BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 899
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 1, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
AB 899 (Weber) - As Amended: April 25, 2013
SUBJECT : English Language Development Standards: English
Learners
SUMMARY : This bill seeks to align the English Language
Development (ELD) Standards with California's Common Core State
Standards in Mathematics and California's Next Generation
Science Standards (NGSS). Specifically, this bill :
1) Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI)
to updating, revising, and aligning the ELD Standards with
the California's Common Core State Standards in Mathematics
and California's NGSS.
2) Requires the SPI to present these ELD standards to the
State Board of Education (SBE) on or before January 1,
2015.
3) Requires, the SPI and the SBE to hold public meetings
for the purpose of allowing the public to provide input
regarding the work of the group of experts.
4) Requires the SBE to adopt or reject the SPI's
recommendation for ELD standards on or before August 1,
2015.
EXISTING LAW :
1) Requires each school district that has one or more
pupils who are English Learners (ELs) to assess the
language development of each of those pupils upon initial
enrollment in order to determine the level of proficiency
of those pupils, and thereafter to assess each of those
pupils annually until the pupil is re-designated as English
proficient.
2) Requires the SBE to approve ELD standards for pupils
whose primary language is a language other than English,
and requires that these standards be comparable in rigor
and specificity to the statewide academically rigorous
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content standards for English language arts.
3) Using the NGSS as the basis for a recommendation, the
SPI is required to convene a group of experts for the
purpose of recommending science content standards to the
SBE.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Background : California adopted ELD standards in
1999, as a result of AB 748 (Escutia), Chapter 936, Statutes of
1997. The standards, developed for the domains of listening and
speaking, reading and writing, represent what EL pupils must
know and be able to do as they move toward full fluency in the
English language. These standards are the basis for the
California English language development test (CELDT). Current
law requires the ELD standards to be comparable in rigor and
specificity to the ELA standards adopted by the SBE. According
to the introduction in the ELD standards document prepared by
the CDE, "[t]he English-language development (ELD) standards are
designed to supplement the English-language arts content
standards to ensure that limited-English proficient (LEP)
students (now called English learners in California) develop
proficiency in both the English language and the concepts and
skills contained in the English-language arts content
standards."
Importance of English language development : Nearly 1.4 million
of the California's 6.2 million students were identified as ELs
during the 2011-12 school year, representing approximately 22%
of the state's total public school enrollment. ELs are at a
considerable disadvantage relative to their native English
speaking peers, as they enter school with different levels of
English fluency and therefore have different instructional needs
to achieve language and academic proficiency. 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 ELD standards can
be an important tool in developing and delivering instructional
services to ELs that differentiate instruction according to
proficiency levels.
ELD instruction in the content areas : The National Governors
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Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief
State School Officers, as developers of the Common Core State
Standards, have opined that "mathematics instruction for ELs
should address mathematical discourse and academic language.
This instruction involves much more than vocabulary lessons.
Language is a resource for learning mathematics; it is not only
a tool for communicating, but also a tool for thinking and
reasoning mathematically. All languages and language varieties
(e.g., different dialects, home or everyday ways of talking,
vernacular, slang) provide resources for mathematical thinking,
reasoning, and communicating. Regular and active participation
in the classroom-not only reading and listening but also
discussing, explaining, writing, representing, and presenting-is
critical to the success of ELs in mathematics. Research has
shown that ELs can produce explanations, presentations, etc. and
participate in classroom discussions as they are learning
English."
Similarly, the NGSS, Appendix D: "All Standards, All Students:
Making Next Generation Science Standards Accessible to All
Students" identifies both "learning opportunities and challenges
that NGSS presents to student groups that have traditionally
been underserved in science classrooms and describes effective
strategies for implementation of NGSS in the science classroom,
school, home, and community."
While these suggested resources and strategies can be helpful,
they are not substitutes for the comprehensive approach to
English language development provided in the ELD standards.
California's ELD Standards form a foundation for the ways in
which we educate our K-12 EL students in California schools so
that each EL student is able to access, engage, and successfully
achieve state subject matter standards for college and
careerreadiness. It critical to note that the ELD Standards are
intended to provide teachers a foundation for delivering rich
instruction for EL students.
The committee recommends amendments to clarify that this bill
modifies the existing ELD standards and not the academic content
standards to which they are aligned. The committee also
recommends amending the bill to require that only the SPI hold
two public meetings prior to making a recommendation to the SBE.
The SBE, as a public body, can only act on such a
recommendation in a previously noticed and public meeting.
Therefore such a requirement on the SBE is unnecessary.
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Finally, the committee recommends, language to require, rather
than permit, the SPI to recommend revisions to the ELD standards
aligned to the NGSS. This amendment is consistent with other
language in the bill and appears to be a drafting error.
Previous Legislation : AB 124 (Fuentes), Chapter 605, Statutes of
2011, required the SPI , in consultation with the SBE, to
update, revise, and align the ELD standards to the academic
common core state standards for English language arts.
SB 300 (Hancock), Chapter 624, Statutes of 2011, required the
SPI and a group of science experts to recommend to the SBE, and
the SBE to reject, modify, or adopt, science content standards
using the NGSS as the basis for their deliberations.
SB 1 X5 (Steinberg), Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009-10, Fifth
Extraordinary Session, required the SBE to adopted the common
core state standards in English language arts and mathematics.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Association of California School Administrators (ACSA)
California Federation of Teachers
Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson (Sponsor)
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Jill Rice / ED. / (916) 319-2087