BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 753
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 17, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 753 (Padilla) - As Amended: August 15, 2011
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:10-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill makes the following changes related to the assessment
of English language learners (ELLs):
1)Eliminates, beginning with the 2013-14 school year, the
requirement that the California English Language Development
Test (CELDT) be administered during a period of time
determined by the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI).
Currently, this period of time is July 1 to October 31 of each
year.
2)Requires the CELDT, beginning with the 2013-14 school year, to
be administered annually during the period when at least 55%
of the instructional year is completed through July 1 of the
calendar year. It is likely this time period would occur
between January and February of each year.
3)Requires, consistent with current law, the CELDT to be
administered to a pupil in order to provide information to be
used to determine if the pupil is an ELL. Further requires a
pupil's prior year CELDT assessment to be used to make this
determination, if his or her initial enrollment occurs on a
date outside of the testing period established above.
4)Prohibits a pupil in grades 3 to 12 from retaking those
portions of the CELDT for which he or she has previously
tested advanced within each appropriate grade span (to the
extent permitted by federal law).
5)Prohibits a pupil in grades 10 to 12 from retaking those
portions of the CELDT for which he or she has previously
tested early advanced or advanced within each appropriate
grade span (to the extent permitted by federal law).
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6)Specifies the provisions related to retaking portions of the
test do not become effective until the existing CELDT contract
expires.
FISCAL EFFECT
Annual GF/98 costs, likely between $1 million and $2.5 million,
to SDE and school districts to implement the new testing window
required in this measure. These costs are associated with test
development and administration.
Statute requires ELLs to be initially assessed upon enrollment
in public school. The current testing window (July 1 to October
31 of each) allows newly enrolled kindergartners (and other
pupils) to be assessed using the current CELDT testing window.
Under this bill, a kindergartner (and other ELLs new to public
schools who arrive prior to January/February) would need to take
two assessments: one upon initial enrollment in the fall and a
second during the new testing window - January/February.
According to SDE, 324,875 ELLs were initially assessed by the
CELDT in the 2009-10 year. Of this number, 206,244 (63%) were
kindergartners.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . Current law requires each school district with one
or more pupils who are ELLs to assess each pupil's English
language development (ELD) to determine the level of
proficiency. Likewise, the federal No Child Left Behind Act
of 2001�now known as the federal Elementary and Secondary
Education Act (ESEA)] required school districts to administer
a test of English language proficiency. Both state and
federal law require the test to be administered to newly
enrolled students whose primary language is not English and to
students who are classified as ELLs as an annual assessment.
In order to meet the requirement to assess ELL pupils, AB 748
(Escutia), Chapter 936, Statues of 1997, required the
Superintendent of Public Instruction to identify an assessment
for this purpose. SDE, with approval of the State Board of
Education (SBE), developed the CELDT. This assessment,
administered from July 1 to October 31 every year, 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
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2010-11, 1.25 million ELL pupils were assessed by the CELDT.
According to the author, "ELLs are required to take the CELDT
immediately following their summer break. This time of year
does not allow ELLs to prepare or practice their English
language skills at their new grade level. Most K-12 academic
exams such as the Standardized Testing and Reporting program
are administered towards the end of the academic year."
Statute also requires the CELDT to be administered to an ELL
pupil until he or she is reclassified as fluent English
proficient (FEP). Likewise, SDE is required to develop
reclassification procedures that include multiple criterions,
including results of the CELDT, a teacher's evaluation of the
pupil, and parental input.
Few ELL's are reclassified early in the ELL continuum, which
results in pupils retaking the CELDT on an annual basis until
he or she is reclassified. According to the author, "An ELL
who fails any section of the CELDT is required to retake the
entire exam, including sections the student has previously
passed. This is contrary to other tests, like the California
High School Exit Exam, where students only retake the portions
they failed."
The author further states: "Passing all sections of the CELDT
is a requirement for ELLs to be reclassified as FEP. ELLs
that become FEP by eighth grade outperform non-ELLs
academically and have a higher graduation rate and college
bound rate. Yet 55% do not become proficient by eighth grade
and unfortunately also half of the ELL population drops out
before graduation."
2)Problems with exempting pupils from taking all parts of the
CELDT . This bill prohibits pupils in grades 3-12 from
retaking a portion of the CELDT (listening, speaking, reading,
and writing) in which they have achieved a sufficient level,
as specified.
In May 2008, the federal government published a Notice of
Proposed Interpretation of Title III statute (accountability
for ELLs). This notice states: "A proficient score at one
grade level (for example, third grade) does not mean a student
will be proficient in a subsequent grade level (for example,
sixth grade) in the same language domain, since language
demands increase as a student advances in school. The plain
language of Title III indicates that ELLs served by the
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program must participate in an annual �language] assessment in
four language domains. Furthermore, Title I (poor/needy pupil
program) also requires an annual assessment in four language
domains for all ELLs."
This interpretation of the federal government makes the
re-take provisions of this bill inoperative. The committee
suggests the author consider removing this language from the
bill.
3)Federal English language proficiency assessment grant . In
January 2011, the federal government released $10.7 million
available to award Enhanced Assessment Instrument Grants
(EAIG) for the purpose of developing a national assessment to
measure English language proficiency in the four domains of
listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The grant requires
the grantee to work with other states to develop this
assessment, which is required to be aligned to English
language development standards.
In June 2011, California applied for the EAIG grant as a lead
state. A lead state is responsible for coordinating the grant
process. Given California's significant ELL population (25%)
and its history in developing and administering the CELDT, the
Superintendent of Public Instruction and the SBE felt
California should be a leader in this process. Grant awards
are not expected to be announced until September 2011.
The committee may wish to consider whether or not it is
appropriate to make significant changes to the CELDT given the
fact the federal government is calling for the development of
a national English proficiency assessment, which will likely
lead to changes in the CELDT.
4)Existing law requires the CELDT to have sufficient range to
assess ELL pupils in grades 2-12 in English listening,
speaking, reading, and writing skills. Pupils in grades
kindergarten and first grade are required to be assessment on
listening and speaking skills, as specified.
In May 2001, the SBE approved five proficiency levels for the
initial and annual CELDT administrations. The five levels are
beginning, early intermediate, intermediate, early advanced,
and advanced. CELDT results showed the proficiency level
students achieved for each skill area, for the listening and
speaking areas combined, and for overall English-language
proficiency. SDE recommends an ELL satisfy the CELDT criterion
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for English language proficiency by having an overall scale
score of early advanced or advanced, plus a score of
intermediate or above for each of the domains tested
(listening, speaking, reading, and writing).
5)Demographics . There are 1.5 million ELLs in grades K-12 in
2009-10, which represents 24% of the total K-12 school
population. Of this number 69% (1 million) are in grades K-6.
Of the 1.5 million ELL pupils, 85% are Spanish speaking.
6)Related legislation . SB 754 (Padilla) contains the same
language related to eliminating the requirement that pupils
retake all portions of the CELDT if he or she has reached
specified levels. The author has amended the contents of SB
754 into this measure and decided not to have SB 754 heard
until 2012.
7)Previous legislation . AB 2077 (Fuentes) required the CELDT to
be administered after at least 65% into the school year is
completed. This bill was held on the Senate Appropriations
Committee's suspense file in August 2008.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081