BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Gloria Romero, Chair
2009-2010 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 521
AUTHOR: Romero
AMENDED: April 20, 2009
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: April 22, 2009
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Kathleen Chavira
SUBJECT : California English Language Development Test
(CELDT)
SUMMARY
This bill requires that the California English Language
Development Test (CELDT) be administered annually during a
three month test period commencing with the day upon which
65 percent of the instructional year is completed and
establishes new requirements for the California Department
of Education (CDE) related to the CELDT, including that the
CDE report test results to parents, as specified.
BACKGROUND
Current law requires that each school district with English
language learners annually assess these students' English
language development until they are redesignated as English
proficient. This assessment is conducted via the
California English Language Development Test (CELDT). The
CELDT must be administered to all students whose primary
language is not English within 30 calendar days after they
are enrolled in a California public school for the first
time, and annually thereafter during a period of time
determined by the Superintendent of Public Instruction and
the State Board of Education until they are reclassified as
fluent English proficient. The CELDT serves three
purposes. It 1) identifies pupils as limited English
proficient, 2) determines the level of English language
proficiency of these students, and 3) annually assesses the
progress of these students in acquiring the skills of
listening, speaking, reading, and writing in English.
ANALYSIS
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This bill :
1) Deletes the authority of the Superintendent of Public
Instruction and the State Board of Education to
determine the period of time for annually
administering the CELDT.
2) Requires the CELDT to instead be administered during a
three-month test period commencing with the day upon
which 65 percent of the instructional year is
completed.
3) Requires the California Department of Education (CDE)
report test results to parents. More specifically it:
a) Requires that results be reported
in English or, if available, the language
reported on the home language survey.
b) Requires the results be provided
in a format that utilizes easily understood
terminology and includes an explanation of the
test's purpose, the score, and the intended use
of the score by the district.
4) Declares the Legislature's intent to direct the
California Department of Education to explore cost
saving measures regarding the administration of the
California English Language Development Test (CELDT)
to include electronic test administration and
procedures for reuse of test booklets.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Intent of the bill . During 2007-2008 the CDE
administered the CELDT to 1.7 million students, 1.3
million of whom were tested under the annual
assessment window. According to the author, English
learner students, unlike students taking other
standardized tests, do not have the opportunity to be
tested on content that has recently been taught.
Instead they are tested each fall on content taught
during the previous school year. According to the
author, the poor timing of the test affects
performance, creating problems in redesignating these
students as English proficient and creates an inequity
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by testing students on curriculum for which they
received instruction several years in the past.
2) Current practice compared to bill provisions .
Test administration . California currently administers
the CELDT at the beginning of the school year (July 1-
October 31) and results are generally made available
to school districts by early February. The sponsors
contend that this makes it difficult for districts to
use this information to make informed placement and
instructional decisions, and, testing after summer
when students are not at peak proficiency can
negatively affect reclassification. According to the
sponsor, many other states are able to test English
learners' language proficiency toward the end of the
current school year.
Parental reporting . According to the sponsors, the
test vendor prepares a report for distribution to
parents that is printed completely in English and in a
bar graph format, and, unlike the California Standards
Tests (CSTs), it gives no information or
recommendations to parents on how to assist their
children to learn English. Current law requires that
the CDE report individual results of the CSTs in
writing to parents/guardians and include a clear
explanation of the purpose of the test, the pupil's
score, and its intended use by the school district.
This bill would implement these same requirements in
regards to the California English Language Development
Test (CELDT) results.
3) Why 65 percent ? This bill requires administration
of the CELDT during a three-month test period
commencing with the day upon which 65 percent of the
instructional year is completed. According to the
sponsors, this provision is intended to address
concerns that changing the timeframe for administering
the CELDT to the spring would result in conflict or
competition with the administration of other tests
(California Standards Tests, Standards-based Tests in
Spanish, the California High School Exit Exam, SATs
and ACTs). In general, this bill would authorize the
annual administration of the CELDT sometime after
March, but still give districts the flexibility to
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schedule the test to accommodate other testing
requirements.
4) Consistent with American Institutes of Research
findings . In its statutorily required report, Effects
on the Implementation of Proposition 227 on the
Education of English Learners, the American Institutes
of Research found that the deadline for reporting
reclassification results is inconsistent with the
calendar of assessments and reporting of these
results, complicating local reclassification
procedures. The report noted, "School districts
experience significant pressure carrying out
redesignation procedures and completing counts of
redesignated students in time for the Language Census
February 28 deadline. Moreover, some districts noted
that this short February time window is further
compressed as they also require parents to meet
one-on-one with educators, participate in the
redesignation process and or sign off approving the
decision to redesignate."
5) Prior legislation . AB 2077 (Fuentes, 2008) which
was nearly identical to this bill, was heard and
passed by this committee on June 25, 2008, by a vote
of 7-0. The bill was subsequently held under
submission in the Senate Appropriations Committee. AB
2077 required that the department annually release
sample questions of the CELDT and allow a school
district to unofficially locally score the CELDT.
This bill has omitted those provisions.
SUPPORT
Californians Together
Los Angeles Unified School District
OPPOSITION
State Superintendent of Public Instruction - Jack O'Connell