2006 CATESOL LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

 

Updated June 7, 2006

 

Assembly Bills

 

AB 607 (Goldberg): Curriculum Development & Supplemental Materials Commission

This bill would make several changes to this Commission, including specifying that public members of the Commission are subject to the limitation of one full 4-year term, and would prohibit a person appointed to serve as part of an advisory group to the Commission from participating in that advisory group for more than one subject matter adoption.

Status:  Senate Education Committee

Position:  Priority 2 - Support

 

AB 1056 (Chu): Education Finance: Categorical Programs (2 year bill)

This bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to take the following actions regarding the review of categorical programs: 1) improve the coordinated compliance review process, conduct pilot programs utilizing the federal monitoring process and evaluate this monitoring process. 

Status:  Senate Education Committee

Position:  Priority 2 - Support

 

AB 1196 (Coto) – Bilingualism

Establishes the State Seal of Biliteracy to recognize high school graduates who have mastered speaking, reading, and writing skills in two or more languages, in addition to English.

Status:  Senate Appropriations Committee

Position:  Priority 2 - Support

 

AB 1319 (Liu): Adult Education: Joint Data Systems

This bill would express legislative intent to enact legislation that develops a coordinated adult education data system.  The bill would require the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, using existing resources, to convene a working group of adult education and data experts to review the separate, existing adult education and noncredit instruction data systems, and report to the Legislature and the Governor by July 1, 2007, on the feasibility, design, and cost of a common data set in adult education.

Status:  Senate Education Committee

Position:  Watch 

 

AB  1780 (Baca): Community Colleges: Enrollment Fees

This bill would reduce the amount of student fees from $26 to $11 per unit per semester, effective with the fall term of the 2006-07 academic year.

Status:  Died In Assembly Appropriations Committee

Position:  Priority 2- Support

 

AB 1874 (Daucher) – Categorical Programs; Block Grant Consolidation

This bill would establish the Categorical Education Block Grant Consolidation Program, to be administered by the Superintendent of Public Instruction pursuant to an application process established by the State Department of Education. The bill would require that a school participating in the program receive all of its state categorical education funding as one block grant, with no restrictions on the use of that funding.  This would include Economic Impact Aid.

Status:  Died In Assembly Education Committee

Position:  Priority 2 - Oppose

 

AB 2040 (Chu): High School Exit Exam: Summer/Saturday Administrations

This bill would authorize the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, commencing in 2006-07, to include summer and Saturday administrations of the high school exit examination.  The bill would appropriate $5.5 million to fund the additional summer and Saturday administrations of the high school exit examination and the evaluation of those additional administrations.

Status:  Senate Education Committee

Position:  Priority 1 - Support

 

AB 2053 (Strickland): Community Colleges: Remedial Instruction

Existing law, the Donahoe Higher Education Act, sets forth the missions and functions of the 3 segments of public postsecondary education in this state. A provision of the act provides that the provision of remedial instruction is a function of the California Community Colleges, in addition to that segment’s primary mission, which is the offering of academic and vocational instruction. This bill would add a provision to the act declaring that, within the public postsecondary education system of this state, the provision of remedial instruction is the exclusive responsibility of the California Community Colleges.

Status:  Died In Assembly Higher Education Committee

Position:  Watch

 

AB 2117 (Goldberg): English Language Learners: Waivers

The bill establishes the English Language Learner Acquisition and Development Pilot Program and requires the development of a consortium to develop a plan for a training program for  
certificated and classified staff teaching English language learners (EL's).  Requires the State Department of Education (SDE) to establish and administer a three-year competitive grant pilot project, commencing on September 1, 2007, to identify existing best practices regarding curriculum, instruction, and staff development for teaching EL's and promoting English language  
and academic English acquisition and development. 

Status:  Senate Education Committee

Position:  Priority 1 - Support

 

AB 2255 (De La Torre): High School Exit Exam: Administration

This bill would require that the high school exit examination be offered to students enrolled in an adult education program who have not passed the high school exit examination and have not received a diploma of graduation from high school. This bill would require that, beginning with the 2007-08 school year, at least one administration per year of the high school exit examination be held on a Saturday.

Status:  Died In Assembly Appropriations Committee

Position:  Priority 1- Support

 

AB 2417 (Wyland): High School Exit Exam: Adult Education Programs

This bill would authorize adult education programs to assist high school pupils who meet certain conditions and pupils not enrolled in high school who have completed all graduation requirements other than passage of the high school exit examination in preparing for the high school exit examination. This bill would require that adult education intervention and remediation programs focused on preparing high school pupils and other pupils not currently enrolled in high school for the high school exit examination receive funding in addition to average daily attendance-based apportionments when necessary to provide these services.

Status:  Died In Assembly Appropriations Committee

Position:  Priority 1 - Support

 

AB 2445 (Salinas): Bilingual Education Specialist Teaching Credential

This bill would require the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) (on or before September 1, 2008, to establish standards for the issuance of a bilingual education specialist teaching credential for teachers of bilingual education classes for English language learners transferred to those classes under a specified provision of existing law and would require the standards established by the CTC to require the candidate for a preliminary bilingual education specialist teaching credential to have a baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution, have completed a program of professional preparation for the credential, possess a multiple subject teaching credential or a single subject teaching credential, and demonstrate knowledge, skills, and abilities in certain, listed areas.

Status:  Senate Education Committee

Position:  Priority 1 - Support

 

AB 2532 (Karnette): Adult Education Funding

This bill would provide that, commencing with the 2007-08 fiscal year, adult education programs and adult programs in elementary and secondary basic skills and other courses and classes required for the high school diploma are not subject to the authorized limit of adult education average daily attendance. The bill would also require, for the 2006-07 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, a school district to certify as secondary education enrollment for apportionment purposes the attendance of certain students participating in adult secondary education, adult basic education, or English as a second language courses for the purposes of passing the California High School Exit Examination and earning a high school diploma, and would require the average daily attendance of those students be reimbursed at the school district revenue limit.

Status:  Senate Education Committee

Position:  Priority 1 - Support

 

AB 2780 (Chavez): Adult Education

This bill would make a number of changes in adult education programs including: 1) reduce the day of attendance from 180 minutes to 145 minutes of attendance, 2) offer classes to students in specific settings that are not open to the public for up to 2% of the adult school population, 3) authorize school districts offering adult education to claim those hours spent providing counseling, guidance, testing, and assessment services to students who are enrolled in an adult education program towards their average daily attendance apportionments with a limit of 5% of the district's total adult education entitlement and 4) require a school district that submits an application to the State Allocation Board for funding for a new construction or modernization project to, at the time of submission of its final drawings to the Division of the State Architect, certify that the facility needs of adult school facilities have been considered.

Status:  Died In Assembly Education Committee

Position:  Priority 2- Support

 

AB 2787 (Niello): English Language Instruction: Annual Assessment

This bill makes technical, non-substantive change to existing law relating to English language education for immigrant children, requires that all children in California public schools be taught English by being taught in English, and in particular, requires that all children be placed in English language classrooms and criteria developed by the State Board of Education for conducting the assessment and for the reclassification of a pupil from English learner to proficient in English.

Status:  Died In Assembly Appropriations Committee

Position:  Watch

 

Senate Bills

 

SB 368 (Escutia): Community Based Educational Tutoring (CBET) Program

This bill will make specific programmatic changes to the CBET program and will allow the program to be funded on an annual basis through the Annual Budget Act.  The bill will focus CBET educational services on parents or guardians of K-12 EL students.  Participating districts will be required to develop a local implementation plan that would certify that where possible, districts will offer CBET instruction at neighborhood school sites in order to provide full articulation between CBET programs and instructional programs for school-aged English language learners.  The local plan shall also encourage interactive parent-child activities and greater opportunities for parents to become involved at the child’s school.   The bill will also require participating districts to document the development of tutoring skills and utilization of appropriate K-12 curriculum by the parent in the tutoring process.  Finally, the bill will set out an on-going evaluation process to measure the effectiveness of the CBET program.  

Status:  Assembly Education Committee (proposed to be amended)

Position:  Priority 1 - Support

 

SB 847 (Ducheny): Community Colleges: Faculty

This bill, as introduced, would have addressed highly qualified teachers providing career technical education instruction.  The bill was rewritten and would now raise to 80% the maximum percentage of the hours per week of a full-time employee having comparable duties that a person employed to teach adult or community college classes could teach, while continuing to be classified as a temporary employee. The bill would provide that the status of a person employed to teach adult or community college classes for purposes of classification as a contract, regular, or temporary employee would be determined at the campus level rather than at the district level. The bill would specify that none of its provisions would be construed to preclude a person to whom this provision is applicable from teaching these hours at each of 2 or more colleges within a district, while being classified as a temporary employee at each campus. The bill would specify that none of its provisions relating to service in professional ancillary services shall be construed to affect the requirements of existing law relating to the allocation of funds to districts not meeting the requirement that districts having at least 75% of credit instruction be taught by full-time instructors.  The bill would also specify that none of its provisions shall be construed to affect the Part-Time Community College Faculty Health Insurance Program and the Community College Part-Time Faculty Office Hours Program.

Status:  Assembly Higher Education Committee

Position:  Priority 1 - Support

 

SB 1566 (Runner): Community Colleges: Equalization Funding

This bill would express a finding and declaration of the Legislature that the amount appropriated in the Budget Act of 2006 for equalization of community college apportionments shall complete the Legislature's goal of eliminating disparities in the amount of funding per credit full-time equivalent student (FTES) pursuant to the provision of existing law that determines the calculations to be made with respect to the apportionments of the equalization funding. The bill would revise these calculations, for purposes of allocating the increment of equalization funding provided in the Budget Act of 2006, to make adjustments for the equalization funding provided in the Budget Act of 2005.

Status:  Died In Senate Education Committee

Position:  Priority 2 - Support

 

 

SB 1567 (Soto): English Language Education: Teaching Coaching Program

This bill would establish the English Language Learner Teacher Coaching Program until January 1, 2012, to provide English language learner coaches to assist groups of teachers, teaching paraprofessionals, and pupils in certain matters.  The bill would require CDE to select a county office of education for the purposes of administering the program. The bill would require that the selected county office of education have a proven record of experience in providing learning opportunities and services for English language learners.

The bill would also require the department to evaluate the success of the program and report its findings to the Legislature by January 1, 2010.

Status:  Died In Senate Appropriations Committee

Position:  Priority 1 - Support

 

SB 1580 (Ducheny): Pupil Assessment: English Language Learners

This bill would require a pupil identified as limited English proficient and who is either literate in his or her primary language to take the standards-based achievement test in his or her primary language as soon as the primary language test is available. The bill would require a pupil identified as limited English proficient that has attended a school in the United States for 3 consecutive years or more to take the achievement test in English that is modified, as provided, instead of the primary language achievement test. The bill would require the State Department of Education, by January 1, 2008, to modify the standards-based achievement test, as provided, for limited-English-proficient pupils. The bill would authorize a school district, on a case-by-case basis, to instead administer an achievement test in the primary language of a limited-English-proficient pupil who has attended a school in the United States for 3 consecutive years or more.  The bill would also require the CDE to use funds appropriated in the annual Budget Act for the purpose of developing and adopting primary language versions of assessments that are aligned to the state academic content standards in the dominant primary language The bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2008, to submit a report to the Legislature on the development and implementation of the initial primary language assessments and modified English language assessments and recommendations on the development and implementation of future assessments and funding requirements.  The bill would provide that a school or school district is not to advance to the next level of program improvement status or be found to have failed to meet their Academic Performance Index growth targets on the basis of the test scores of recent immigrant pupils who have attended a school in the United States for less than 3 consecutive years, or any test other than the primary language of modified English tests.

Status:  Assembly Education Committee

Position:  Priority 1 - Support