BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 409
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 18, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 409 (Alejo) - As Amended: March 14, 2011
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:7-3
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill authorizes the State Department of Education (SDE) to
make a standards-aligned primary language assessment available
to school districts and charter schools to assess their
non-English language learner (ELL) pupils who are enrolled in a
dual language immersion (DLI) program and requires a district or
charter school that chooses this option to administer the
assessment at its own expense.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Minor GF/98 cost pressure, likely less than $75,000, to
authorize school districts to assess their non-ELL pupils who
are enrolled in DLI programs, as specified. This bill
requires school districts to pay for the administration of
this assessment at their own expense. According to SDE, it
allocated approximately $101,000 GF/98 to school districts for
the administration of the primary language assessment to ELL
pupils in 2010.
2)The 2010 Budget Act allocated a total of $53.6 million for the
Standardized Testing and Reporting program, which includes the
standards-aligned primary language assessment. Of this
amount, $42.2 million are GF/98 funds and $11.4 are federal
Title VI funds, which can be used for purpose related to
implementing standards and assessments.
AB 409
Page 2
3)The 2010 Budget Act allocated $168.2 million in federal Title
III funding for the purpose of ensuring ELL pupils, including
immigrant children and youths, attain English proficiency and
meet the same challenging academic content standards that
other students are expected to meet. According to SDE, 119
(53%) DLI programs used federal Title III to operate these
programs. It is likely these programs would utilize their
Title III funds to assess non-ELL pupils utilizing the primary
language standards-based assessment, as specified.
COMMENTS
1)Background . SB 1448 (Alpert), Chapter 233, Statutes of 2004,
and SB 755 (Poochigian), Chapter 676, Statutes of 2005,
authorized the SDE to develop and adopt a standards-aligned
primary language assessment in reading language arts and
mathematics for ELL pupils to replace the existing primary
language assessment (Aprenda 3) on a grade by grade basis
until July 1, 2011. For example, if a reading language arts
standards-aligned primary language test is developed for grade
2, Aprenda 3 would be eliminated only for grade 2 in that
subject.
The Spanish California Standards Test (CST) was developed for
this purpose. To date, there are Spanish CSTs available for
ELL pupils enrolled in grades 2-11 in ELA and for ELL pupils
enrolled in grades 2-7 in mathematics. Also, Spanish CSTs are
available for ELL pupils enrolled in algebra I and geometry.
Statute authorizes an ELL 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).
According to SDE, 43,194 ELL pupils took the Spanish CSTs in
English language arts and 36,346 ELL pupils took the Spanish
CST for mathematics in 2010.
2)Purpose . Current law only authorizes ELL pupils enrolled in
school less than 12 months or who receive primary language
instruction, as specified, to take the standards-aligned
primary language assessment. However, there are approximately
AB 409
Page 3
50,000 California students enrolled in dual language immersion
programs. A dual language immersion program integrates ELL and
native English speaking students to develop bilingualism and
biliteracy in English and another language. This prohibition
limits the information available to school districts, the
state, and parents regarding the effectiveness of dual
language immersion programs for native English speaking
students.
According to the author, "Schools are prohibited by law from
using the Spanish CST on the non-ELL pupil subset of the
student population. Dual immersion schools are therefore
unable accurately measure the proficiency of their English
Only or fluent English proficient students. This puts these
schools at a disadvantage because they cannot compare the data
between ELL and non-ELL pupils. As a result, they lack the
information needed to accurately measure student progress in
grade level content standards and make academic improvements
in instruction."
3)DLI program information . According to the SDE, 224 DLI
programs were operating in 101 school districts in California
in 2008. Of these programs, 203 (90%) provided instruction in
Spanish.
4)Amendments . While it is important to ensure English-only
speaking pupils enrolled in DLI programs have access to a
primary language CST, some educators argue redesignated
fluent-English proficient (RFEP) pupils should also be
authorized to take this assessment. A pupil is designated
RFEP because he or she was recently reclassified as fluent in
English. ELL advocates and parents argue it is important to
be able to assess an RFEP pupil's academic content knowledge
and an English-only CST may not provide an accurate picture,
particularly if the pupil was recently reclassified. The
author may wish to consider amending this measure to authorize
school districts to administer the primary language CST to
RFEP pupils.
AB 409
Page 4
5)Related legislation . AB 250 (Brownley), pending in this
committee, contains language similar to this measure. The
main purpose of AB 250 is to implement the Common Core
Standards in English and mathematics; as such it does contain
language to reauthorize the state's assessment system,
including the primary language CSTs.
6)Previous legislation . AB 252 (Coto), similar to this measure,
was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger in October 2007 with the
following message:
"English-speaking pupils who have voluntarily enrolled in dual
language immersion programs are currently required to take the
California Standards Test in English. Therefore, another
assessment is not needed to measure their mastery of
state-adopted academic content standards in another language.
Furthermore, I am concerned that this bill creates significant
General Fund cost pressures for the state to develop
standards-aligned primary language tests in other languages.
Given the state's current fiscal climate it is not prudent for
me to enact this measure."
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081