Pupil assessments.

Existing law, the Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999, provides a state assessment program for schools, an intervention program for low-performing schools, and a reward system for high-achieving schools, as specified. This bill would require California's assessments to be valid, reliable, and comparable for pupils who are limited English proficient and for pupils with developmental disabilities. The bill would require any primary language assessment developed by the State Department of Education and administered to limited-English-proficient pupils, as identified pursuant to existing law, to be considered for inclusion in the state's assessment system, or in any successor system, and in any measure or index developed or used for the state's federal and state accountability system and any successor system. The bill would also require any successor system to the state's assessment system adopted on or after the effective date of this act to include accommodations and variations for limited-English-proficient pupils, as determined by the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The bill would require any existing advisory committee, work group, task force, or technical assistance group that is operating on or after July 1, 2012, and that is either required by the Legislature or the Governor, or established by the Superintendent or the State Board of Education, to provide recommendations to the Superintendent and the state board on state or federal assessment or accountability systems, to provide to the Superintendent and the state board additional recommendations relating to systems of assessment and accountability. The bill would make these provisions operative on July 1, 2012. This bill would also make various findings and declarations.