BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Gloria Romero, Chair
2009-2010 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 930
AUTHOR: Ducheny
AMENDED: April 7, 2010
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: April 14, 2010
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Beth Graybill
SUBJECT : Pupil Assessments
SUMMARY
This bill expands the number of English learners who are
required to take a primary language assessment, requires
primary language assessment data to be included in the
Academic Performance Index (API) and Academic Yearly Progress
(AYP), and requires modification of existing California
Standards Tests to accommodate the needs of English learners.
BACKGROUND
Existing law establishes the Standardized Testing and
Reporting (STAR) Program for the purpose of measuring the
degree to which pupils are achieving the state's academic
content and performance standards. The STAR Program consists
of four key components: the California Standards Tests
(CSTs); the California Modified Assessment (CMA) for grades
three through eight; the California Alternate Performance
Assessment (CAPA); and the Standards-based Tests in Spanish
(STS). All students in grades 2-11 participate in the STAR
program, including students with disabilities and students
who are English learners. (EC 60640 et. seq.)
Existing law requires the California Department of Education
(CDE) to develop and adopt primary language assessments
(PLA), in the dominant primary language of English learners,
that are aligned to the state academic content standards for
reading/language arts and mathematics. The primary language
assessments developed pursuant to this statute are the
Standards-Based Tests in Spanish (STS). (EC 60640)
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Existing law requires Spanish-speaking English learners
enrolled in grades 2 through 11 who receive instruction in
their primary language or who have been enrolled in public
school in the United States for less than 12 months to take
the STS. Students who take the STS are also required to take
the CSTs and/or CMA appropriate to their grade level. School
districts have the option of administering the STS to
Spanish-speaking English learners who have been in school in
the United States 12 or more months or who are not receiving
instruction in Spanish. English learners whose primary
language is not Spanish do not take the STS. (EC 60640(f)
and 60640(g))
Existing law (SB 1, Chapter 2, Fifth Extraordinary Session,
Statutes of 2010) provides for the statewide pupil assessment
program (which includes the STAR program) to become
inoperative on July 1, 2013, and expresses the intent of the
Legislature that the reauthorization of the statewide pupil
assessment system include specified elements, including a
plan for transitioning to a system of high-quality
assessments. SB 1 also establishes an Academic Content
Standards Commission to develop academic content standards in
language arts and mathematics that will be internationally
benchmarked and at least 85% the same as the national
standards being developed by the Common Core State Standards
Initiative. (EC 60605.8)
State law and federal law (Title III of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act) require that school districts
administer a state test of English language development in
order to assess each pupil's level of English language
proficiency. For California public school students, this
test is the California English Language Development Test
(CELDT). Existing law requires that all students in
kindergarten through grade 12, whose primary language is not
English take the CELDT within 30 calendar days after they
first enroll in a California public school and annually
thereafter until they are redesignated as fluent English
proficient (RFEP). (EC 313 and 60810)
ANALYSIS
This bill :
1) Requires primary language assessments (PLAs) satisfy
requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
Act of 2001, including requirements regarding validity,
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reliability, and comparability and requires the
contractor chosen to develop the PLAs to report to the
State Board of Education (SBE) as to how the assessments
satisfy NCLB requirements.
2) Requires PLA test administration and reporting to be
subject to the same requirements as the CSTs.
3) Deletes provision in current law authorizing school
districts to allow English learners in grades 2-11 to
take a second achievement test in their primary
language.
4) Requires, the California Department of Education (CDE),
by September 1, 2012, to modify the existing CSTs in
order to eliminate linguistic complexity, as specified
and to identify and develop accommodations for English
learners that include:
a) A word-to-word bilingual glossary, without
definitions, in English and in the top 5 languages
indicated by the Language Census submitted by
districts.
b) The explanation of test questions and
repetition of test directions at the request of a
pupil.
c) Translations of the test directions in the top
10 languages as indicated by the Language Census
submitted by districts.
Requires the CDE to provide the bilingual glossaries and
translations of test directions to districts.
5) Requires the contractor selected to develop a PLA to
have expertise and experience in developing primary
language test items.
6) Deletes an outdated provision requiring the CDE to
report to the Legislature on the development and
implementation of the PLAs.
7) Requires pupils identified by the CELDT as limited
English proficient who receive instruction in their
primary language or who are literate in their primary
language and have been enrolled in a school in the
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United States for less than three consecutive years to
take a primary language assessment if a test is
available.
8) Authorizes public schools to use the PLAs for the
purpose of assessing pupils who are enrolled in dual
immersion programs and who are nonlimited English
proficient. Requires the assessment to be administered
at the school district's expense as specified.
9) Beginning in the 2012-13 school year, requires the
primary language assessment to be used to:
a) To determine adequate yearly progress (AYP)
pursuant to NCLB, however requires the California
High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE) to be used to
determine AYP for students who take that exam.
b) For purposes of the Academic Performance Index
(API).
10) Requires only the highest test score results of the
primary language standards test or the English standards
test to be included in the AYP or API.
11) Requires school districts to report to the
Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) the number of
pupils to whom a primary language assessment was
administered in grades 2 to 11 inclusive.
12) Requires CST publishers to provide valid and reliable
aggregate scores to school districts and county boards
of education for pupils who are English learners, their
program of instruction, time in the program of
instruction, and their English proficiency level as
determined by the California English Language
Development Test.
13) Requires primary language assessments to be included in
state and federal accountability systems that replace
the AYP or API.
14) Makes various findings and declarations concerning the
academic assessment of English learners.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill : The author maintains that schools
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with high populations of English learners may be
unfairly targeted for program improvement because the
assessment systems do not accurately assess the academic
knowledge of many of their English learners. The
author's office notes that Spanish-speaking students who
take the Standards-Based Tests in Spanish (STS) often
demonstrate higher levels of achievement on these
assessments than they do on the California Standards
Tests (CSTs). By requiring modifications to the CSTs
and incorporating STS results in to API and AYP scores,
the author hopes SB 930 will result in a more fair and
valid accountability system for English learners.
2) Status of PLA development . Prior to 2007, the
designated primary language test was the norm-referenced
Aprenda 3. In spring 2007, the state began to
transition from the Aprenda 3 to the STS. In 2009, the
STS was administered to approximately 50,000 pupils
whose primary language is Spanish. The data derived
from these early administrations are used to establish
the benchmark performance standards which will set the
proficiency levels for each grade level. The State
Board of Education (SBE) adopted performance standards
for grades 2-4 in May 2009 and is expected to adopt
performance standards for grades 5-7 later this spring.
The CDE staff anticipates the SBE will adopt performance
standards for grades 8-11 in spring 2011. Currently,
the STS is not included in federal and state
accountability systems, thus is not included in either
the API or the AYP.
3) Timing . The anticipated reauthorization of the Federal
Elementary and Secondary Education Act, California's
participation in the Common Core State Standards
Initiative and the potential realignment of state
assessments to those standards will inform how the
state's testing and reporting system will change after
2013. This bill requires the CDE to modify the existing
CSTs before the 2013 ending date and requires primary
language assessment data to be included in the AYP and
API by the 2012-13 school year. Yet the bill does not
address the extent to which the new assessments that
will replace the CSTs should minimize linguistic
complexity and accommodate English learners.
Given the costs associated with modifying the existing
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assessments for the last operative year, would it make
sense instead to incorporate the proposed changes into
planning efforts for assessments that will replace the
CSTs? To facilitate the inclusion of the STS into the
future state and federal accountability systems, would
it make sense to establish an advisory committee who
could advise the State Board on the most effective
methodology for using the STS data?
Staff recommends amendments to
Delete the requirement to modify the existing
CSTs and instead require successor assessments
developed and implemented after 2013 to minimize
linguistic complexity and include the same
accommodations for English learners as is specified
in EC 60640(f) of this bill.
Amend Section 2 of the bill to authorize the
Superintendent to establish an advisory committee
to advise the State Board of Education on the
inclusion of primary language assessments in the
state's assessment system and in any successor
measure to the state's federal and state
accountability system.
1) Federal requirements for English learner assessment .
Current federal law, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
requires states to assess limited English proficient
students in a valid and reliable manner that includes a)
reasonable accommodation and b) to the extent
practicable, assessments in the language and form most
likely to yield accurate data on what students "know and
can do" in academic content areas [20 USC Sec 6311(b)
(3)(C)(ix)(III)]. According to the U.S. Department of
Education, accommodations may include native-language
versions of the assessment. By the time a student has
been in U.S. schools for three consecutive years,
reading/language arts assessments must be in English.
This bill would require districts to administer the STS
to English learners for the first three consecutive
years of enrollment.
In 2005, the Coachella Valley Unified School District filed a
lawsuit against the State of California seeking to
enforce provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind
(NCLB) Act pertaining to the academic assessment of
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English learners. The court delivered a decision in May
2007 in which the judge determined he did not have the
authority through the writ of mandate process to order
California to change its testing system for purposes of
the NCLB because he decided that the duties under NCLB
are discretionary, not mandatory.
2) Prior legislation . In addition to SBX5 1, noted above,
this Committee has previously heard measures concerning
primary language achievement tests.
SB 385 (Ducheny, 2005), which was passed by
this Committee on a 7-1 vote, would have required
the development and administration of primary
language achievement tests for pupils literate in
or receiving instruction in their primary language
and who have been attending school in the United
States for less than three years. This bill would
have also required the CDE to eliminate unnecessary
linguistic complexity in specified instruments.
This measure was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger.
SB 1580 (Ducheny, 2006), which was passed by
the Senate Education Committee on a 8-2 vote, would
have required English learners who are either
literate in their primary language or receive
instruction in their primary language take
standards-aligned tests in the primary language as
soon as such tests are available. This measure was
vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger.
The veto message for SB 1580 read, in pertinent
part:
I vetoed a similar bill last year stating that the
bill ran counter to the goal of mastering English
as quickly and as comprehensively as possible. I
continue to believe that schools should remain
focused on providing English learners with the
necessary resources and support to become English
proficient. As an immigrant myself, I believe
strongly that learning English as quickly as
possible is essential to success in this state and
this country, and therefore want to provide every
incentive for our system to promote that goal.
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AB 252 (Coto, 2007), which was passed by this
Committee on a 7-2 vote, would have authorized the
availability of primary language assessments to
English-speaking pupils enrolled in dual immersion
programs. This measure was vetoed by Governor
Schwarzenegger, whose veto message read in part:
English-speaking pupils who voluntarily enrolled in dual
language immersion programs are currently required
to take the CST in English. Therefore, another
assessment is not needed to measure their mastery
of state-adopted academic content standards in
another language.
SB 305 (Ducheny, 2008), passed by the Senate
Education Committee on a 5-2 vote, and would have
required English learners who are literate in their
primary language or receive instruction in their
primary language and who have been enrolled in U.S.
public school for less than three years to take the
primary language assessments and would have
required the tests to be used for purposes of the
API and AYP. This measure was held in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
1) Fiscal impact . By requiring districts to administer the
STS to more English learners, this bill imposes unknown
but potentially significant mandated costs on school
districts.
SUPPORT
California Association for Bilingual Education
California Communities United Institute
California Council on Teacher Education
California Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
Californians Together Coalition
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles
Los Angeles Unified School District
Multicultural Learning Center
TEEL Consulting Services
Letters from individuals
OPPOSITION
None received.
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