BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 2193
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          Date of Hearing:   April 25, 2012

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                    AB 2193 (Lara) - As Amended:  April 10, 2012 

          Policy Committee:                              Education 
          Vote:10-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          Yes    Reimbursable:              Yes

           SUMMARY  

          This bill defines "Long-term English learner" and "English 
          learner at risk of becoming a long-term English learner." 
          Further requires existing federal notices provided to parents to 
          include this information, as specified.  Specifically, this 
          bill: 

          1)Defines "Long-Term English learner (LTEL)" as an English 
            learner (EL) Who

             a)   Is enrolled in any of grades 6-12.   
             b)   Has been continuously enrolled in schools in the United 
               States for more than six years. 
             c)   Has remained at the same English language proficiency 
               level for two or more consecutive years, as determined by 
               the English proficiency examination.
             d)   Scores far below basic or below basic on the English 
               language arts standards-based academic achievement test.  

          2)Defines "EL at risk of becoming a long-term EL (At-risk EL)" 
            as a person who:
             a)   Is enrolled in any of grades 5-11.
             b)   Has been continuously enrolled in schools in the United 
               States for more four years. 
             c)   Scores at the intermediate level or below on the English 
               language development test. 
             d)   Scores far below basic or below basic on the English 
               language arts and mathematics standards-based academic 
               achievement test.  

          3)Requires an existing federal notice provided to EL parents to 
            include all of the following information: 







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             a)   Whether their child is a LTEL or an At-risk EL.  
             b)   The manner in which the instructional program will meet 
               the educational strengths and needs of the child, help the 
               child develop English proficiency, and meet grade-level 
               academic standards. 

          4)Requires a local education agency (LEA) and a charter school 
            to ascertain the number of pupils who are, or are at risk of 
            becoming, LTEL, and report this information to the State 
            Department of Education (SDE).  

          5)Requires the Regional System of District and School Support, 
            when working with schools and districts, to provide 
            instructional support on the federal academic targets of their 
            pupils, including ELs, LTELs, and At-risk ELs, as specified.  
            Further requires the District Intervention and Assistance 
            Teams to do the same. 


           FISCAL EFFECT  

          1)GF/98 state mandated reimbursable costs, likely in excess of 
            $5 million, to LEAs to provide specified information on an 
            existing parent notice regarding: (a) the manner in which the 
            instructional program will meet the educational strengths and 
            needs of the child, and (b) the help the child will need to 
            develop English proficiency and meet grade-level academic 
            standards.  

            The information on the current notice is provided to meet 
            federal and state requirements.  It does not, however, provide 
            detailed instructional information for each EL pupil as 
            required pursuant to this measure.  Therefore, the 
            requirements in this bill are likely to exceed federal and 
            state law and establish a state reimbursable mandate.   

          2)GF/98 state mandated reimbursable costs of approximately 
            $940,000 to LEAs to ascertain the number of LTEL and At-risk 
            ELs and report this information to SDE, as specified.  In 
            2009-10, there were approximately 540,000 ELs in grades 6-12 
            (universe for LTEL) and 590,000 ELs in grades 5-11 (universe 
            for At-risk EL).   

          3)GF administrative costs to SDE, of approximately $125,000, to 
            aid LEAs in meeting the data and informational requirements of 
            this bill.  







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           COMMENTS  

           1)Existing law  defines an EL or a "limited English proficient 
            child" as one who does not speak English or whose native 
            language is not English and who is not currently able to 
            perform ordinary classroom work in English.  Statute also 
            defines an EL pupil as one who does not have clearly developed 
            English language skills of comprehension, speaking, reading, 
            and writing necessary to receive instruction in English at a 
            level substantially equivalent to pupils of the same age or 
            grade whose primary language is English.  

            Current law requires LEAs to classify a pupil as an EL via a 
            census.  Specifically, no later than the first day of March, 
            LEAs are required to ascertain the number of ELs under their 
            jurisdiction and classify them according to language, age, and 
            grade level.  This process also requires an assessment of all 
            EL pupils' language skills, as specified.   

            According to the SDE, there were approximately 1.44 million 
            ELs enrolled in schools in 2010-11, which equals approximately 
            23% of the total K-12 school enrollment.  

           2)Purpose  .  A 2012 report by Californians Together entitled: 
            Reparable Harm: Fulfilling the Unkept Promise of Education 
            Opportunity for California's Long Term ELs (Olsen, L) revealed 
            59% of secondary school ELS have been in the U.S. schools for 
            more than six years without achieving sufficient English 
            proficiency to be reclassified (i.e., LTEL).   Likewise, the 
            report argues that most LEAs "lack any definition or means of 
            identifying or monitoring the progress and achievement of this 
            population.  Only one in four ÝLEAs] has a formal definition 
            or designation for identifying, counting, serving, or 
            monitoring services for these students."  

            The Californians Together research further details the 
            challenge LEAs face when dealing with LTEL, including lack of 
            student data, lack of teachers prepared to educate EL pupils, 
            no  appropriate curriculum/instructional materials, and lack 
            of information regarding best practices.  The report further 
            discusses the challenges to tackle these issues given the 
            state's current fiscal situation.  Instead, the report 
            recommends taking initial steps to better monitor the 
            achievement of these pupils, including creating a definition 
            of LTEL and At-risk EL and providing parents with information 
            needed to monitor the impact of the schools' programs on their 
            students.  This bill implements these recommendations.   






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          3)ELs and state assessments  .  Current law requires LEAs to 
            assess all EL pupils in grades K-12 to determine their 
            proficiency in English, and the California English Language 
            Development Test (CELDT) is the assessment instrument utilized 
            to meet this requirement. The CELDT is used to (a) identify 
            pupils as limited English proficient; (b) determine the level 
            of English language proficiency; and (c) assess the progress 
            of EL pupils in acquiring the skills of listening, speaking, 
            reading, and writing in English. 

            Existing law requires ELs to be assessed for their English 
            language proficiency upon initial enrollment in school and 
            annually as long as they are classified as an EL.  In 2010-11, 
            1.6 million pupils were assessed by the CELDT.  

            Statute establishes the Standardized Testing and Reporting 
            (STAR) program as the primary component of the state's 
            assessment system. The STAR program consists of three 
            elements: (a) California Standards Tests (CSTs); (c) the 
            Spanish Assessment of Basic Education primary language test, 
            and (d) the California Alternative Performance Assessment for 
            special education pupils. Under the STAR program, the state 
            requires schools to test all students in grades 2 to 11 in 
            English language arts (ELA) and mathematics using a CST, 
            regardless of their language status. 

            SB 1448 (Alpert), Chapter 233, Statutes of 2004, and SB 755 
            (Poochigian), Chapter 676, Statutes of 2005, authorized the 
            SDE to develop and adopt a standards-aligned primary language 
            assessment in reading language arts and mathematics for ELL 
            pupils to replace the existing primary language assessment 
            (Aprenda 3) on a grade by grade basis until July 1, 2011. For 
            example, if a reading language arts standards-aligned primary 
            language test is developed for grade 2, Aprenda 3 would be 
            eliminated only for grade 2 in that subject. 

            The standards-based primary language test in Spanish (STS) was 
            developed for this purpose. To date, there are STSs available 
            for ELL pupils enrolled in grades 2-11 in ELA and for EL 
            pupils enrolled in grades 2-7 in mathematics. Also, these 
            assessments are available for EL pupils enrolled in algebra I 
            and geometry. 

            This bill requires information received from the CELDT and 
            STAR assessments to be used in determining whether a pupil is 
            a LTEL or an At-risk EL.  






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           4)Related legislation  .  

             a)   SB 754 (Padilla), pending in the Assembly Education 
               Committee, defines LTEL as a pupil in grades 6-12 who has 
               been classified as an EL for five years or more and defines 
               "reclassified English proficient," as specified.  

             b)   SB 1108 (Padilla), pending in the Senate Appropriations 
               Committee, requires LEAs and charter schools, as a 
               condition of the receipt of funds for the administration of 
               the CELDT in 2013-14, to report to SDE the criteria it uses 
               to determine whether or not to reclassify an EL by July 1, 
               2013. 
           Analysis Prepared by  :    Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916) 
          319-2081