California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 711

Introduced by Assembly Member Santiago

February 25, 2015

An act to amend Section 60605.3 of the Education Code, relating to school curriculum.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 711, as introduced, Santiago. School curriculum: foreign languages.

Existing law requires the State Board of Education, on or before June 1, 2009, to adopt content standards for teaching foreign languages in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, pursuant to recommendations developed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

This bill would require the state board, on or before January 1, 2017, to adopt specified national content standards for teaching foreign languages in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, pursuant to recommendations developed by the Superintendent.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:

(a) The national World-Readiness Standards for Learning
Languages are in the process of being published. Those standards
reflect new research on best practices for teaching languages and
cultures and offer a sound vision for program goal setting, teaching
and facilitating learning, and assessing the standards pupils know
and applying that knowledge in global settings. Those standards
have now been adopted in total or with minor modifications in 40
states.

(b) The national World-Readiness Standards for Learning
Languages are based on the original national standards, publish in
1996, that stood the test of time in providing common language
and descriptors for world languages and cultures education.

(c) Pupils will benefit from the clarity that will arise from
following the widely adopted and updated national standards.
World language and culture educators in California, as of January
1, 2016, need to navigate between national and state standards as
they read and research professional documents, collaborate with
other world language and culture educators from other states and
nations, and engage in other professional standards-based work,
including national assessments for assessing learners proficiency
in world languages and cultures.

(d) If the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages
are adopted by the State Board of Education by June 1, 2017, the
standards and framework could be developed in tandem, rather
than revising the standards adopted as of January 1, 2016, to reflect
new framework and research, resulting in significant cost savings
for the state.

(e) The national World-Readiness Standards for Learning
Languages provide pupils friendly and clearly stated functional
learning goals and assessment tasks through a series of “I can”
statements based on predictable descriptors of language
development.

SEC. 2.  

Section 60605.3 of the Education Code is amended to
read:

60605.3.  

(a) On or before June 1, begin delete 2009, end delete begin insert 2017, end insert the begin delete State Board
of Education end delete begin insert state board end insert shall adopt begin insert national end insert content standards begin insert in
accordance with the World-Readiness Standards for Learning
Languages, published, in 2015, by the American Council for the
Teaching of Foreign Languages end insert , pursuant to recommendations
developed by the begin delete Superintendent of Public Instruction, end delete
begin insert Superintendent, end insert for teaching foreign languages in kindergarten
and grades 1 to 12, inclusive.

(b) The content standards shall support the goals of Section
51212 and subdivision (c) of Section 51220 by including all of the
following:

(1) A summary of the language goals which recognizes that
instruction may begin in elementary or secondary school.

(2) A description of individual language skills that should be
taught and attained at each level.

(3) Course content that is aligned with findings from research
on second language acquisition and education.

(4) Course content that is aligned with the admission
requirements for the California State University and the University
of California.

(c) The content standards may be used by school districts to
develop language programs and course assessments but are not
mandatory.