BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 532
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 11, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 532 (V. Manuel Perez) - As Amended: April 26, 2011
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:7-3
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill, beginning July 1, 2012, makes the following changes
to the state's assessment and accountability systems for the
purposes of English language learner (ELL) pupils:
1)Requires modifications to the California Standards Tests
(CSTs) in order to eliminate linguistic complexity, as
specified.
2)Requires accommodations and modifications for ELL pupils that
allow for meaningful participation in the English language
assessments and address the unique linguistic and
sociocultural needs of ELL pupils, as specified. These
include a word-to-word glossary, repetition of test
directions, if requested by a pupil, and translations of test
directions.
3)Requires the State Department of Education (SDE) to provide
school districts with bilingual glossaries and the
translations of test directions.
4)Requires any primary language assessment administered to ELL
pupils developed by SDE to be included in any successor system
and in any measure or index used for state and federal
accountability purposes. This measure also authorizes
specified ELL pupils (e.g., receive dual language instruction,
enrolled in school less than three years) to take the primary
language assessment.
5)Requires any advisory committee, workgroup, task force, or
technical assistance group that provides recommendations to
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the (SPI) and the SBE on a future state assessment system to
determine specific issues related to assessing ELL pupils, as
specified.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)GF/98 administrative costs, of about $140,000, to SDE to
provide school districts with bilingual glossaries and
translated test directions, as specified.
2)Potential increased annual GF/98 state assessment
apportionment costs, likely in excess of $200,000, to school
districts to administer a primary language assessment as part
of a future assessment system. Currently, SDE is
administering the primary language assessment to some ELL
pupils; this bill, however, proposes to expand the number of
ELL pupils who are eligible to take the assessment, as
specified.
3)GF/98 administrative cost pressure, likely between $200,000
and $500,000 to SDE to modify state and federal accountability
systems, as specified.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . There were 1.5 million ELL pupils enrolled in
California public schools in 2009-10. These pupils represent
24% of the total public school children in the state. Also,
approximately 69% of ELL pupils are enrolled in grades K-6 and
approximately 1.2 million of ELL pupils speak Spanish.
Proponents of this measure argue ensuring 24% of the state's
pupils are assessed in a fair, valid, and reliable manner in a
new assessment system is critical to closing the state's
achievement gap. Likewise, when a new accountability system
is developed, school districts must be held accountable for
ensuring that ELL pupils acquire English. This bill,
beginning July 1, 2012, makes specified changes to the state's
assessment and accountability systems for the purposes of ELL
pupils, as specified.
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) California Standards Tests (CSTs); (c)
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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 CST 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 California English Language Development
Test (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, 325,000 pupils
were assessed by the CELDT.
3)State and federal accountability systems . SB 1X (Alpert),
Chapter 3, Statutes of 1999, established the Public School
Accountability Act, which required the development of the
Academic Performance Index (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
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model, as measured by Adequate Yearly Progress (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.
5)Previous legislation . SB 930 (Ducheny), similar to this bill,
was vetoed in September 2010 with the following message:
"The State Board of Education recently adopted the Common Core
standards, with additions from California's existing
standards. In anticipation of a newly realigned assessment and
accountability system, this bill is premature. This bill would
require the inclusion of additional components involving
primary language assessments, in the current, and any future,
assessment and accountability systems. This has the potential
to conflict with any of the anticipated larger federal or
state efforts on assessments and accountability.
Ultimately, I continue to believe that schools should remain
focused on providing English Learners with the necessary
instruction 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
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this country. Therefore, I want to ensure that there are no
disincentives in our school system to achieving that goal for
our English Learner student population."
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081