculum. For the first time, the last
adoption of reading language arts (RLA) instructional materials
offered two programs that addressed the ELD standards, but in a
supplemental component of the RLA curriculum. Concerns have
been voiced from teachers and administrators over the lack of
curricular supports to help them in addressing the needs of EL
pupils.
Instructional strategies for students with disabilities :
Similarly, students with disabilities achieve at significantly
lower levels of academic performance than their non-disabled
peers. CDE data for 2009 reveals that only 37% of pupils with
disabilities as compared to 63% of pupils with no reported
disability performed proficient or advanced in the 4th grade ELA
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CST. In the 4th grade math CST only 43% of pupils with
disabilities and 67% of pupils with no reported disability
performed proficient or advanced. A Public Policy Institute of
California report on special education notes that in 2008, only
54% of disabled students passed the high school exit exam,
compared to more than 90% of non-disabled students.
This bill seeks to ensure that instructional strategies for
students with disabilities are integrated in curriculum
frameworks in all core content areas: English language arts,
math, history-social science and science. This is particularly
important as pupils with disabilities are required to receive
educational services in the least restrictive environment and be
educated with non-disabled students to the maximum extent
possible, thus making it necessary for general education
teachers to have access to such tools within the curriculum
frameworks.
While all framework and instructional materials adoptions have
been suspended until the 2013-14 school year, current law does
provide for the revision of the ELA and math content standards
and requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) and
the SBE to present to the Governor and the appropriate policy
and fiscal committees of the Legislature a schedule and
implementation plan for integrating the revised academic content
standards into the educational system. This bill does not seek
to change any of the existing suspension on instructional
materials but rather to provide general guidance for future
adoption of instructional materials.
Professional development in RtI : The Individuals with
Disabilities Act (IDEA), as reauthorized in 2004, allowed for
implementation of a process in which Response to Intervention
data could be used as part of the assessment information, to
determine whether a student is eligible for special education
and related services as a student with a specific learning
disability.
The CDE has expanded the notion of Response to Intervention to
Response to Instruction and Intervention (RtI2) and defines it
as a general education approach of high-quality instruction and
early intervention, prevention, and behavioral strategies. CDE
has posted on its Internet Web site a document containing
technical assistance information for local educational agencies
for purposes of planning and implement RtI2. This CDE document
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notes that RtI2 is a systematic, data-driven approach to
instruction that is meant to communicate the full spectrum of
instruction, from general core, to supplemental or intensive, in
order to meet the academic and behavioral needs of students.
The RtI2 model attempts to create the conditions necessary for
closing the achievement gap as it focuses on the individual
student and provides a mechanism to strengthen performance for
struggling students before educational problems increase and
special education seems to be the only option.
RtI is a model that affects and benefits not only students that
may have a disability but also other students such as ELs. A
January 2010 Education Week article notes that the Chula Vista
Elementary School District started using RtI during the 2004-05
school year and "the district is on the cutting edge in its
focus on how the approach applies to English-language learners,
who make up 36 percent of the K-6 district's 27,450 students."
District officials assert that response to intervention has
helped the district dramatically raise test scores in
mathematics and reading for ELs.
Effective implementation of a RtI process will require
professional development for administrators, teachers, and
support personnel to possess the requisite skills to implement
RtI effectively. This bill creates an opportunity for eligible
teachers to access training in the application of RtI strategies
through the existing MRPDP. This bill authorizes, as an option
for fulfilling up to 50 percent of the 80 hours of follow up
training pursuant to the MRPDP, eligible teachers to participate
in 40 hours of instruction in the RtI model and instructional
strategies that address the learning needs of students with
disabilities.
The current MRPDP program requires teachers to complete 40 hours
of initial training on the content standards, instructional
materials, and instructional strategies. After fulfilling the
initial 40 hours, teachers are able to complete an additional 80
hours of follow up practicum in the form of follow-up training,
coaching, or school-site assistance. The form in which the 80
practicum hours are completed is up to each individual district
to provide flexibility based on local needs.
Currently, eligible teachers are able to fulfill 50% of the 80
hours by participating in training relative to data analysis to
improve instruction or by participating in the training for
teachers of ELs. This bill would add a third option for
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fulfilling 50% of the 80 hours of follow up training by allowing
teachers to participate in instruction relative to the RtI model
and instructional strategies for students with disabilities.
Successful implementation of RtI depends on the ability of all
educators to use RtI practices reliably and with fidelity, thus
the availability of professional development for teachers and
other professionals is essential.
In addition, teachers are encouraged to participate in 80 hours
of follow-up practicum. The practicum hours may be in the form
of follow-up training, coaching, or school-site assistance. The
form in which the 80 practicum hours are completed is up to each
individual district to provide flexibility based on local needs.
Assessment : SB 1 X5 (Steinberg), Chapter 2, Statutes of
2009-10, Fifth Extraordinary Session extends the operative date
of the STAR Program from July 1, 2011 to July 1, 2013 and states
legislative intent that the reauthorization of the statewide
pupil assessment program include a plan for transitioning to a
system of high-quality assessments that are aligned with the
revised content standards and that conform to any
reauthorization of the federal ESEA. The sunset extension gives
the state time to redesign its testing program to incorporate
and adapt to any additional federal requirements created as part
of the reauthorization of ESEA.
This bill further expresses the intent of the Legislature for
guiding the next reauthorization of the STAR Program relative to
the assessment needs of ELs and students with disabilities.
Specifically, this bill expresses legislative intent that ELs
must be assessed in a manner that distinguishes content
knowledge from linguistic proficiency in English and that
primary and secondary language assessments should be an integral
component of the reauthorized STAR program. This bill also
expresses intent that assessments for students with disabilities
must incorporate the IEP requirements for accommodations and
modifications and other testing requirements and that the state
shall not invalidate the scores of students who use
accommodations or modification for purposes of accountability.
Staff recommended amendments : Section 2 of the bill appears to
require the adoption of separate supplemental instructional
materials or a separate adoption of instructional materials
specifically for ELD. The intent of this bill is to ensure that
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the ELD standards and ELD strategies are integrated in
instructional materials in all core subjects so that school
districts do not have to purchase separate materials in order to
have the appropriate tools to address the needs of their ELs.
For purposes of clarification, staff recommends an amendment to
delete language requiring the adoption of instructional
materials, including supplemental and ancillary materials on
page 4 of the bill lines 38-39.
Additionally, staff recommends a technical amendment to clarify
that the K-12 curriculum frameworks and K-8 SBE-adopted
instructional materials shall incorporate ELD standards, ELD
strategies and strategies for addressing the needs of pupils
with disabilities. The current language may be interpreted as
requiring the K-12 SBE-adopted instructional materials to
incorporate these elements but the SBE does not adopt high
school materials. Staff recommends the following amendments:
(c) State board policies shall ensure that curriculum frameworks
and instructional materials for kindergarten and grades 1 to 12,
inclusive, and instructional materials for kindergarten and
grades 1 to 8, inclusive, include the English language
development standards as adopted by the state board in 1997 and
revised thereafter, and English language development strategies
in the four core subjects of mathematics, science,
history-social science, and English/language arts.
(d) State board policies shall ensure that curriculum frameworks
and instructional materials for kindergarten and grades 1 to 12,
inclusive, and instructional materials for kindergarten and
grades 1 to 8, inclusive, include strategies to address the
needs of pupils with disabilities in the four core subjects of
mathematics, science, history-social science, and
English/language arts.
Arguments in support : The Association of California School
Administrators, the sponsor of this bill writes, "AB 2095 is
intended to support the approximately 2 million students who are
identified as either English learners or a student with a
disability. Little has been done at the state level to
strengthen the mandated tools the state requires to be used for
all students. Only recently did English language arts books
even include support for English learners and there is minimal
if any attention paid to the needs of students with disabilities
in any of the four core subjects. The intent of AB 2095 is to
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begin to address these gaps in support and begin to close the
achievement gap for these students."
Related legislation : AB 2069 (Carter) repeals the suspension of
instructional materials adoptions by the State Board of
Education (SBE) and establishes a timeline for the submission of
instructional materials to the SBE for adoption. AB 2069 is
pending in this Committee and is scheduled to be heard today.
SB 930 (Ducheny) expands the number of English learners who are
required to take a primary language assessment, requires primary
language assessment data to be included in the Academic
Performance Index (API) and Academic Yearly Progress (AYP), and
requires modification of existing California Standards Tests to
accommodate the needs of English learners. SB 930 passed out of
the Senate Education Committee on a 6-2 vote.
Previous legislation : AB 2391 (Solorio) Chapter 239, Statutes
of 2008, authorizes teachers to fulfill 50 percent of the 80
hours of follow-up Math and Reading Professional Development
training in the area data analysis.
SB 472 (Alquist), Chapter 524, Statutes of 2006 reauthorized
until July 1, 2012, the MRPDP, made revisions to the program and
authorized the professional development training for teachers of
ELs.
AB 466 (Strom Martin), Chapter 737, Statutes of 2001,
established the MRPDP to provide school districts, county
offices of education and charter schools with incentive funding
to provide state standards aligned with mathematics and reading
staff development to teachers, instructional aides, and
paraprofessionals. The bill also authorized, subject to SBE
concurrence, the University of California (UC) to serve teachers
in pre-K-12 grades in participating school districts with these
programs, as specified. The bill required that the program
sunset on July 1, 2005.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Association of California School Administrators (Sponsor)
California Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
Californians Together
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Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Marisol Avi?a / ED. / (916) 319-2087