BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1876
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Date of Hearing: May 25, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
1876 (Lopez) - As Amended May 18, 2016
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill prohibits the California Department of Education
(CDE), starting January 1, 2019, from approving, or renewing
approval of, a contractor or testing center to administer a high
school equivalency exam, unless the contractor or testing center
provides the general educational development tests that have
been approved by the State Board of Education (SBE) in English,
Spanish and Vietnamese. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires an examinee to be permitted to take the test in the
language of his or her choice, as specified.
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2)Specifies the provisions of this bill are intended to
supplement and not supplant any other requirements the CDE
adopts for the approval of contractors or testing centers
relative to the high school equivalency exam.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Minor administrative costs to CDE to renegotiate contracts with
the current three test vendors.
Any costs associated with the development of the tests will fall
on the testing contractors who will likely pass these costs on
to the test takers. Currently, all tests are provided in English
and Spanish, therefore, the only new costs are associated with
test development in Vietnamese. It is estimated that costs
could range from $200,000 to $2 million, depending on whether
the test is translated or developed as a new test.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, California has an estimated
population of 10 million immigrants and roughly 44% of its
entire population speaks a language other than English at
home. The high school equivalency exam is generally taken for
employment reasons, to be a positive role model, or for
personal satisfaction. Supporters of the bill state that
providing a high school equivalency exam in multiple languages
is an issue of equity and access, allowing recipients to
better compete in the job market and increase annual income.
2)Background. The SBE has approved three high school equivalency
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tests for use in California: the General Educational
Development Test (GED), published by the GED Testing Service,
which is owned by Pearson, a for-profit company; the High
School Equivalency Test (HiSET), published by the Educational
Testing Service (ETS), a private not-for profit company; and
the Test Assessing Secondary Completion (TASC), published by
CTB/McGraw-Hill, a for-profit company.
Testing fees vary from test to test and from one test center
to another, but are generally around $140 to $150 per test.
The state currently subsidizes these testing fees for homeless
students. In 2013-14, approximately 120 homeless students
took one of the three available tests. A bill pending before
this committee proposes to subsidize testing fees for foster
youth. It is not clear how many of these students would choose
to take the test in Vietnamese, although, given the already
low number of test takers, the increase should not be
significant.
3)Comments. Vietnamese is the second most frequently spoken
language among California's English learners. According to the
2014 California Fall Language Census, there are 1.3 million
English learners in California public schools. The census
shows 87% of these students speak Spanish. The next language
spoken most frequently is Vietnamese (2.3% or approximately
30,000 students).
It is difficult to estimate the number of people that would
choose to take the test in a language other than English or
Spanish. In 2013 (the most recent year for which data are
available), 64,983 Californians took the high school
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equivalency exam, 57,422 completed the exam, and 44,864
passed. Of the 64,983 Californians who took the test, 8,624
(15.3%) took the test in Spanish.
Analysis Prepared by:Misty Feusahrens / APPR. / (916)
319-2081