BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                      



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          |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE            |                   SB 753|
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                              UNFINISHED BUSINESS


          Bill No:  SB 753
          Author:   Padilla (D)
          Amended:  9/1/11
          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

           SENATE FLOOR  :  39-0, 6/2/11
          AYES:  Alquist, Anderson, Berryhill, Blakeslee, Calderon, 
            Cannella, Corbett, Correa, De León, DeSaulnier, Dutton, 
            Emmerson, Evans, Fuller, Gaines, Hancock, Harman, 
            Hernandez, Huff, Kehoe, La Malfa, Leno, Lieu, Liu, 
            Lowenthal, Negrete McLeod, Padilla, Pavley, Price, Rubio, 
            Simitian, Steinberg, Strickland, Vargas, Walters, Wolk, 
            Wright, Wyland, Yee
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Runner

           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  78-0, 9/7/11 - See last page for vote


           SUBJECT  :    Pupils:  English learners:  assessment

           SOURCE  :     Los Angeles Unified School District

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           DIGEST  :    This bill makes changes related to the timing 
          and administration of the required English language 
          development assessments.

           Assembly Amendments  (1) require school districts to 
          annually conduct the assessment during a period that starts 
          on the day upon which 55 percent of the instructional year 
          is completed through July 1 of that calendar year instead 
          of 65 percent, (2) specifies that changes to the bill will 
          not be implemented unless the California Department of 
          Education receives written documentation from the U.S. 
          Department of Education that implementation is permitted by 
          federal law or until the 2013-14 school year, whichever 
          occurs later, and (3) prohibits any pupil in grades 3 to 9, 
          inclusive, from being required to retake portions of the 
          ELD assessment for which he or she has previously achieved 
          the advanced proficiency level within each appropriate 
          grade span, and prohibits pupils in grades 10-12, 
          inclusive, from being required to retake the portions of 
          the ELD assessment for which he or she has previously 
          achieved the early advanced or advanced levels.  
           
           ANALYSIS  :    

          Existing law:

          1.Requires each school district that has one or more pupils 
            who are English learners (ELs) to assess each pupil's 
            English language development (ELD), using a test acquired 
            or developed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
            (SPI) with the approval of the State Board of Education 
            (SBE), in order to determine the level of proficiency 
            upon initial enrollment, and annually, thereafter, until 
            the pupil is redesignated as English proficient; federal 
            law extends this requirement to all ELs.

          2.Requires the assessment to include, but not be limited 
            to, an assessment of achievement of these pupils in 
            grades 2-12, inclusive, in English listening, speaking, 
            reading, and writing skills, and pupils in kindergarten 
            and grade 1 in English listening, speaking, and until 
            July 1, 2012, early literacy skills.  Requires the ELD 
            assessment, among other specifications, to be aligned 

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            with the English language development standards and be 
            age and developmentally appropriate for pupils.

          3.Requires the SPI and the SBE to establish procedures for 
            conducting the ELD assessments, including determining the 
            period of time in which the annual ELD testing is 
            required to be conducted.

          4.Requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to 
            develop reclassification procedures that utilize multiple 
            criteria in determining whether to reclassify a pupil as 
            proficient in English, including, but not be limited to, 
            the following:

             A.    Assessment of language proficiency.
             B.    Teacher evaluation.
             C.    Parental opinion and consultation.
             D.    Comparison of the pupil's performance in basic 
                skills that demonstrates whether the pupil is 
                sufficiently proficient in English to participate 
                effectively in a curriculum designed for native 
                English speaking pupils at the same age.

          This bill makes changes related to the timing and 
          administration of the required ELD assessments.  
          Specifically, this bill:

          1.Requires, commencing with the point in time in which the 
            CDE receives written documentation from the United States 
            Department of Education (USDOE) that federal law permits 
            the implementation of these changes or the 2013-14 school 
            year, whichever occurs later, that the annual ELD 
            assessment of ELs, using the test specified for that 
            purpose, be conducted annually during a testing window 
            that begins with the day upon which 55 percent of the 
            instructional year is completed and ends on July 1 of the 
            same calendar year.

          2.Requires a school district to determine if the pupil is 
            an EL by conducting an assessment of a pupil at the 
            pupil's initial enrollment, using the current or prior 
            year's test, as specified, for the grade in which the 
            pupil is being enrolled.  Also requires a school district 
            to assess ELD of a pupil no more than one time per school 

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            year.

          3.Prohibits a pupil in any of grades 3 to 9, inclusive, 
            from being required to retake portions of the ELD 
            assessment for which he or she has previously achieved 
            the advanced proficiency level within each appropriate 
            grade span, and prohibits pupils in grades 10 to 12, 
            inclusive from being required to retake the portions of 
            the ELD assessment for which he or she has previously 
            achieved the early advanced or advanced levels.

          4.Specifies the provisions in #3 above shall not be 
            implemented until the existing ELD assessment contract 
            expires, and shall not be implemented unless and until 
            the CDE receives written documentation from the USDOE 
            that implementation is permitted by federal law.

           Comments

           Nearly one quarter of the student population in 
          California's public schools are classified as ELs, and 
          closer to one half of the state's pupils come from homes 
          where English is not the primary language.  Current law 
          requires schools to assess the English proficiency of all 
          pupils whose primary language is not English, using an ELD 
          test acquired or developed by the SPI with the approval of 
          the SBE.  The California English Language Development Test 
          (CELDT) was developed and is required as the assessment to 
          be used for this purpose.  The ELD test is used for three 
          purposes:  (1) to identify new students who are ELs in 
          kindergarten through grade 12; (2) to determine the level 
          of English-language proficiency; and (3) to annually assess 
          ELs progress in learning English until they are 
          reclassified.  

          ELs in grades 2-12 are administered the ELD test, which 
          assesses those pupils in four domains:  speaking, 
          listening, reading and writing.  Title III of the federal 
          Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the current version 
          of which is known as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), 
          also places similar ELD testing requirements on states.  
          This bill makes two proposals related to the ELD 
          assessment.


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           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 
          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.  

           Prior Legislation

           SB 521 (Romero), 2009-10 Session, was nearly identical to 
          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:

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                          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  9/7/11)

          Los Angeles Unified School District (source)
          Alliance for a Better Community
          American Civil Liberties Union
          Antonio R. Villaraigosa, Mayor, City of Los Angeles
          Association of California School Administrators
          Boyle Heights Learning Collaborative
          California Association for Bilingual Education
          California Association of Latino Superintendents and 
          Administrators
          California Charter Schools Association
          California Federation of Teachers
          California School Boards Association
          California State PTA
          California Teacher Association
          California Teachers of English to Speakers of Other 
          Languages
          Californians Together
          Central American Resource Center, Los Angeles
          Coalition for Humane Immigrant Right of LA
          College Board
          Contra Costa County Superintendents' Coalition
          Fremont Unified School District
          Fresno Unified School District
          GreenDot Public Schools
          Hispanas Organized for Political Equality
          Innercity Struggle
          Japanese American Citizens League
          Latin Business Association
          Lennox School District
          Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom
          Long Beach Unified School District
          Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce

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          Los Angeles County Office of Education
          MALDEF
          National Council of La Raza
          Parent Teacher Association
          Parent Revolution
          Public Advocates
          Riverside County School Superintendents' Association
          Riverside County Superintendent of Schools
          Rowland Unified School District
          San Francisco Unified School District
          Santa Clara Unified School District
          Service Employees International Union, California
          Services, Immigrant Rights & Educational Network
          Sierra Sands Unified School District
          United Teachers Los Angeles
          Vaughn Next Century Learning Center
          Visalia Unified School District
          Youth Policy Institute

           OPPOSITION  :    (Verified  9/7/11)

          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 

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          involving listening, speaking, reading and writing to gauge 
          language proficiency.


           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  78-0, 9/7/11
          AYES:  Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall, 
            Bill Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford, 
            Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos, 
            Carter, Cedillo, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Davis, Dickinson, 
            Donnelly, Eng, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Beth 
            Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gatto, Gordon, Grove, Hagman, 
            Halderman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Roger Hernández, Hill, 
            Huber, Hueso, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Lara, 
            Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mansoor, Mendoza, Miller, 
            Mitchell, Monning, Morrell, Nestande, Nielsen, Norby, 
            Olsen, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Portantino, Silva, 
            Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Swanson, Torres, Valadao, 
            Wagner, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Furutani, Gorell


          CPM:cm  9/8/11   Senate Floor Analyses 

                         SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  SEE ABOVE

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