BILL ANALYSIS
AB 70
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 1, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Le?n, Chair
AB 70 (Duvall) - As Introduced: December 12, 2009
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:10-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill requires the State Department of Education (SDE), as
part of its duties in administering the California English
Language Development Test (CELDT), to gather from each school
district that has one or more English learners (ELs) the
criteria the district uses for the reclassification of a pupil
from EL to proficient in English. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires SDE to summarize and report the criteria it receives
from school districts on its Internet website, as specified.
2)Specifies that "school district" includes a county office of
education and a charter school.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Minor, absorbable reimbursable GF/98 costs, of at least
$50,000, to local education agencies (LEAs) to report to the
SDE on its reclassification criteria, as specified.
2)GF administrative costs, likely less than $80,000, to the SDE
to post reclassification information on its website and ensure
compliance of this measure.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . Current law requires LEAs to develop procedures that
use multiple criteria to determine whether to reclassify an EL
pupil as proficient in English. These criteria include the
CELDT, teacher evaluations of the pupil, parental
consultation, and a comparison of the EL pupil's performance
AB 70
Page 2
in basic academic skills and basic skills in English
proficiency against the basic academic skills of a native
English speaking pupil of the same age and grade level.
In 2007-08, 1.33 million EL pupils were assessed by the CELDT.
Specifically, nearly 36% of pupils who took the test scored
at the early advanced (28.21%) and advanced (7.63%)
performance levels on the CELDT. Many individuals question
why more EL pupils are not being reclassified as fluent
English proficient (FEP) if a significant number of these
pupils are scoring at CELDT levels that trigger
reclassification. In 2007-08, 9.6% (150,573) of EL pupils
were reclassified FEP.
According to a report entitled Resource Needs for English
Learners: Getting Down to Policy Recommendations (Patricia
Gandara and Russell Rumberger, 2007), each district should
report reclassification criteria to the state and make this
information available online. The report notes this
information could help educators and policymakers make
determinations about optimal reclassification criteria and
policies. This bill implements this recommendation.
2)The CELDT , administered from July 1 to October 31 every year,
is used to (a) identify pupils as limited English proficient;
(b) determine the level of English language proficiency; and
(c) assess the progress of EL pupils in acquiring the skills
of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in English.
In May 2001, the State Board of Education approved five
proficiency levels for the initial and annual CELDT
administrations. The five levels are beginning, early
intermediate, intermediate, early advanced, and advanced.
CELDT results showed the proficiency level students achieved
for each skill area, for the listening and speaking areas
combined, and for overall English-language proficiency.
To satisfy the CELDT criterion for English language
proficiency, a student must have an overall scale score of
early advanced or advanced, plus a score of intermediate or
above for each of the domains tested (listening, speaking,
reading, and writing).
3)Previous legislation . AB 2822 (Duvall), which was held in the
Senate Appropriations Committee in August 2008, is virtually
AB 70
Page 3
identical to this measure.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081