BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 899 Page 1 CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS AB 899 (Weber) As Amended September 6, 2013 Majority vote ----------------------------------------------------------------- |ASSEMBLY: |72-5 |(May 29, 2013) |SENATE: |37-1 |(September 11, | | | | | | |2013) | ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 AB 899 Page 2 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 AB 899 Page 3 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 FN: 0002703