BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Alan Lowenthal, Chair
2011-2012 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 2193
AUTHOR: Lara
AMENDED: May 25, 2012
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: June 27, 2012
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Kathleen
Chavira
SUBJECT : Long-term English Learners.
SUMMARY
This bill defines "Long-term English learner" and "English
learner at risk of becoming a long-term English learner",
and establishes notice, reporting and intervention
requirements for purposes of complying with federal law,
based upon the new definitions.
BACKGROUND
Current law defines "English learner" as a child 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. (Education Code §306)
Federal law requires that a school district that receives
federal funds for providing a language instruction
education program for limited English proficient students
to provide notice to a parent within 30 days of the start
of the school year of specified information if their child
has been identified for participation in the program.
Federal law also requires the district, if it has failed to
make progress on the Annual Measurable Achievement
Objectives in the child's attainment of English, to
separately inform the parent of such failure not later than
30 days after such failure occurs. (Title 20, Section
7012, U.S.C.)
Both federal and State law require that each school
district with English language learners annually assess
these students' English language development until they are
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redesignated as English proficient. (Education Code § 313)
Under No Child Left Behind, the California Department of
Education (CDE) and each local educational agency (LEA)
must identify any school that has not made adequate yearly
progress (AYP) for at least two years as in Program
Improvement (PI). Schools in Program Improvement are
subject to increasing requirements and sanctions.
Current law requires that the CDE develop a statewide
system of school support to provide for intensive and
sustained support and technical assistance for school
districts, county offices of education, and schools in need
of improvement. Current law requires that the system of
support consist of regional consortia, as well as district
assistance and intervention teams (DAITs), and other
technical assistance providers. Regional consortia are
required to work collaboratively with school districts and
program improvement schools to 1) review and analyze all
facets of the school's operation, 2) assist the local
educational agency (LEA) or school in developing
recommendations for improving pupil performance and school
operations, 3) assist the LEA or school in efforts to
eliminate misassignments of personnel. (Education Code §
52059)
ANALYSIS
This bill :
1) Defines "Long-term English learner" as an English
learner enrolled in any of grades 6 to 12, inclusive,
who meets all the following conditions:
a) Continuously or cumulatively
enrolled in United States schools for more than
six years.
b) Has remained at the same English
language proficiency level for two or more
consecutive years as determined by an English
proficiency examination.
c) Scores far below basic or below
basic on the English language arts
standards-based academic achievement test.
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2) Defines "English learner at risk of becoming a
long-term English learner" as an EL who is enrolled in
any of grades 5-11 inclusive and meets all the
following conditions:
a) Has been continuously or
cumulatively enrolled in schools in the U.S. for
four years.
b) Scores at the intermediate level
or below on the California English language
development test (CELDT)
c) Scores in the fourth year of
continuous or cumulative enrollment at the below
basic or far below basic levels on the English
and mathematics standards-based achievement
tests.
3) Expands existing parental notice requirements,
required pursuant to federal law, to include
information on whether their child is a LTEL or is at
risk of becoming a LTEL.
4) Expands data gathering responsibilities of school
districts, charter schools, or county offices of
education to require that they:
a) Annually ascertain the number of
pupils in the LEA who are, or are at risk of
becoming, long-term English learners, as those
terms are defined.
b) Annually report to the California
Department of Education (CDE) the number of these
pupils.
5) Expand the responsibilities of regional consortia
established to assist schools needing support pursuant
to federal and state law requirements to additionally
require that they target students that are not meeting
federal academic targets, including English Learners,
Long-term English learners, and those at risk of
becoming Long-term English learners.
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6) Expands the standards and criteria that a district
assistance and intervention team or other technical
assistance provider uses in assessing LEAs to address
specified areas that include alignment of curriculum,
instruction and assessments to target pupils not
meeting the federal academic targets, and specifically
includes ELs, LTELs, and those at risk of becoming
LTELs.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Source of the bill . A recent report by Californians
Together, Reparable Harm: Fulfilling the Unkept
Promise of Educational Opportunity for California's
Long-Term English Learners, presented survey data
collected from 40 school districts. Major findings of
the survey included the following:
a) The majority (59%) of secondary school
English learners are "Long Term English Learners
(defined as being in US schools for more than six
years without sufficient English proficiency to
be reclassified).
b) California school districts that do not have
a shared definition of Long-term English
learners.
c) Several contributing factors include; no
receipt of language development programs, being
given elementary school curricula and materials
that were not designed to meet EL needs, weak
language development program models, inconsistent
programs, social and linguistic isolation and
other things.
d) Few districts have designated programs or
formal approaches designed for Long Term English
Learners.
Currently, according to the author, a mechanism does
not exist to identify Long-term English learners or
those at risk of becoming such. Absent a mechanism,
school districts and parents find it difficult to
provide appropriate and timely interventions to
prevent an English learner from becoming a Long-term
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English Learner. This bill begins the process of
identifying "long-term English learners to ensure that
they do not become "invisible" and do no fall through
the cracks regarding instruction.
2) English learners . The CDE provides the following
information on English learners in California's public
schools:
a) In the 2010-11 school year, there were
approximately 1.4 million English learners in
California public schools, constituting 23.2
percent of the total enrollment.
b) Seventy one percent of English learners are
enrolled in the elementary grades (K-6) with the
remaining 29 percent enrolled in grades 7-12.
c) Although English learner data are collected
for 59 language groups, 94 percent speak one of
the top ten languages in the state, which include
Spanish (82.7 percent), Vietnamese, Cantonese,
Pilipino (Filipino or Tagalog), Hmong, Mandarin,
Korean, Arabic, Punjabi, and Russian.
d) During 2010-2011 the CDE administered the
California English Language Development Test
(CELDT) to 1.57 million students, 1.25 million of
whom were tested under the annual assessment
window.
e) Since 2008-09, approximately 11% of English
learners have annually been reclassified as
English proficient.
3) Technical amendment . According to the author, the
definition of an English learner is at risk of
becoming a "long-term English learner" inadvertently
includes performance levels on the mathematics
standards test. In order to correct this drafting
error, and consistent with the author's intent, staff
recommends the bill be amended on page 3, line 22, to
delete "mathematics."
SUPPORT
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Association of California School Administrators
California Association for Bilingual Education
California Association of Latino Superintendents and
Administrators
California Federation of Teachers
California School Boards Association
California Teachers Association
California Teachers of English to Speakers of Other
Languages
Californians Together
Families in Schools
San Francisco Unified School District
OPPOSITION
None received.