BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 491
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
491 (Gonzalez)
As Amended August 19, 2016
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |80-0 |(June 1, 2015) |SENATE: |39-0 |(August 24, |
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Original Committee Reference: ED.
SUMMARY: Requires that parents be annually informed if their
children are long term English learners (LTELs) or at risk of
becoming LTELs (ARLTELs), requires the California Department of
Education (CDE) to develop a sample notification letter
informing parents of their right to dispute school districts'
determinations of primary language, and requires districts to
provide the letter to parents at the time the home language
survey is provided.
The Senate amendments delete the Assembly version of the bill,
and instead:
1)Expand the existing parental notification requirements
regarding the assessment of a student's English proficiency to
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contain information on:
a) whether the child is an LTEL or an ARLTEL
b) the manner in which the district's program for English
language development (ELD) instruction will meet the
educational strengths and needs of LTELSs or ARLTELs
c) the manner in which the program for ELD instruction will
help LTELs and ARLTELs develop English proficiency and meet
age-appropriate academic standards
1)Require the CDE to make available to schools a sample
notification letter and requires that it be provided with the
home language survey used to determine the primary language of
a student at the time of enrollment.
2)Require that the notification letter explain the purpose of
the home language survey and the procedures for classification
and reclassification of English learners.
3)Require the notification letter to include, but not be limited
to, the following statements:
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a) "If a language other than English is noted on your
child's home language survey, the law requires us to test
your child's English language proficiency."
b) "You may dispute the school district's determination of
your child's primary language and ask the school district
to redetermine your child's primary language."
c) "Once your child's English language proficiency is
tested and your child is identified as an English learner,
changing the home language survey will not change your
child's identification as an English learner."
EXISTING LAW:
1)State law aligned to the (inoperative) federal No Child Left
Behind act requires that a school district that receives
federal funds for providing a language instruction education
program for ELs to provide notice to a parent within 30 days
of the start of the school year of specified information if
their child has been identified for participation in the
program.
2)Defines an LTEL as a student who is a) enrolled in any of
grades 6 to 12; b) has been enrolled in schools in the United
States for six years or more; c) has remained at the same
English language proficiency level for two or more consecutive
prior years, or has regressed to a lower English language
proficiency level, as determined by the English language
development test, or a score determined by the Superintendent
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on any successor test; and d) for a student in any of grades 6
to 9, has scored far below basic or below basic on the prior
year's English language arts (ELA) test, or a score determined
by the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) on any
successor test.
3)Defines an ARLTEL as a student who is a) enrolled in any of
grades 3 to 12; b) has been enrolled in schools in the United
States for four to five years; c) has scored at the
intermediate level or below on the prior year's English
language development test, or a score determined by the SPI on
any successor test, and d) for a student in any of grades 3 to
9, inclusive, has scored in the fourth or fifth year at the
below basic or far below basic level on the prior year's ELA
test, or a score determined by the SPI on any successor test.
4)Requires that the CDE annually ascertain and report the number
of students who are LTELs and ARLTELs and to provide this
information to districts and schools, and requires that each
school district with English learners annually assess these
students' English language development until they are
redesignated as English proficient.
5)Establishes the California English Language Development Test
(CELDT) and the English Language Proficiency Assessments for
California (ELPAC), which is currently in development.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee:
1)The CDE estimates one-time costs of $32,000 General Fund to
develop a sample letter.
2)State reimbursable mandate costs potentially in the hundreds
of thousands for school districts to provide the notification
letter to parents or guardians of a student when the home
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language survey is provided, and to expand the information to
be included in the parent notice of assessment of his or her
child's English language proficiency. (Proposition 98)
COMMENTS:
Need for the bill. This bill is intended to provide parents
important information on their children's status as English
learners, and prevent students from being misclassified as
English learners upon initial enrollment at a school. According
to the author, while federal law requires parental notification
of a student's English proficiency within 30 days of the start
of school, no information is currently provided regarding
students who are long term ELs or who are at risk of becoming
long-term ELs. Additionally, the author is concerned that the
home language survey does not provide parents with an
understanding of the purpose of the survey and the procedures
for identification and reclassification of ELs.
Who determines which students are LTELs and ARLTELs? The CDE
currently provides LEAs reports on students they have determined
meet the statutory definition of LTEL and ARLTEL. The CDE sends
these reports in the spring, and makes the determination based
on enrollment and assessment information they maintain.
Under this bill, it appears that LEAs would have a choice: they
could use the CDE report as the basis for the parent
notification of LTEL/ARLTEL status, or they make the
determination themselves using their own data. As demonstrated
below, the decision has implications for the "currentness" of
the information provided to parents.
The challenge of providing current information to parents under
the current LTEL definition. The goal of providing parents with
information about their students' progress learning English is
certainly laudable, and is consistent with other parental
notification currently required for English learners.
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The challenge in providing parents information about LTEL/ARLTEL
status is in ensuring that this information reflects the
student's current status, which parents would reasonably expect.
The difficulty in providing such information derives from the
statutory definition of LTEL/ARLTEL, which uses prior year
assessment data. This definition provides schools with
important information for instructional planning, but cannot
generate "point in time" information regarding students' status.
To understand which information would be used in the parent
notification letter, it may be useful to imagine the case of an
8th grade English learner student who takes the CELDT or ELPAC
(hereafter CELDT) the summer before or during the first few
months of her 8th grade year, during the testing window of July
1 to October 31. As required by this bill, the parent
notification letter regarding her status is sent during the
first 30 days of her 8th grade school year.
1)CDE-determined LTEL/ARLTEL status: The LEA may choose to send
the parent the notification based on the student's 7th grade
CDE report. This student's 7th grade report includes CELDT
data from the summers before her 5th grade and 6th grade
years. If she has taken the CELDT in between the CDE's 7th
grade report and the beginning of her 8th grade year, this
information is not included in the determination of
LTEL/ARLTEL status. Her 7th grade ELA scores also cannot be
used, because statute requires that the report include data
from the prior year (in this case, 6th grade). Even if the
statute allows for current year ELA scores to be used, this
student's 7th grade scores are not available when the CDE
report is generated. If this student's CELDT scores improve
in 6th, 7th, or 8th grade, or her ELA scores improved in her
7th grade year, she may not meet the criteria to be classified
as an LTEL/ARLTEL at the beginning of 8th grade.
2)LEA-determined LTEL/ARLTEL status: The LEA may choose to make
the determination of whether this 8th grade student is an
LTEL/ARLTEL on its own. The LEA will require enrollment and
assessment data to make this determination, and for unified
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districts this should not present a problem. If she has
recently transferred, or has moved from an elementary to a
high school district it is not clear if this information will
be readily available. Assuming that it is, the LEA combines
this information with CELDT scores from the summers before her
6th and 7th grade years. The LEA may use ELA scores from the
7th grade year, if those results are received in time. If
this student's CELDT scores improved in 7th, or 8th grade, or
her ELA scores improved in her 7th grade year, she may not
meet the criteria to be classified as an LTEL/ARLTEL.
Whichever set of information parents are provided, the
definition in current law means that some data which might alter
the student's status will be excluded. If the parent notice
were required to be sent in the spring of her 8th grade year,
LEAs could use the CDE report as the basis for their
notifications. This would occur prior to the summer/fall
administration of the CELDT, so the information would be more
current. However, sending this notice in the fall, as required
by this bill, would likely allow for the incorporation of more
recent ELA scores.
One district, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD),
already provides information to parents about their students'
LTEL/ARLTEL status. LAUSD provides twice-annual notification to
parents, followed by two parent-teacher conferences to review
current language status,
program placement, test results, and goals for achieving
reclassification, and accelerated academic progress targets.
Notably, LAUSD does not use the state definition of LTEL,
instead choosing to use a broader definition which does not
include any assessment or other academic data. LAUSD bases its
LTEL determination solely on the number of years the student has
been an EL (using five years instead of six as the benchmark),
and the grade level of the student (grade 6 or higher). This
allows for more current information to be provided to parents,
since a student's EL classification is revisited frequently.
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Issue may need to be revisited as EL reclassification criteria
and ELD assessment are in transition. Two elements of English
learner policy which are related to LTEL/ARLTEL definitions are
in transition, and may require that the issues in this bill be
revisited.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires that states
establish standardized, statewide exit procedures to reclassify
ELs. Pending federal regulations to implement this requirement
would prohibit the use of performance on an academic content
measure as a criterion. In California this appears to mean the
elimination of the use of the English language arts assessment
as one of the four used in reclassification, and it is likely
that it would also be removed from the state's definition of
LTELs and ARLTELs as well.
The state's new ELPAC assessment, currently in development, will
be fully implemented (initial and summative assessments) in the
2018-19 school year. ELPAC draft regulations, which CDE
anticipates will be operative by July, 2017, require that
parents be notified in writing of districts' plans to assess
students. This may present an opportunity for parents to
correct an error in the home language survey prior to the
administration of the assessment. The ELPAC test window will
also be shifted from summer/fall to winter/spring.
Correcting home language survey errors. This bill requires that
parents be provided with a notice which informs them of their
right to dispute school districts' determination of primary
language, and to ask school districts to re-determine it.
According to the CDE, districts do not actually determine the
student's primary language. To more accurately reflect the
process, the letter could inform parents of their right to
correct errors on the home language survey.
Analysis Prepared by:
Tanya Lieberman / ED. / (916) 319-2087 FN:
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