BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 201 Page 1 SENATE THIRD READING SB 201 (Liu) As Amended September 3, 2013 Majority vote SENATE VOTE :30-9 EDUCATION 7-0 APPROPRIATIONS 13-0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Buchanan, Olsen, Chávez, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bocanegra, | | |Gonzalez, Nazarian, | |Bradford, | | |Weber, Williams | |Ian Calderon, Campos, | | | | |Eggman, Gomez, Hall, | | | | |Holden, Linder, Pan, | | | | |Quirk, Weber | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY : Permits the adoption of instructional materials in English language arts (ELA) and English language development (ELD) and makes changes to the assessment of ELD for pupils who are English Learners (ELs). Specifically, this bill : 1)Permits the State Board of Education (SBE) to adopt instructional materials aligned to the Common Core State Standards in ELA/ELD, as specified. 2)Permits the SBE to charge a fee for all publishers wishing to submit materials for consideration by the SBE, as specified. 3)Identifies the intent of the Legislature to continue implementation of the Common Core State Standards and ensure that pupils and teachers have access to instructional materials that are both aligned to the Common Core State Standards and meet the needs of ELs. 4)Makes inoperative those sections of law governing the administration, development, and maintenance of the existing California English Language Development Test (CELDT) upon the SB 201 Page 2 report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to the Legislature that both the assessment for the initial identification of ELs and the summative assessment are ready for their initial administration. 5)Makes operative new sections of law governing the administration of the assessment of ELs for the purpose of determining the English language proficiency of those pupils upon the report of the SPI to the Legislature that both the assessment for the initial identification of ELs and the summative assessment are ready for their initial administration. 6)Requires the development of two separate ELD assessments; one for the initial identification of pupils as ELs and a second for the annual summative assessment for ELs. 7)Requires the assessment of pupils in kindergarten and grade 1 to be assessed in English listening and speaking, and, once an assessment is developed, in early literacy skills. 8)Identifies the window in which the annual summative assessment may be administered as a four-month period after January 1 of each school year, as determined by the SPI. 9)Requires the SPI, in consultation with the SBE, to release a request for proposals for the development of assessments for the purposes set forth in this bill, if the SPI determines that no existing assessments may be used. 10)Requires the SBE to approve assessment blueprints, assessment performance descriptors, and performance-level cut scores based on standard settings. 11)Specifies the minimum requirements of an assessment used for the initial identification of ELs. SB 201 Page 3 12)Specifies the purpose of an assessment used for the initial identification be the identification of pupils who are limited English proficient. 13)Specifies the minimum requirements of an annual summative assessment of EL pupils. 14)Specifies the purposes of a summative assessment are the identification of the level of English proficiency of pupils who are limited English proficient and to assess the progress of limited-English-proficient pupils in acquiring the skills of listening, reading, speaking, and writing in English. 15)Makes technical and non-substantive changes to these sections. FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations, this bill has the following costs: 1)General Fund (GF) administrative costs to State Department of Education (SDE), of approximately $400,000, to conduct an adoption process for basic instructional materials aligned to ELA and ELD standards, as specified. The majority of this cost will likely be offset with fees the SDE is authorized to assess to instructional materials publishers for this purpose. 2)GF/Proposition 98 cost pressure, likely in the tens of millions, to provide school districts with funding to purchase basic instructional materials aligned to ELA and ELD standards. Under the Local Control Funding Formula, however, local education agencies (LEAs) are expected to utilize their base and supplemental grants for this purpose. Likewise, AB 2 X4 (Evans), Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009, specified LEAs are not required to purchase instructional materials through the 2012-13 fiscal year (FY). SB 70 (Budget and Fiscal Review Committee), Chapter 7, Statutes of 2011, extended this suspension until the 2014-15 FY. This bill does not interfere with these provisions. SB 201 Page 4 3)GF/ Proposition 98 costs, of approximately $7.6 million, to develop an initial and summative language proficiency assessment. This cost may decrease depending on the results of an analysis of the CELDT to determine what assessment questions are able to be incorporated into any new language proficiency assessments. Likewise, current year federal carryover funds and on-going federal funding may offset GF costs. Currently, the majority of CELDT contract costs are paid through federal Title VI: Assessment and Accountability funds. The 2013 Budget Act language provides CDE with authority to utilize any contract CELDT savings to begin the process of developing an initial and summative language proficiency assessment, subject to enacted legislation in the 2013-14 Legislative Session. This bill meets this requirement. CDE estimates it may have up to $1 million in current year contract savings available for this purpose. COMMENTS : During the 2012-13 school year almost 22% of all pupils in California's K-12 public schools were ELs. Of these nearly 1.35 million pupils, approximately 85% spoke Spanish as their primary language. 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. In order to provide the necessary instruction, pupils must first be accurately identified as ELs. Instructional Materials LEAs are currently either using ELA instructional materials that are not aligned to the Common Core State Standards or have opted to purchase supplemental materials that are designed to bridge the gap between instructional materials aligned to the previous content standards and the Common Core State Standards. This bill addresses the need for comprehensive instructional materials in ELA that are aligned to the Common Core State Standards. English Language Development Assessments Current law requires the assessments used to determine the English language development of ELs, to be aligned to the ELD SB 201 Page 5 standards. Title III of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, requires ELD standards to be linked to content standards and requires the English language proficiency test to be appropriately aligned to the ELD standards. Districts administer a home language survey when students first enroll in the California school system. The survey asks 1) what language the child first used when learning to speak; 2) what language the child most frequently uses at home; 3) what language the parents or guardians use when speaking to the child; and 4) what language is most frequently spoken by adults in the home. If the answer to any of the first three questions is a language other than English, students are required to take an English language skills assessment. In California, the current assessment used for this purpose is the California English Language development Test (CELDT). A student who has previously been identified as an EL, based on a prior CELDT administration, must take the CELDT once each year between July 1 and October 31 until he or she is reclassified as fluent English proficient. In March, 2006, the United States Department of Education issued recommendations to California in response to a compliance monitoring visit. The United States Department of Education recommended that California review the use of the CELDT as a measure for initially identifying K-12 students as ELs and consider whether development of a separate screening measure aligned to the CELDT would be beneficial. These recommendations also included the need for California to develop an appropriate English language proficiency assessment of reading and writing skills for EL students in kindergarten and grade one. First, this bill requires the development of two separate assessments: one for the initial identification of a pupil as an EL and the second for the annual assessment of an EL until the pupil has been reclassified as English language proficient. Currently, the CELDT is used for both purposes. By calling for the development of two distinct assessments this bill would allow for a more reliable and valid measurement of students' language skills. Initial assessments are used to diagnose a pupil's learning needs. A summative assessment is designed to take place after the pupil has learned the content area and tells us where pupil is at given points in time and what has been achieved. It is used mainly to measure performance rather than support learning. SB 201 Page 6 Analysis Prepared by : Jill Rice / ED. / (916) 319-2087FN: 0002211