BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2553
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Date of Hearing: May 5, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 2553 (Brownley) - As Amended: April 12, 2010
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:6-3
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill requires the State Department of Education (SDE), if
it commences a process for the creation of a school readiness
data tool, to establish guidelines and a plan regarding the
creation of this tool. Specifically, this bill:
1)Expresses legislative intent to establish statewide
kindergarten readiness data collection tools that are
practical to administer, used to collect data on a voluntary
basis, guide and inform instruction, support local readiness
efforts; and help policymakers gauge the state level progress
of school readiness.
2)Requires any kindergarten readiness tool to meet the following
requirements: (a) accepted statistical and psychometric
standards for validity and reliability; (b) age and
developmentally appropriate; (c) include multiple domains of
children's development (social-emotional, cognitive, etc.);
and (d) appropriate for use with English language learner
children.
3)Requires SDE to develop a plan, in collaboration with various
stakeholders, for voluntary implementation of the kindergarten
readiness data collection tool that addresses issues related
to personnel training, instruction, data distribution, linkage
to school readiness, and inclusion of the data in the
California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System, as
specified.
4)Requires any data collected from a kindergarten readiness tool
to be used solely for information purposes, including, but not
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limited to, a child's eligibility for kindergarten, as
specified.
5)Authorizes SDE to use any federal funds or other sources,
including private funds, for this measure's purposes.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)GF/98 costs of approximately $300,000 in the 2009-10 fiscal
year (FY) and approximately $600,000 in the 2010-11 FY for the
development of a kindergarten readiness tool. SDE indicates
it is currently using federal Child Development Block Grant
(CDBG) funds set aside for enhancing program quality for this
process. Federal law requires states to set-aside a portion
of their CDBG funding for quality activities (see comment #3
below).
2)GF administrative costs, likely less than $50,000, to SDE to
conduct stakeholder meetings in order to receive input on the
development of a plan for implementation of the tool, as
specified.
3)GF/98 cost pressure, or approximately $3.7 million, to train
kindergarten teachers to use the new readiness tool.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . In May 2009, RAND released a report entitled
Preschool Adequacy and Efficiency in California: Issues,
Policy Options, and Recommendations (Karoly), which states:
"The current privately and publicly supported early care and
education (ECE) system in California is marked by sharp
contrasts in participation rates between more and less
disadvantaged children and uneven delivery of quality
services. Children with the largest gaps in school readiness
and achievement are the least likely to participate in any
preschool and the least likely to attend high-quality
programs. Shortfalls in quality, as measured against the
benchmarks attained in effective programs, are most evident
for those measures strongly linked with promoting school
readiness, such as providing developmentally appropriate
learning supports."
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Currently, SDE uses the Desired Results Developmental Profile
(DRDP) as its kindergarten readiness data collection tool.
According to SDE, the DRDP was developed to improve the
quality of programs and services provided to all children,
birth through 12 years of age, who are enrolled in ECE
programs or before and after school programs, and their
families. SDE states: "California is one of the very few
states in the nation that has developed its own system
designed specifically for measuring child progress toward
desired outcomes and aligned the system to the state's
learning foundations for ECE programs and standards for K-12
education."
The author contends that the DRDP is "is not designed to be
used in kindergarten classrooms or as a method for analyzing
statewide school readiness trends." This bill, sponsored by
Children Now, ensures that any kindergarten readiness tool
developed by SDE meets specified guidelines for use statewide.
2)SDE currently developing a school readiness (SR) tool .
According to SDE, it is working with UC Berkeley and the
WestEd Center for Child and Family Studies to develop a SR
tool to measure the development of a child in four domains
that are essential to the child's ability to learn what is
expected in kindergarten. These domains are: (a) self and
social development, (b) self regulation (including elements of
approaches to learning), (c) language/literacy development,
and (d) mathematics development. The tool will assess the
additional domain English Language development for children
whose primary language is not English. The SR tool will be
designed for use by teachers to assess children within their
first 60 days of kindergarten.
The SR tool is being developed with key elements of the
current DRDP tool. For example, the SR tool will be
structured like other DRDP instruments and will assess based
on teacher observation. SDE contends the primary purpose of
the SR tool is to provide kindergarten teachers with valid and
reliable psychometric measurement of children's development in
key domains of school readiness. This tool is scheduled to be
implemented in kindergarten classrooms in August 2011.
It is clear that SDE is in the process of developing a SR tool
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with the many of the same elements required in this bill
(i.e., multiple domains of children's development appropriate
for use with ELL children). This bill, however, requires a
more formal process for stakeholder input.
3)Federal CDBG funds . The federal government provides states
with child development block grant funds to fund child care
programs (i.e., slots for children). For the 2010-11 FY, the
state is expected to receive approximately $520 million in
CDBG funds. The federal government also requires a minimum
portion of these funds be spent on quality activities. Of
this amount, SDE is using $97 million for these activities,
such as professional development for child care providers,
licensing inspections of child care facilities, curriculum
materials for child care providers, and tuition assistance to
providers for college coursework. One of these activities is
also the development of the SR tool.
The Legislative Analyst Office notes of the $97 million being
spent on quality activities, SDE is spending approximately $15
million above the minimum requirement.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081