BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2193
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Date of Hearing: April 25, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 2193 (Lara) - As Amended: April 10, 2012
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:10-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill defines "Long-term English learner" and "English
learner at risk of becoming a long-term English learner."
Further requires existing federal notices provided to parents to
include this information, as specified. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Defines "Long-Term English learner (LTEL)" as an English
learner (EL) Who
a) Is enrolled in any of grades 6-12.
b) Has been continuously enrolled in schools in the United
States for more than six years.
c) Has remained at the same English language proficiency
level for two or more consecutive years, as determined by
the English proficiency examination.
d) Scores far below basic or below basic on the English
language arts standards-based academic achievement test.
2)Defines "EL at risk of becoming a long-term EL (At-risk EL)"
as a person who:
a) Is enrolled in any of grades 5-11.
b) Has been continuously enrolled in schools in the United
States for more four years.
c) Scores at the intermediate level or below on the English
language development test.
d) Scores far below basic or below basic on the English
language arts and mathematics standards-based academic
achievement test.
3)Requires an existing federal notice provided to EL parents to
include all of the following information:
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a) Whether their child is a LTEL or an At-risk EL.
b) The manner in which the instructional program will meet
the educational strengths and needs of the child, help the
child develop English proficiency, and meet grade-level
academic standards.
4)Requires a local education agency (LEA) and a charter school
to ascertain the number of pupils who are, or are at risk of
becoming, LTEL, and report this information to the State
Department of Education (SDE).
5)Requires the Regional System of District and School Support,
when working with schools and districts, to provide
instructional support on the federal academic targets of their
pupils, including ELs, LTELs, and At-risk ELs, as specified.
Further requires the District Intervention and Assistance
Teams to do the same.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)GF/98 state mandated reimbursable costs, likely in excess of
$5 million, to LEAs to provide specified information on an
existing parent notice regarding: (a) the manner in which the
instructional program will meet the educational strengths and
needs of the child, and (b) the help the child will need to
develop English proficiency and meet grade-level academic
standards.
The information on the current notice is provided to meet
federal and state requirements. It does not, however, provide
detailed instructional information for each EL pupil as
required pursuant to this measure. Therefore, the
requirements in this bill are likely to exceed federal and
state law and establish a state reimbursable mandate.
2)GF/98 state mandated reimbursable costs of approximately
$940,000 to LEAs to ascertain the number of LTEL and At-risk
ELs and report this information to SDE, as specified. In
2009-10, there were approximately 540,000 ELs in grades 6-12
(universe for LTEL) and 590,000 ELs in grades 5-11 (universe
for At-risk EL).
3)GF administrative costs to SDE, of approximately $125,000, to
aid LEAs in meeting the data and informational requirements of
this bill.
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COMMENTS
1)Existing law defines an EL or a "limited English proficient
child" as one who does not speak English or whose native
language is not English and who is not currently able to
perform ordinary classroom work in English. Statute also
defines an EL pupil as one who does not have clearly developed
English language skills of comprehension, speaking, reading,
and writing necessary to receive instruction in English at a
level substantially equivalent to pupils of the same age or
grade whose primary language is English.
Current law requires LEAs to classify a pupil as an EL via a
census. Specifically, no later than the first day of March,
LEAs are required to ascertain the number of ELs under their
jurisdiction and classify them according to language, age, and
grade level. This process also requires an assessment of all
EL pupils' language skills, as specified.
According to the SDE, there were approximately 1.44 million
ELs enrolled in schools in 2010-11, which equals approximately
23% of the total K-12 school enrollment.
2)Purpose . A 2012 report by Californians Together entitled:
Reparable Harm: Fulfilling the Unkept Promise of Education
Opportunity for California's Long Term ELs (Olsen, L) revealed
59% of secondary school ELS have been in the U.S. schools for
more than six years without achieving sufficient English
proficiency to be reclassified (i.e., LTEL). Likewise, the
report argues that most LEAs "lack any definition or means of
identifying or monitoring the progress and achievement of this
population. Only one in four �LEAs] has a formal definition
or designation for identifying, counting, serving, or
monitoring services for these students."
The Californians Together research further details the
challenge LEAs face when dealing with LTEL, including lack of
student data, lack of teachers prepared to educate EL pupils,
no appropriate curriculum/instructional materials, and lack
of information regarding best practices. The report further
discusses the challenges to tackle these issues given the
state's current fiscal situation. Instead, the report
recommends taking initial steps to better monitor the
achievement of these pupils, including creating a definition
of LTEL and At-risk EL and providing parents with information
needed to monitor the impact of the schools' programs on their
students. This bill implements these recommendations.
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3)ELs and state assessments . Current law requires LEAs to
assess all EL 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 EL pupils in acquiring the skills of listening, speaking,
reading, and writing in English.
Existing law requires ELs to be assessed for their English
language proficiency upon initial enrollment in school and
annually as long as they are classified as an EL. In 2010-11,
1.6 million pupils were assessed by the CELDT.
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) 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, 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 standards-based primary language test in Spanish (STS) was
developed for this purpose. To date, there are STSs available
for ELL pupils enrolled in grades 2-11 in ELA and for EL
pupils enrolled in grades 2-7 in mathematics. Also, these
assessments are available for EL pupils enrolled in algebra I
and geometry.
This bill requires information received from the CELDT and
STAR assessments to be used in determining whether a pupil is
a LTEL or an At-risk EL.
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4)Related legislation .
a) SB 754 (Padilla), pending in the Assembly Education
Committee, defines LTEL as a pupil in grades 6-12 who has
been classified as an EL for five years or more and defines
"reclassified English proficient," as specified.
b) SB 1108 (Padilla), pending in the Senate Appropriations
Committee, requires LEAs and charter schools, as a
condition of the receipt of funds for the administration of
the CELDT in 2013-14, to report to SDE the criteria it uses
to determine whether or not to reclassify an EL by July 1,
2013.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081