Coachella Valley Unified School Dist. v. State of California

California participates in the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLBA) ( 20 U.S.C. § 6301 et seq.) and includes in its assessment program for purposes of NCLBA accountability most of the nearly 1.6 million students attending public schools in this state who are classified as “limited English proficient” or “English learners.” 1 California tests all its students in English, although school districts are obliged to provide limited English proficient (LEP) students certain accommodations or testing variations if the same are regularly used in the classroom or for assessment. Appellants—nine school districts 2 receiving funds under the NCLBA—are seeking a writ of mandate requiring respondents to abide by *101 the law’s requisites for assessing LEP students. They are certain that the NCLBA sets forth ministerial duties capable of enforcement by a writ of mandate, and respondents did not observe these duties. Specifically, they claim that because California tests LEP students in English for purposes of NCLBA accountability, the tests are not “valid and reliable” for these students as required by the federal legislation. Additionally, the School Districts argue that the…

I concur in the judgment but disagree with a small portion of the majority’s analysis. Part H.A.4. of the majority opinion describes the appellant school districts’ theory of mandamus as improperly seeking independent judicial review of the State Board of Education’s (State Board) discretionary, quasi-legislative actions in implementing the No Child *127 Left Behind Act (NCLBA). This case is, according to the majority, “all about asking the court to pass on the means employed by the State Board to effect the . . . purpose of [the statute]” and therefore neither mandamus nor independent review is available. (Maj. opn., ante, at pp. 117-118.) This is not how I read the school districts’ theory of mandamus. In my view, the majority has conflated two of the districts’ arguments into a single theory. 1

The school districts’ threshold argument in this litigation is whether the State Board’s implementation of a statute within the NCLBA was in conflict with the fundamental purpose of the statute—a question that, in the first instance, calls for statutory interpretation. As we state in the introduction, “the School Districts’ premise [is] that the purpose of California’s LEP [limited…

California participates in the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLBA) ( 20 U.S.C. § 6301 et seq.) and includes in its assessment program for purposes of NCLBA accountability most of the nearly 1.6 million students attending public schools in this state who are classified as "limited English proficient" or "English learners." [1] California tests all its students in English, although school districts are obliged to provide limited English proficient (LEP) students certain accommodations or testing variations if the same are regularly used in the classroom or for assessment. Appellants—nine school districts [2] receiving funds under the NCLBA—are seeking a writ of mandate requiring respondents to abide by the law's requisites for assessing LEP students. They are certain that the NCLBA sets forth ministerial duties capable of enforcement by a writ of mandate, and respondents did not observe these duties. Specifically, they claim that because California tests LEP students in English for purposes of NCLBA accountability, the tests are not "valid and reliable" for these students as required by the federal legislation. Additionally, the School Districts argue that…