BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 1108 (Padilla) - Reclassification of English Learners
Amended: April 3, 2014 Policy Vote: Education 9-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: April 28, 2014
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: This bill extends the deadline for the California
Department of Education (CDE) to issue the report on English
learner (EL) reclassification established by SB 1108 (Padilla)
Ch. 434/2012. This bill also adds "reclassified English
learners" as a numerically significant pupil subgroup for the
purposes of the Academic Performance Index (API).
Fiscal Impact:
Reports: $450,000 - $666,000 (General Fund) in one-time
contract costs to the CDE. See staff comments.
API subgroup: $50,000 in CDE costs to make programming
changes needed to create the new subgroup. Minor ongoing
state costs to include the subgroup in future accountability
reports.
Background: Existing federal and state law both require that
schools with ELs annually assess these students' English
language development until they are redesignated as English
proficient. The state's current assessment tool, the California
English Language Development Test (CELDT), must be administered
to all students whose primary language is not English within 30
calendar days after they are enrolled in a California public
school for the first time, and annually thereafter during a
period of time determined by the Superintendent of Public
Instruction (SPI) and the State Board of Education (SBE) until
they are reclassified as English proficient. During the
2010-2011 school year, the CELDT was administered to 1.57
million students.
Existing law requires the CDE, with the approval of the SBE, to
establish procedures for administering the CELDT and for the
reclassifying a pupil from EL to English proficient.
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Reclassification procedures developed by the CDE must use
multiple criteria, including, but not limited to: 1) an
assessment of language proficiency; 2) teacher evaluation,
including, but not limited to, a review of the pupil's
curriculum mastery; 3) parental opinion and consultation; and 4)
comparison of the student's performance in basic skills against
an empirically established range of performance in basic skills
based upon the performance of English proficient pupils of the
same age. (Education Code � 313)
SB 201 (Liu) Ch. 478/2013 gave CDE the authority to begin work
on a new English proficiency assessment better aligned with the
Common Core standards. The Governor's budget proposes $7.55
million for the development of the English Language Proficiency
Assessment of California.
Recent statutory changes, enacted by SB 1108 (Padilla) Ch.
4343/2012, also required the CDE, if state federal or private
funds were provided for that purpose, to review and analyze the
criteria, policies and practices that school districts use to
reclassify English learners and to recommend any policy changes
necessary to identify when English learners are prepared for
reclassification. The CDE was required to issue a report of its
findings, research, analysis, recommendations, and best
practices by January 1, 2014, and by January 1, 2017, to issue
an updated report that reflects changes in analysis and
recommendations as the result of the adoption of the common core
standards and the adoption of a common core standards aligned
English language development test.
(Education Code � 313.5)
Proposed Law: This bill extends the deadline, from January 1,
2014 to January 1, 2016, for the CDE to issue the report on EL
reclassification established by SB 1108 (Padilla) Ch. 434/2012.
This bill also adds "reclassified English learners" as a
numerically significant pupil subgroup for the purposes of the
API.
Related Legislation: SB 1108 (Padilla) Ch. 434/2012 required the
CDE, if funding was made available, to the CDE to issue the
exact report on EL reclassification required in this bill.
Staff Comments: This bill requires the CDE, by January 1, 2016,
to complete a specified EL reclassification report (and
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follow-up report) "only if state or federal funds are
appropriated as necessary to fully fund this purpose or if
private funds are made available as necessary to fully fund this
purpose." That report was originally required to be completed by
January 1, 2014, "only if state or federal funds are
appropriated as necessary to fully fund this purpose or if
private funds are made available as necessary to fully fund this
purpose." No funds were ever appropriated or made available for
the report. This bill extends the deadline for the report and,
thus, for the appropriation/availability of funds dedicated for
it.
In 2012, when this legislation was first enacted, the CDE
indicated that it would likely contract out the work required
for both reports, and estimated that such a contract would
likely cost $450,000-$500,000. It was thought that the bulk of
the work and cost would likely be incurred for the first report,
which would be a fully new activity and product. Updating
recommendations already presented in the first report would
involve considerably less work.
Subsequently, the CDE entered into a memorandum of understanding
with the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) to share
data, and the PPIC issued a report on EL reclassification. That
report did not meet all of the statutory requirements, but the
CDE believes it provides a foundation for the report required by
SB 1108. With a foundation in hand, it is unclear why the report
should cost more than the departmental estimates in 2012.
Nonetheless, the CDE has requested (in a Spring Finance Letter)
$666,500 General Fund to fund the completion of this report.
The CDE has indicated it would require $50,000 to make
programming changes needed to create a new reclassified EL
subgroup. The department also has concerns that creating a
different subgroup for reclassified ELs will have accountability
ramifications for a school's API, because reclassified ELs are
currently counted in the EL subgroup until they have scored
proficient on the former California Standards Test for 3 years.
It may also result in challenges to the integrity of statewide
test scores, by enabling non-standardized local reclassification
methodologies to affect the scores of a statewide subgroup, or
in school creating stricter criteria for reclassification in
order to benefit their API.
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