BILL ANALYSIS Ó
------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 753|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 753
Author: Padilla (D)
Amended: 5/31/11
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 9-0, 4/13/11
AYES: Lowenthal, Runner, Alquist, Hancock, Huff, Liu,
Price, Simitian, Vargas
NO VOTE RECORDED: Blakeslee, Vacancy
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 8-0, 5/26/11
AYES: Kehoe, Walters, Alquist, Lieu, Pavley, Price,
Runner, Steinberg
NO VOTE RECORDED: Emmerson
SUBJECT : Pupils: English learners: assessment
SOURCE : Los Angeles Unified School District
DIGEST : This bill requires, until the 2012-13 school
year, an assessment of English proficiency on a pupil whose
primary language is not English to be conducted upon
initial enrollment, and annually, thereafter, and requires,
commencing with the 2013-14 school year, the California
English Language Development Test (CELDT) to be
administered during a three-month period commencing with
the day upon which 65 percent of the instructional year is
complete.
ANALYSIS : Both federal and State law require that each
CONTINUED
SB 753
Page
2
school district with English language learners annually
assess these students' English language development until
they are redesignated as English proficient. The CELDT
must be administered to all students whose primary language
is not
English within 30 calendar days after they are enrolled in
a California public school for the first time, and annually
thereafter during a period of time determined by the
Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) and the State
Board of Education (SBE) until they are reclassified as
fluent English proficient
The CELDT serves three purposes, it (1) identifies pupils
as limited English proficient, (2) determines the level of
English language proficiency of these students, and (3)
annually assesses the progress of these students in
acquiring the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and
writing in English.
This bill:
1.Requires, until the 2012-13 school year, an assessment of
English proficiency on a pupil whose primary language is
not English to be conducted upon initial enrollment, and
annually, thereafter determined by the SPI and the SBE.
2.Requires, commencing with the 2013-14 school year, the
CELDT to be administered during a three-month period
commencing with the day upon which 65 percent of the
instructional year is complete.
3.Specifies that a school district shall conduct an
assessment of a pupil at the pupil's initial enrollment
to determine if the pupil is an English learner and shall
use, for this purpose, the prior year's annual assessment
for the grade in which the pupil is enrolling.
4.Makes other clarifying and technical changes.
Comments
Need for the Bill . In December 2007, the Los Angeles
Unified School District convened the Achieving A+ Summit
which brought together over 40 researchers, academics, and
CONTINUED
SB 753
Page
3
expert practitioners from across the nation, as well as
local community based organizations and district staff.
Among the extensive recommendations to emerge from the
group's work was the proposal that the CDE change the
testing window for the CELDT to the Spring. English
learners constitute approximately 24 percent of the total
enrollment in California public schools. During 2009-10,
the CDE
administered the CELDT to 1.6 million students, 1.3 million
of whom were tested under the annual assessment window.
Current Practice Compared to Bill Provisions
Test Administration . California currently administers the
CELDT at the beginning of the school year (July 1 - October
31) and results are generally made available to school
districts by early February. The sponsors of the bill
contend that this makes it difficult for districts to use
this information to make informed placement and
instructional decisions and testing after summer when
students are not at peak proficiency can negatively affect
reclassification. According to information provided by the
sponsor of the bill, only two states (California and
Montana) administer an English language proficiency test in
the fall. Forty-six states, including Texas, New York,
Florida, and Illinois, administer the test in the Spring.
Why 65 percent ? This bill requires the administration of
the CELDT during a three-month test period commencing with
the day upon which 65 percent of the instructional year is
completed. According to the sponsors, this provision is
intended to address concerns that changing the timeframe
for administering the CELDT to the Spring would result in
conflict or competition with the administration of other
tests (CSTs, Standards-based Tests in Spanish, the
California High School Exit Exam, SATs and ACTs). In
general, this bill authorizes the annual administration of
the CELDT sometime after March, but still gives districts
the flexibility to schedule the test to accommodate other
testing requirements.
Prior Legislation
SB 521 (Romero), 2009-10 Session, was nearly identical to
CONTINUED
SB 753
Page
4
this bill. (Held under submission in the Senate
Appropriations Committee)
SAB 2077 (Fuentes), 2007-08 Session, was nearly identical
to this bill. (Held under submission in the Senate
Appropriations Committee)
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13
2013-14 Fund
Screening test $3,000-$6,000 annually,
beginning in General
implementation 2013-14
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/31/11)
Los Angeles Unified School District (source)
Alliance for a Better Community
Antonio R. Villaraigosa, Mayor, City of Los Angeles
Boyle Heights Learning Collaborative
California Association for Bilingual Education
California Charter Schools Association
California Federation of Teachers
California Teachers of English to Speakers of Other
Languages
Californians Together
Central American Resource Center, Los Angeles
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Right of LA
GreenDot Public Schools
Innercity Struggle
Latin Business Association
Long Beach Unified School District
National Council of La Raza
Parent Teacher Association
Parent Revolution
Public Advocates
San Francisco Unified School District
CONTINUED
SB 753
Page
5
Service Employees International Union, California
Service Employees International Union
United Teachers Los Angeles
Vaughn Next Century Learning Center
Youth Policy Institute
OPPOSITION : (Verified 5/31/11)
Association of California School Administrators
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
moving the test to the Spring would better support
end-of-year reclassification by providing schools with
up-to-date scores aligned with student scorers on the
California Standards Test, allow students to be tested
following a school year of English language instruction
rather than following a summer break, and provide language
proficiency information early enough to ensure proper
placement of students for the following school year.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : In opposition, the Association
of California School Administrators (ACSA) contends that
"?a date change to the spring will result in lost time for
teachers to use the CELDT data to adjust curriculum based
on the student's language proficiency within the school
year. Waiting to use the data for the prospective year
creates a lag during summer.
ACSA has also expressed concerned with the excessive amount
of testing in the spring particularly since the CELDT is a
very time intensive and labor intensive assessment
involving listening, speaking, reading and writing to gauge
language proficiency.
CPM:cm 5/31/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
**** END ****
CONTINUED
SB 753
Page
6
CONTINUED