BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 899
                                                                  Page 1

          CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
          AB 899 (Weber)
          As Amended  September 6, 2013
          Majority vote
           
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          |ASSEMBLY:  |72-5 |(May 29, 2013)  |SENATE: |37-1 |(September 11, |
          |           |     |                |        |     |2013)          |
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           Original Committee Reference:    ED.  
           
          SUMMARY  :  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  
            update, revise, and link the ELD Standards with 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, in consultation with the SBE, to convene a  
            group of experts in English language instruction, curriculum,  
            and assessment, to inform the recommendation made to the SBE.

          4)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.

          5)Requires the SBE to adopt or reject the SPI's recommendation  
            for ELD standards on or before August 1, 2015.

           The Senate amendments:
           
          1)Include a reference to the modified ELD standards adopted  
            pursuant to Education Code (EC) Section 60605.11.

          2)Replace the word "align" with "link" because while it is  
            possible to fully align ELD standards with English language  
            arts (ELA) standards, a pure alignment between ELD and  
            mathematics and science is not possible; therefore, this bill  








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            calls for those standards to instead be linked.

          3)Specify the duty of the group of experts convened pursuant to  
            this bill is to review the mathematics and science academic  
            content standards to identify those standards that correspond  
            to the ELD standards.

          4)Strike the language that specifically permitted the SPI to  
            reconvene the group of experts pursuant subdivision (b) of  
            former EC Section 60811.3, as it read on June 30, 2013, with  
            modifications to account for mathematics and science content  
            experience to meet the requirements of this bill.

          5)Require that at least a majority of the members of the group  
            of experts convened pursuant to this bill be currently  
            employed public schoolteachers.

          6)Replace references to EC Section 60811 with EC Section 60811.3  
            to reflect the most recently modified ELD standards adopted by  
            the SBE.

          7)Requires that any modifications to the ELD standards adopted  
            by the SBE are incorporated into the appropriate mathematics  
            and science curriculum frameworks. 

          8)Make non-substantive technical changes to this bill.

           FISCAL EFFECT  :  According to the Senate Appropriations  
          Committee:

            1) Convene experts and modify standards: Significant costs to  
              the California Department of Education (CDE), likely in the  
              low hundreds of thousands.  

            2) Cost pressure: Substantial cost pressure for school  
              districts to provide instructional materials aligned to the  
              new standards. 

           COMMENTS  :  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 English learner (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  








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          law requires the ELD standards to be comparable in rigor and  
          specificity to the ELA standards adopted by the SBE.  

           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.  

           
          Analysis Prepared by  :    Jill Rice / ED. / (916) 319-2087 


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