BILL ANALYSIS
SB 930
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Date of Hearing: August 4, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 930 (Ducheny) - As Amended: August 2, 2010
Policy Committee: Education Vote:6-1
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill, beginning July 1, 2011, makes the following changes
to the state's assessment and accountability systems for the
purposes of English language learner (ELL) pupils:
1)Requires any primary language assessment developed by the
State Department of Education (SDE) on or after July 1, 2013
to be included in the state's assessment system and in any
state or federal accountability measure, as specified.
2)Requires any successor to the state's assessment system
adopted on or after July 1, 2013 to do the following: (a)
modify the California Standards Tests (CST) in order to
eliminate linguistic complexity and (b) include accommodations
and modifications for ELL pupils, including SDE providing
school districts with bilingual glossaries and translated test
directions.
3)Requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to
establish an advisory committee for the purpose or providing
recommendations to the SPI and the State Board of Education
(SBE) on meeting the requirements specified above.
4)Requires the following ELL pupils to take the state's primary
language test: (a) pupils who receive instruction in their
primary language and (b) pupils who are literate in their
primary language, including those who have been enrolled in a
U.S. school for less than three consecutive years, as
specified.
5)Requires, beginning in the 2012-13 school year, the results of
the primary language assessment be used to determine adequate
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yearly progress (AYP) under the federal No Child Left Behind
Act (NCLB) and scores provided under the Academic Performance
Index (API).
1)Requires changes to any assessments apply on or after January
1, 2012, unless otherwise specified in this measure.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)One-time GF/98 state assessment contract costs, of
approximately $960,000, to produce more individual student
reports and test booklets, answer documents, etc. These costs
are due to the increased number of pupils taking a primary
language assessment, as specified.
2)Annual GF/98 state assessment apportionment costs, of
approximately $200,000, to school districts to administer a
primary language assessment. This cost may be reduced if
pupils enrolled in a dual language immersion program take this
assessment. This measure requires school districts
implementing these programs to pay for the assessment.
According to SDE, school districts received $127,000 GF/98 for
administering these assessments.
3)GF/98 administrative costs, of $140,000, to SDE to provide
school districts with bilingual glossaries and translated test
directions, as specified.
4)GF/98 administrative costs, likely between $200,000 to SDE to
modify state and federal accountability systems, as specified.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . There were 1.5 million ELL pupils in enrolled in
California public schools in 2008-09. These pupils represent
25% of the total public school children in the state. Also,
approximately 53% of ELL pupils (800,000) are enrolled in
grades K-6 and approximately 85% of ELL pupils (1.3 million)
speak Spanish.
According to the author, "Schools with high populations of ELL
pupils are targeted for [federal] program improvement because
the existing accountability system is unable to accurately
assess the academic knowledge of many ELL students; especially
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those not yet proficient in English or in the lowest English
proficiency levels. By providing a more valid and accurate
measure of the academic performance of English learners, their
teachers and their schools will not be unfairly penalized and
targeted for [federal] program improvement. Requiring the
validity, reliability and comparability of the primary
language assessment test will ensure schools are utilizing
accurate test scores for the calculation of the API and AYP."
2)State assessment system . Statute establishes the Standardized
Testing and Reporting (STAR) program as the primary component
of the state's assessment system. The STAR program, consists
of three elements: (a) CST; (c) the Spanish Assessment of
Basic Education primary language test, and (d) the California
Alternative Performance Assessment for special education
pupils. Under the STAR program, the state requires schools to
test all students in grades 2 to 11 in English language arts
(ELA) and mathematics using a CST, regardless of their
language status.
SB 1448 (Alpert), Chapter 233, Statutes of 2004, required SDE
to establish primary language CSTs for ELA and mathematics.
To date, there are Spanish CSTs available for pupils enrolled
in grades 2-11 in ELA and for pupils enrolled in grades 2-7 in
mathematics. Also, Spanish CTS are available for pupils
enrolled in algebra I and geometry. Statute authorizes a
pupil to take a primary language CST. The pupil, however, is
required to take this assessment in addition to all CSTs in
English for specified subjects (i.e., ELA, mathematics,
history/social science, and science).
Current law requires local education agencies (LEAs) to assess
all ELL pupils in grades K-12 to determine their proficiency
in English, and the CELDT is the assessment instrument
utilized to meet this requirement. The CELDT is used to (a)
identify pupils as limited English proficient; (b) determine
the level of English language proficiency; and (c) assess the
progress of ELL pupils in acquiring the skills of listening,
speaking, reading, and writing in English. In 2009-10, 1.3
million ELL pupils were assessed by the CELDT.
3)State and federal accountability systems . SB 1X (Alpert),
Chapter 3, Statutes of 1999, established the Public School
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Accountability Act, which required the development of the API.
The API is used to measure performance of schools and
districts over time. An API score is calculated based on
students' performance on the following standardized tests: CST
in English language arts, mathematics, and history-social
science, and science (where applicable) and the California
High School Exit Exam. Pupil scores on both the primarily
language CSTs and the CELDT are not included in the
calculation of the API. This bill requires results from these
assessments to be included in the API.
The federal accountability system is governed by a status
model, as measured by AYP. AYP measures the percentage of
student's proficiency primarily in English and mathematics in
a school, a district, or the state. The state's primary
language CSTs are not part of AYP calculations.
Under the federal accountability model, LEAs and schools are
identified for program improvement (PI) primarily based on the
performance of their pupils on the state's CSTs, with the
exclusion of those administered in Spanish. PI schools and
LEAs that do not meet AYP for two or more consecutive years
are subject to specified sanctions. This bill requires pupil
results from primary language CSTs to be included in AYP
calculations.
4)Proposition 227 (English Language Instruction for Immigrant
Children) permits parental exception waivers for total English
language instruction. Under such parental waiver conditions,
pupils may be transferred to classes where they are taught
English and other subjects through bilingual education
techniques or other generally recognized educational
methodologies permitted by law.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081