BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 711
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Date of Hearing: April 8, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Patrick O'Donnell, Chair
AB 711
(Santiago) - As Introduced February 25, 2015
SUBJECT: School curriculum: foreign languages
SUMMARY: Requires the State Board of Education (SBE) to adopt
World Languages content standards which are in accordance with
the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages by June 1,
2017, pursuant to the recommendations of the Superintendent of
Public Instruction (SPI). Specifically, this bill:
1)Makes findings and declarations relative to the national
World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages, which will
be published in 2015.
2)Requires, on or before June 1, 2017, the SBE to adopt national
content standards for teaching foreign languages in
kindergarten and grades 1 to 12.
3)Requires that those standards be in accordance with the
World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages, published,
in 2015, by the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign
Languages.
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4)Requires that the SBE act pursuant to recommendations
developed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires the SBE to adopt content standards for teaching
foreign languages in grades K-12 by June 1, 2009.
2)Requires that these standards include all of the following:
a) A summary of the language goals which recognizes that
instruction may begin in elementary or secondary school.
b) A description of individual language skills that should
be taught and attained at each level.
c) Course content that is aligned with findings from
research on second language acquisition and education.
d) Course content that is aligned with the admission
requirements for the California State University and the
University of California.
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1)Allows the content standards to be used by school districts to
develop language programs and course assessments but are not
mandatory.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS:
Need for the bill. The author's office states, "The current
state standards for foreign languages are in need of revision to
align them with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), as well
as other standards.
The California World Language Content Standards were adopted by
the SBE in 2009. Since the California Language World Content
Standards were adopted much later than national standards, many
teachers and school districts in California were already using
national standards by default. This has created some challenges
and difficulties for educators and school districts that had
already aligned their curricula goals to the national standards.
Furthermore, world language and culture educators in California
currently must navigate between national and state standards as
they read research and professional documents, collaborate with
other educators from other states, and engage in other
professional standards-based work, such as national assessments
for assessing learner's proficiency in world languages and
cultures.
AB 711 will enable California to benefit from these
newly-revised national standards. California will be able to
focus on developing curriculum framework that will concentrate
on making world language learning a reality for all language
learners and support educators, as well as schools and
districts"
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Standards adoption dates by subject area. The most recent
adoption (original or update) of content standards in each
subject area is shown below.
1998: History-Social Science
2001: Visual and Performing Arts
2005: Physical Education
2008: Health Education
2009: World Languages
2010: English Language Arts
2010: Mathematics
2012: English Language Development
2013: Career Technical Education
2013: Science
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Current schedule for framework adoption. Curriculum frameworks
are revised and adopted on an eight-year cycle, and
instructional materials adoptions take place after new
frameworks are adopted. Standards adoptions precede the
development of the frameworks. The next frameworks set for
revision are as follows:
2016: History-Social Science, Science
2018: Health
2019: World Languages
2020: Math, Visual and Performing Arts
2021: Physical Education
2022: English Language Arts/English Language Development
The author argues that the revising of the standards by June 1,
2017 would allow the framework revision scheduled for 2019 to be
aligned and even developed "in tandem" with the standards, and
that this may provide some cost savings to the state. The
Committee may also wish to consider that, while the World
Languages standards are not the most out-of-date set of content
standards, if the standards are not updated before the framework
revision in 2019, the opportunity to align California's
framework and instructional materials with nationally-recognized
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standards may be lost.
World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages vs.
California's standards. The World-Readiness Standards for
Learning Languages are published by the American Council for the
Teaching of Foreign Languages. According to the author, while
the California standards are aligned conceptually with the
World-Readiness standards, the national standards incorporate
recent research findings on second language acquisition and
brain research, and have a greater focus on career readiness and
how learners learn can apply the world languages and cultures in
academic and professional settings. The new standards are also
aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Thirty-two other
states have adopted the World-Readiness Standards for Learning
Languages and more are expected to do so in coming years.
Timeframe needs modification. The CDE advises that the time
frame in this bill needs modification to reflect their estimate
of the time required to complete a standards revision. To
reflect CDE's estimate of an expedited revision process (14
months), and to account for any appropriation required for this
purpose, staff recommends that this bill be amended to specify
an adoption date of September, 1, 2017.
Who recommends standards to the SBE? There are three bills
introduced this Session which would require the adoption of new
standards (AB 711, Santiago; AB 740, Webber; and SB 725,
Hancock). Each takes a different approach with respect to
designating the authority which prepares the revised set of
standards to recommend to the SBE. AB 711 tasks the SPI
(presumably through the Instructional Quality Commission and an
advisory group) with recommending standards to the SBE. AB 740
would have the SBE convene academic content standards advisory
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committees to revise the standards and recommend them to the
SBE. SB 745 requires the SPI and an expert panel in visual and
performing arts to recommend standards to the SBE. Staff
recommends that this bill be amended to reflect the proposed
advisory committee structure in AB 740 by requiring - if that
measure is enacted - the convening of an academic content
standards advisory committee with the same composition and
responsibilities as specified in that measure.
Adopt, reject, or modify? These three bills also provide
different authority to the SBE in acting on the revised
standards. AB 711 requires the SBE to adopt World Languages
standards. AB 740 requires the SBE to adopt or reject revised
standards. SB 725 requires the SBE to adopt, reject, or modify
standards in visual and performing arts. Reflecting the approach
taken in the Common Core State Standards revision process, staff
recommends that this bill be amended to require the SBE to
either adopt or reject the revised standards, and if the
standards are rejected to require the SBE to provide a specific
written explanation to the SPI, the Governor, and the
Legislature of the reasons why the proposed standards were
rejected.
Related legislation: AB 740 (Webber) of this Session would
require the SPI, by January 1, 2017, to recommend to the SBE a
schedule for the regular update of academic content standards.
This bill grants the SBE the authority to convene academic
content standards advisory committees to update the standards,
and requires that the SBE adopt or reject them. SB 745
(Hancock) of this Session would require the SBE, by June 30,
2017, to adopt, reject, or modify visual and performing arts
standards submitted by the SPI.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
AB 711
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Support
California Language Teachers Association (sponsor)
Several individuals
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Tanya Lieberman / ED. / (916) 319-2087