SECTIONS 420-421 - California Statutes

EDUCATION CODE

SECTION 420-421

420. (a) The department shall establish and administer a three-year
competitive grant pilot project of 25,000 or more English language
learners to be conducted during the 2007-08 to 2009-10, inclusive,
school years after the issuance of Requests for Proposals (RFP). The
goal of the pilot project is to identify existing best practices
regarding topics, including, but not limited to, curriculum,
instruction, and staff development for teaching English language
learners and promoting English language and academic English
acquisition and development. The intent of the pilot project is not
to compare the effectiveness of instructional methods for English
language learners, but rather to identify practices that demonstrate
success for English language learners in achieving English
proficiency, regardless of instructional setting.
(b) Funding for the program shall be used to support or expand
successful existing programs that serve the academic needs of English
language learners to learn standards-aligned academic content and
acquire proficiency in the English language. No more than 5 percent
of the total funding for the program may be used by a local
educational agency for administrative, data collection, evaluation,
or reporting activities.
(c) A local educational agency may apply on behalf of the eligible
school or schools to the department for a grant of two hundred
dollars ($200) per English language learner per year for the period
commencing with the 2007-08 school year and ending on August 31,
2010.
(d) Funding grant applications shall consider the past success of
the local educational agency in meeting the needs of English language
learners, shall limit the number of pupils in any one local
educational agency to no more than 10 percent of the total pupils
funded, shall ensure that funded schools represent an appropriate
balance among urban, suburban, and rural schools, shall ensure that
funded schools represent a geographic balance throughout California,
and shall conform reasonably to a set of instructional principles
laid out in the RFP.
(e) As a condition of receiving funding pursuant to this chapter,
a local educational agency that is selected to receive a grant shall
agree to the evaluation process, data collection, and reporting
requirements established by the department and developed in
collaboration with a partner independent research organization and
shall include in the grant application resources to be used in data
collection, as described by the independent research organization
evaluation process design.
(f) The department shall require each local educational agency
that is selected to provide two hundred dollars ($200) per English
language learner per year as matching funds for the two hundred
dollars ($200) in state funds per English language learner allocated
each year of the three years of the project.
(g) (1) The Superintendent shall establish a 13 to 20 member
advisory committee to provide regular recommendations in the
implementation of this project. The department shall provide staff to
this committee. The committee shall be made up of individuals from
the following groups, who have expertise and experience in providing
instructional assistance, technical assistance, or both, to programs
for English language learners: practitioners from the field, staff
from the University of California and the California State
University, representatives of statewide education advocacy
organizations, stakeholders, and evaluation foundation partners. With
advice from the advisory committee, and in consultation with the
Office of the Secretary for Education, the department shall establish
criteria for evaluating applications and selecting applicant school
districts to receive grants, including, but not limited to, all of
the following:
(A) A diverse mix of schools, including those offering structured
English immersion, bilingual instruction, dual language immersion,
and mainstream instruction.
(B) Enrollment of pupils of low socioeconomic status and of
varying levels of academic proficiency and performance as measured by
the Academic Performance Index pursuant to Article 2 (commencing
with Section 52051) of Chapter 6.1 of Part 28.
(2) To the extent practicable, the Superintendent also shall
utilize the advisory committee established pursuant to this
subdivision for the purposes for which an advisory committee would
otherwise be required to be utilized pursuant to Section 99237.5, if
that section is added by Senate Bill 472 of the 2006-07 Regular
Session of the Legislature.
(h) The department shall contract with an independent research
organization to perform an evaluation of the pilot project based on a
representative sample of 25,000 or more English language learners
from participating urban, suburban, and rural schools from various
geographic regions throughout the state. The evaluation design shall
be created using funds other than those appropriated for purposes of
this chapter. The final analysis of the project data shall be funded
through private or federal sources. It is the intent of the
Legislature that the completed evaluation highlight successful
programs of English language instruction that can be reasonably
replicated and used as models for other schools. A report summarizing
the findings of the evaluation shall be submitted to the
Superintendent, the Governor, and the Legislature by November 1,
2011. The Superintendent shall review the report and submit an
additional report to the Legislature and the Governor that makes
recommendations based on the results of the evaluation design created
by the independent research organization.
(i) It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that
provides flexibility to schools and school districts that receive
grants and participate in the pilot project pursuant to this section
with regard to restrictions imposed by state law and school district
policies and regulations that may hinder the participation by those
schools and school districts.

421. For purposes of this chapter, "local educational agency" means
a charter school, school district, or county office of education.