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برچسب: learners

  • How English learners can benefit from college classes in high school

    How English learners can benefit from college classes in high school


    Students at Rudsdale Continuation High School in Oakland, California.

    Credit: Anne Wernikoff for Edsource

    Este artículo está disponible en Español. Léelo en español.

    High school senior Martha Hernandez was born in Baja California, Mexico, and came to the U.S. when she was 10 years old, in fifth grade. She was still considered an English learner when she entered high school, based on California’s test of English proficiency.

    When students are classified as English learners, they must take English language development classes to improve their language skills, in addition to English language arts and all other academic classes.

    But at Hernandez’s high school, Mountain Empire High School in the mountains of rural San Diego County, English learners enroll in English as a second language classes through the local community college. They earn college credit while learning English.

    Researchers and advocates say that dual enrollment — taking college courses during high school — can increase rates of graduation, college enrollment and college success. Yet students who are still learning English in high school often face barriers to dual enrollment courses.

    According to one study by Wheelhouse: The Center for Community College Leadership and Research at UC Davis, 10% of English learners had taken at least one community college class while in high school, compared with 18% of all students.

    English learners are less likely than many other groups to finish the required courses for entering UC and CSU — known as A-G requirements — and to attend college in the first year after graduating from high school. Only 16.8% of students not proficient in English were marked as “prepared” for college and career on the California School Dashboard in 2019, compared with 44.1% of all students.

    Hernandez was surprised to get college credit for her English language classes and she says it inspired her to do well in the courses.

    “It benefits me more, because if I’m going to learn something, I should gain something, too,” Hernandez said. “I guess that’s a good strategy to make people motivated.”

    She says the class helped her learn how to compose a paragraph, structure an essay and give a presentation in English.

    After sophomore year, Hernandez tested out of the program. No longer considered an English learner, she enrolled in both AP English and AP U.S. history her junior year. She’s now a senior, and she plans to go to a four-year college after graduation to study to become a doctor.





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  • Advocates for English learners and the ‘science of reading’ sign on to joint statement

    Advocates for English learners and the ‘science of reading’ sign on to joint statement


    Two students in a combined second- and third-grade class read together.

    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    English learners need foundational skills like phonics and vocabulary in addition to instruction in speaking and understanding English and connections to their home languages.

    Those are two agreements laid out in a new joint statement Tuesday authored by two organizations, one that advocates for English learners and the other for the “science of reading.” The organizations, the National Committee for Effective Literacy and The Reading League, had previously appeared to have deep differences about how to teach reading.

    The authors hope that the statement dispels the idea that English learners do not need to be taught foundational skills, while also pushing policymakers and curriculum publishers to fully incorporate English learners’ needs.

    “I hope we stop hearing so much about the science of reading being bad for English learners and emergent bilinguals. And I hope that it helps move those who are working to build the knowledge in the science of reading to think of English learners or emergent bilinguals in Chapter 1 rather than Chapter 34,” said Kari Kurto, national science of reading project director at The Reading League.

    “We came together with a common goal: to develop proficient readers and writers in English and, we hope, in other languages,” said Martha Hernandez, executive director of Californians Together, which advocates for English learners in California, and a member of the National Committee for Effective Literacy. “I think we both kind of learned that we had more in common than we didn’t.”

    Several contributors said they hope the statement could help California move past roadblocks to adopt a comprehensive literacy plan to ensure that all children can read by third grade, including important skills for students learning English as a second language.

    “We can stop arguing about whether foundational skills are important. We can stop arguing about whether we value bilingualism in and of itself. We can stop bickering and identify what are the challenges out in the field to make these things happen,” said Claude Goldenberg, professor of education emeritus at Stanford University.

    Only 42% of California’s third graders can read and write at grade level, according to the state’s latest Smarter Balanced test. The state has faced increased pressure to adopt a plan with a clear focus on reading skills known as “foundational” — phonics (connecting letters to sounds), phonemic awareness (identifying distinct units of sound), fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

    Advocates for English learners had raised concerns that an increased focus on phonics might exclude other critical skills, such as learning to understand and speak the language and connections between English and other languages.





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  • Parents of English learners in the dark about their children’s language progress

    Parents of English learners in the dark about their children’s language progress


    Este artículo está disponible en Español. Léelo en español.

    Yosadara Carbajal Salmerón was always a very involved parent, from the time her children were in Head Start.

    She would volunteer in the classroom and sign up for parent committees throughout elementary and middle school.

    But Carbajal Salmerón didn’t realize that her children, who attend school in Pomona Unified, were still considered English learners after years of school, or how that might affect them. Then one day she received notification that her son had been reclassified as fluent and English proficient when he was in eighth grade.

    Her first question was, “Why hasn’t my daughter reclassified?” 

    Carbajal Salmerón’s daughter Mia Mirón was younger and had never learned to speak Spanish fluently, in part because she had always spoken English with her older brother.

    “I couldn’t understand it,” Carbajal Salmerón said in Spanish. “My son was the first born and he only spoke Spanish when he entered school. But why would my daughter still be an English learner, if she had had a harder time learning Spanish?”

    Courtesy of Yosadara Carbajal Salmerón

    Yosadara Carbajal Salmerón (right) with her children Andrew and Mia Mirón at Mia’s eighth grade graduation.

    Parents of English learners are often unaware of their children’s progress learning the language, according to advocates from the Parent Organization Network, based in Los Angeles.

    The organization is launching a campaign to help parents learn to monitor their children’s progress and advocating for changes in how districts communicate the information to families.

    Students are classified as English learners when they first enroll in school if their parents speak a language other than English at home and they do not score high enough on the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC). English learners have to continue to take the test every year, until they show proficiency in English, in addition to meeting other requirements, such as meeting grade level on state standardized tests in English language arts. At that point, they are reclassified as “fluent English proficient.”

    As long as students are classified as English learners, they must take English language development classes in addition to their regular classes. If they are not reclassified before middle and high school, those language classes can take up so much of their schedule that they cannot take as many electives as other students, and they may not be able to access as much academic content in other classes.

    Araceli Simeón, executive director of Parent Organization Network, said that parents often rely on report cards to monitor their children’s academic progress. “If they’re getting A’s and B’s, they don’t look at anything else,” she said.

    Districts have to send information to parents of English learners every year about their children’s progress on the ELPAC, but the reports are often sent in the mail, separate from a child’s report card. Even when parents do receive the scores, they do not always understand what they mean or what their children need to do in order to be reclassified.

    In addition, more and more districts are using online portals to share students’ scores on state standardized tests in reading, math and English language proficiency, Simeón said. Often, those portals can be difficult to navigate for parents who don’t speak English or aren’t as comfortable with technology. 

    “If you don’t know how to navigate that, then essentially years go by without you receiving a note about your child’s progress on the test,” Simeón said.

    Last year, staff from Parent Organization Network trained more than 80 parents in three districts – Los Angeles Unified, Long Beach Unified and Pomona Unified.

    In one of those trainings, Carbajal Salmerón learned for the first time about the process for students to be reclassified.

    “For the first time, someone explained to me the exam that they have to take once a year and that they have to learn how to write, listen, speak and read. The teachers had never told me that my daughter had a 3 in reading, for example, or a 2 in writing. No one had ever told me that,” said Carbajal Salmerón.

    Maribel Bautista is another parent who took the training. She has 14-year-old triplets in Long Beach Unified. All three were classified as English learners when they entered kindergarten because the family speaks Spanish at home. When Bautista would receive reports on how her triplets were doing in English, she assumed it was in English language arts, rather than learning the language itself. 

    When Bautista took training with Parent Organization Network and began to analyze the reports she had received, she realized that one of her triplets was reclassified in second grade and another in third, but one had never been reclassified, and he was in eighth grade.

    “I think the most important thing is explaining to parents what the classification of English learner means, why their kids are being placed there, and what steps they need to take to pass the exam before they go to middle school,” Bautista said in Spanish. “It’s about communication.”

    Courtesy of Maribel Bautista

    Triplets Nick, Jeson and Kendrick Figueroa attend school in Long Beach Unified.

    Asked what steps they are taking to help parents understand the reclassification process and their children’s progress, the districts where Parent Organization Network trained parents responded in different ways.

    The superintendent of Pomona Unified, Darren Knowles, said that collaborating with Parent Organization Network “led to a complete overhaul of the documents that we use to inform parents about the reclassification process.”

    Knowles said over the last four years, Pomona Unified redesigned a resource page for parents about reclassification criteria in English, Spanish, and Mandarin. The district also conducts regular presentations and training for parents about what students need in order to reclassify. In addition, he said the district is printing ELPAC score reports to give to families during parent-teacher conferences. Recently, he said the district sent out information about ELPAC scores to parents and offered in-person meetings if they wanted to review their children’s progress. He said 92 parents from 18 different schools requested an in-person meeting.

    Spokespersons from Los Angeles Unified and Long Beach Unified shared fewer details. “Our families have various opportunities including notification and consultation letters,” said the LAUSD statement. “The District also offers over a dozen meetings throughout the year where families can deep dive into their student’s educational journey. In addition, families are welcome to call and set up a school visit with the English learner designee or school principal.”

    “Long Beach Unified is dedicated to ensuring parents of English language learners receive student progress and reclassification information,” said Long Beach Unified School District spokesperson Evelyn Somoza. “Parents of students who have not yet been reclassified receive information on their student’s English language proficiency at the start of every school year through U.S. mail and our online portal. Parents receive phone calls and emails when test scores from assessments completed during the school year become available.”

    Both Bautista and Carbajal Salmerón attended universities in Mexico and want their children to go to college, too. They want their children to be able to enroll in the college preparatory classes they need in high school, which can be hard for students if they are still classified as English learners.

    After understanding the process, they began to push for more help for their children and encourage them to work on their English reading and writing skills to improve their scores on the ELPAC. 

    Carbajal Salmerón’s daughter Mia took a summer school intensive English class, began to attend English classes on Saturdays, and started focusing on improving her reading.

    Finally, in the first semester of ninth grade, she was reclassified, allowing her to stop taking English language development classes and freeing up her schedule to take more electives.

    Now a sophomore, Mia hopes to go to college to study ethnic studies. She credits her eighth grade English language development teacher, who spoke with her and other English learners and explained to them that they had to pass the English proficiency test in order to be reclassified as fluent. 

    “She was a teacher that really wanted everybody in the class to reclassify, and she put in the energy and time to really create a connection with every single one of us,” Mia said. “I feel like personally it’s all in the teacher. If they motivate you and make you see that you personally are capable of doing and achieving and reclassifying, it’s the greatest compliment ever.”





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  • California lags behind other states in bilingual education for English learners

    California lags behind other states in bilingual education for English learners


    Credit: Allison Shelley / EDUimages

    California enrolls a far lower percentage of English learners in bilingual education programs than other states, according to a report released in October from The Century Foundation.

    The authors also found that California is investing less than other states in bilingual education. They recommend the state significantly expand investment in multilingual instruction, particularly dual-language immersion programs; prioritize enrollment in those programs for English learners; and invest more in recruiting and preparing bilingual teachers. 

    Prioritizing enrollment for English learners in bilingual and dual-language immersion programs is important, the authors stated, because research has shown these programs help English learners.

    “New studies show every year that English learners, and especially young English learners, do best when they’re in some form of bilingual setting,” said Conor P. Williams, senior fellow at The Century Foundation and one of the authors of the report.  “They do best at everything, they do best at maintaining their home language, of course, they do best at learning English over time, and they do best in academic subjects.”

    The Century Foundation is a progressive public policy think tank based in New York City and Washington, D.C.

    California has more English learners than any other state. About 40% of students in California schools are now or were once English learners; about half of them are learning English currently while the other half have now mastered the language. 

    Yet, only 16.4% of English learners in the state were enrolled in bilingual or dual-language immersion programs in 2019-20. That percentage is more than three times lower than the percentage of English learners enrolled in those programs in Wisconsin (55.9%) and more than two times lower than in Texas (36.7%), Illinois (35.9%) and New Jersey (33.4%). 

    Williams recognized that California is still rebuilding its efforts to expand bilingual instruction, after a voter-approved measure, Proposition 227, significantly limited it from 1997 to 2016. Still, he said, “The efforts to rebuild have not been significant.”

    “California is not committing very significant resources for a state of its size,” Williams said. “The investment in new or expanded bilingual education programs is pretty modest. It’s $10 million in a one-time grants competition. Delaware puts in a couple million a year and has been doing it for the past 10 years. Utah spends $7 million a year on dual language.”

    The report finds that the funding invested in expanding bilingual education lags far behind the state’s stated goals. “Global California 2030,” written in 2018, for example, recommended expanding the number of dual-language immersion programs to 1,600 and enrolling half of California’s K–12 students by 2030, making at least 75% of graduating students proficient in two or more languages by 2040. There are currently about 750 dual-immersion programs in California, according to the California Basic Educational Data System.

    The report’s authors stated it is also crucial for California to expand bilingual education in transitional kindergarten classrooms, where English learners could benefit from it at a younger age. Transitional kindergarten is an extra year of school before kindergarten. The state is gradually expanding access to the grade each year until 2025, when all 4-year-olds will be eligible.

    The new report recommended changing credential requirements for transitional kindergarten in order to recruit more preschool teachers, since many more preschool teachers speak Spanish and other languages, compared with K-12 teachers.

    Anna Powell, senior research and policy associate at the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley, said she and many other early education advocates agree that current preschool teachers face an “uphill battle” to become TK teachers.

    According to CSCCE, an estimated 17,000 workers in preschool and child care programs have a bachelor’s degree, a teacher’s child development permit and at least six years of teaching experience in early childhood settings. However, Powell said the new credential proposed for pre-K to third grade would only allow work as a preschool teacher to be counted toward part of the required hours.

    “Experienced educators would be required to go back to school and/or obtain additional qualifications first — likely while juggling a full-time teaching job,” Powell said. “Meanwhile, a public school teacher in a middle school could potentially teach TK without any new clinical hours or other time-consuming requirements, so long as they have taken 24 units of ECE or child development (or equivalent).” 

    “There is still time for California to right this wrong,” she added.

    Martha Hernandez, executive director of Californians Together, an organization that advocates for English learners statewide, praised the report.

    “Our state currently possesses an exemplary policy framework, but what’s lacking is a concrete, systemic plan, adequate, targeted funding for effective implementation and accountability for better educational opportunities and outcomes for English learners,” Hernandez said.

    Hernandez said the California Department of Education should lead a coordinated, statewide effort to implement the English Learner Roadmap, a guide approved by the State Board of Education in 2017 for school districts to support English learners better.

    One way to recruit more bilingual teachers both for TK and other grades would be to encourage high school graduates who were awarded the State Seal of Biliteracy to join teacher preparation programs, Hernandez said. To receive the State Seal of Biliteracy, graduates must show proficiency in both English and another language.

    “A modest target of 5% from the over 400,000 candidates could significantly reduce the shortage,” Hernandez said. “The time for translating vision into action is now.”

    Note: The research discussed in this article was supported by a grant from Sobrato Philanthropies. EdSource receives funding from many foundations, including Sobrato Philanthropies. EdSource maintains sole editorial control over the content of its coverage.





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  • What parents of English learners need to know | Quick Guide

    What parents of English learners need to know | Quick Guide


    Third grade teacher Patty Lopez helps a student at Frank Sparkes Elementary in Winton.

    Credit: Zaidee Stavely / EdSource

    Este artículo está disponible en Español. Léelo en español.

    When your child is an English learner, it can be confusing and difficult to understand whether they are progressing normally toward proficiency in the language and what they need to do to be reclassified as fluent and English proficient. Here’s a quick guide to how schools classify students as English learners, what they have to provide for students to help them learn English, what criteria they take into account in reclassifying them as proficient in English, and why reclassification matters.

    Why was my child classified as an English learner?

    When children are first enrolled in school, their parents or guardians are asked to fill out a survey about which language the child learned when they first began to talk, which language they most frequently speak at home and which language parents and guardians use most frequently when speaking with them. 

    If a language other than English is spoken in the home, the school is required to assess the student’s level of English within 30 days after enrollment by giving them a test called the English Language Proficiency Assessment of California.  The test measures students’ abilities in reading, writing, speaking and understanding spoken English.

    If the test results show the child speaks, listens, writes and reads English fluently, at an age-appropriate level, the school classifies them as “initial fluent English proficient.” If the test results show that they do not speak, listen, read and write English fluently, at an age-appropriate level, the school classifies them as an English learner.

    Students classified as English learners must retake the ELPAC each spring until the school determines that they have reached proficiency in English.

    You can read more about the ELPAC and take a practice test here: https://www.elpac.org/resources/practicetests/#practice-training-tests. 

    Students who have significant cognitive disabilities are given a different test, the Alternate English Language Proficiency Assessment of California.

    What kind of instruction must the school provide to English learners?

    Schools are required to provide English learners instruction to help them learn English, called English language development. 

    English language development must be provided both while teaching other subjects in the classroom (this is called integrated ELD) and during a specific time during the school day focused just on learning English (this is called designated ELD). The state does not mandate a specific number of minutes, instead expecting schools to decide that based on the student’s needs.

    You can watch some videos here of English language development for different grades, prepared by the California Department of Education.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UThKEg5Tdos

    How will the school decide when my child is proficient in English?

    Schools must use four reclassification criteria to decide whether a student is proficient in English. Students must achieve an overall score of 4 on the ELPAC, or, if they have significant cognitive disabilities, 3 on the Alternate ELPAC.

    In addition, the district or charter school must take into account both the teacher’s evaluation and parents’ opinion and look at how the student is doing in academic subjects such as math and English language arts, compared to English-speaking peers. Each district or charter school makes its own rules about how to measure these last three criteria.

    How long should it take for my child to learn English fluently?

    Research shows it normally takes students between four and seven years to learn academic English proficiently.

    What if it takes longer for my child to learn English?

    If it takes longer than six years for a student to be reclassified, they will be classified as a long-term English learner. Long-term English learners often struggle in school, because while they often know how to speak English, they have not yet mastered writing and reading academic English. 

    As long as a student remains classified as an English learner, the school is required to provide them with English language development classes. If they are in middle or high school, they may not have time in their schedule to enroll in elective classes like art and music or Advanced Placement courses.

    What will happen when my child is reclassified?

    When a student is reclassified as “fluent English proficient,” they are no longer considered an English learner and will no longer be required to take English language development classes. The child’s school must still monitor their academic progress for the next four years.

    My child is enrolled in a dual-language immersion program. How will that affect their English language development?

    Research has shown that dual-language immersion programs can be very effective at helping students learn English. Sometimes these programs take longer to teach students English, but by the end of elementary school, more students in these programs have achieved fluency than in English-only programs. 

    In addition, dual-language immersion programs help students keep their home language and learn to read and write academically in their home language, making them bilingual.

    What can I do as a parent to make sure my child is learning English?

    Look for your child’s ELPAC scores, which should be sent by mail to your home or can be found on an online district portal. Pay attention to all four parts (listening, speaking, reading and writing).

    Talk to your child’s teacher about how your child is doing with listening, speaking, writing and reading in English, which skills they should work on, and what kind of English language development they are receiving at school.

    Ask when the ELPAC will be given, and remind your child of the importance of trying their best on this test. Sometimes students get tired of taking the test, especially when they are older, and they don’t understand the importance of doing well on it so they can be reclassified as fluent in English.

    Keep reading, speaking and singing with your child in your home language. This will help them with skills they can transfer to English, and will help make them fully bilingual.





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  • What to know about California’s English learners

    What to know about California’s English learners


    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    About 1 in 3 students in California’s K-12 schools speak a language other than English at home and were not fluent in English when they first started school — 1,918,385 students — according to data from the 2024-25 school year.

    About half of these students (1,009,066) are current English learners. The rest (909,319) have learned enough English in the years since they started school to now be considered “fluent English proficient.”

    How does a student become designated an English learner? 

    When a family enrolls a student in school for the first time, they are asked to fill out a survey about the languages the child speaks. If the child speaks a language other than English — even if they also speak English — the school is required to test the child’s English proficiency and decide based on that test whether the child is an English learner. 

    If the test — the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California, or ELPAC — shows the student to be proficient in reading, writing, speaking and listening in English, they are designated as “Initially Fluent English Proficient” and no longer have to take an English proficiency test again. If the test shows the student is not proficient in English, then they are designated as an English learner. Every spring after that, they must retake the English proficiency test until they are reclassified as “fluent English proficient,” based on this test and how they do on academic tests in English Language Arts, in addition to parents’ and teachers’ perspectives.

    How does the population of English learners change over time?

    As students advance through elementary and middle school, more of them are reclassified as fluent and English proficient each year, as shown by the illustration below. When students learn enough English to be reclassified as “fluent English proficient,” they are no longer considered English learners. At the same time, new students enroll for the first time in California public schools and are added to the English learner group every year in every grade.

    Where are these students from?

    The vast majority of English learners were born in the U.S. Among California K-12 students who said they spoke English “less than very well,” 72% were born in the U.S., according to an analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2016 American Community Survey by the Migration Policy Institute. A higher proportion of English learners in grades 6-12 were born outside the country (45%) compared to grades K-5 (13%).

    How many are recent immigrants?

    In 2023-24, there were 189,634 recent immigrant students in California who were not born in the U.S. and had not been attending school in the U.S. for more than three full academic years, according to the California Department of Education.

    What languages do they speak?

    California TK-12 students speak more than 100 different languages other than English. The most common language spoken in California other than English is Spanish — 74.27% of current or former English learners in 2024-25 spoke Spanish, according to the California Department of Education.

    The second most common language spoken by current and former English learners in 2024-25 was Mandarin, spoken by 3.57% of these students. The third most common language was Vietnamese, spoken by 2.65%. After that were Cantonese, Arabic, Russian, Korean and Philippine languages, in that order.

    How long does it take for students to learn English?

    Research shows it normally takes students between four and seven years to learn academic English proficiently.

    Only 7.6% of 2024-25 first graders who started school as English learners had been reclassified as “fluent English proficient” in the short time they had been in school. The percentage increases in every grade — among sixth graders who started school as English learners, for example, 45.4% had been reclassified; among eighth graders who started school as English learners, 62.3% had been reclassified; among 12th graders, 73.2% had been reclassified. It’s important to note that the total number of English learners also includes students who started school in later grades and have been enrolled for less time.

    Where do they go to school?

    There are English learners and former English learners in almost every school district in California, but the percentage varies widely. For example, 85.7% of students in Calexico Unified School District in Imperial County near the border with Mexico, started school as English learners, but only 4.3% of students in Dehesa School District in San Diego County were ever English learners.

    How can you tell how well a school is serving its English learners?

    The English Language Progress Indicator measures English learner progress by showing how many English learners progressed at least one level on the ELPAC, maintained the same level as the previous year, or decreased one or more levels. You can look up your school’s progress on the California School Dashboard.

    Another measure is the reclassification rate — the number and percentage of English learner students who reclassify each year. However, the California Department of Education has not published this rate since 2020-21.

    You can also measure a school district’s English learner progress by looking at the number of students who are “long-term English learners” and “at-risk of becoming long-term English learners.” Long-Term English Learners, or LTELs, are students in 6-12th grade who have been enrolled in a U.S. school for at least six years but have remained at the same English language proficiency level on the ELPAC for two or more consecutive years or regressed to a lower English language proficiency level. Students “at risk of becoming Long-Term English Learners” are in third-12th grade, have been enrolled in U.S. schools for four to five years and scored at the intermediate level or below on the ELPAC.

    Are academic test scores good measures of English learners’ performance?

    By definition, students who are designated as English learners are not yet proficient in academic English reading and writing, so it makes sense that they would not do well on academic tests in English. In fact, in many districts, students must do well on those tests, in addition to the English proficiency test, in order to be reclassified as “fluent English proficient.” When students do become proficient in English and are reclassified, they are no longer included in the English learner category. These students tend to do better on tests than students who speak only English at home.

    What do other measures like graduation rates tell us about English learners?

    Graduation rates tend to be low for English learners, as are other college and career preparation measures, such as how many A-G courses students have completed. (These courses are required for enrollment in the University of California and California State University systems.) However, it is important to keep in mind that the California Department of Education only publishes these measures for current English learners in high school, many of whom are recent immigrants. The department does not publish these measures for students who were once English learners and have since reclassified.





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  • English learners, too, would benefit from fixing how we teach reading in California; this bill is a good start

    English learners, too, would benefit from fixing how we teach reading in California; this bill is a good start


    Credit: Allison Shelley / American Education

    Imagine a cross-country road trip using outdated maps. What are the chances you’ll take the best routes or even get to your destination?

    This is what’s happening in California classrooms. Teachers receive outdated tools to teach reading; consequently far too few students become motivated, competent readers and writers.

    Our most disadvantaged students pay the steepest price. Only 2 in 10 low-income Black students in third grade are at least on grade level in English language arts. The same is true for 3 in 10 low-income Latino students, 2 in 10 English learners, and 2 in 10 students with disabilities. Overall, only 4 in 10 California third graders read on grade level.

     Many factors, in and out of school, influence reading achievement. Schools cannot affect what they cannot control. But they can control how reading is taught. AB 2222, introduced by Assemblymember Blanca Rubio, seeks to update how schools teach reading. It would require that instructional reading materials, teacher preparation reading courses, and in-service teacher professional development all adhere to reading research, which the bill refers to as the “science of reading.”

    English learner advocacy organizations opposing AB 2222 — the California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE), Californians Together and, most recently, the Center for Equity for English Learners at Loyola Marymount University — have voiced extreme objections to the bill with no hint of attempting to find workable solutions.

    This is unfortunate. Because California’s teacher preparation programs provide insufficient attention to teaching reading to English learners, a concerted effort is necessary to address this and other policy shortcomings affecting these students. 

    Yet when Assemblymember Rubio, formerly an English learner and a teacher, called upon CABE and Californians Together to help draft legislation to serve every child in California, including English learners, the groups refused, citing a “philosophical difference.”

    Philosophies aside, existing research could help teachers of English learners do a better job. Why would self-described advocates for these students walk away from developing solutions, choosing instead to deprive teachers and teacher educators of research knowledge to help students attain higher literacy levels? Whose interests are served? Certainly not students’.

    Vague, misleading language and misinformation plague the field, most perniciously about the “science of reading.” The term is cited repeatedly in the bill but poorly defined.

    Moreover, opponents of the bill are fond of labeling science of reading as one-size-fits-all, rigid, or a “magic pill.” It is none of these. Nor does it “isolate” phonics.

    Anyone who knows anything about reading research over the past half-century knows these characterizations are simply wrong.

    Many districts have indeed implemented poor practices such as excessive phonics instruction and insufficient attention to language, comprehension, vocabulary and knowledge development, all in the name of “science of reading.” This can’t be blamed on reading science. The culprit is misinformation, which opponents of the bill perpetuate.

    I’ll try to clarify.

    The science of reading — just as the science of anything — is a body of knowledge that informs how students develop reading skills and how we can most effectively teach reading (and writing) in different languages to monolingual or multilingual students. This science, based on decades of research from different disciplines and different student populations worldwide, shows that:

    • While a first language is typically acquired naturally by being around people who speak it, written language (literacy) must generally be taught, learned and practiced. This is true for a first, second or later language.
    • Literacy is extremely difficult, if not impossible, without foundational skills connecting the sounds of the language with the letters representing those sounds, what is typically called “phonics” or “decoding.”
    • The best way to help children acquire foundational literacy skills is through direct, explicit and systematic instruction to help them develop accurate and automatic word reading skills. The practice known as “three-cueing,” where students are taught to recognize words using some combination of “semantic,” “syntactic” and “grapho-phonic” cues, is far less effective for most students, including English learners: It’s insufficiently explicit about how the sounds of the language are represented in print.
    • Some students will require a great deal of explicit instruction; others will require much less. Instruction building on individual students’ strengths and addressing their needs is necessary.
    • As they develop these foundational skills, and throughout their schooling, students need instruction and other experiences to develop oral language, vocabulary, knowledge and other skills. Accurate and automatic foundational literacy skills merge with these other skills, leading to skilled fluent reading and comprehension, both of which must be supported and improved as students progress through school.
    • Although all this is true for students in general, some require additional considerations. For example, English learners in English-only programs (as most of these students are) must receive additional instruction in English language development, e.g., vocabulary, as they’re learning to read in English. English learners fortunate enough to be in long-term bilingual programs, continuing through middle and high school, can become speakers and readers of two languages — English and their home language.

    Unfortunately, AB 2222 undermines its own cause by failing to articulate clearly what science of reading actually signifies. With some improvements, the bill could acknowledge what we know from research that is relevant to meeting the needs of English learners:

    • How to help English learners having difficulty with beginning and early reading get on track, either in Spanish or English;
    • How to help older English learners make better progress in their reading achievement by providing comprehensive advanced literacy instruction; and;
    • How long-term bilingual education can pay dividends in terms of bilingualism, biliteracy and generally enhanced English language achievement.

    It is difficult to pack all this into a piece of legislation clearly and precisely. But try we must if we’re serious about improving reading achievement rather than winning the latest reading wars skirmish.

    We should get past the squabbling, turf protection and unhelpful language and instead do the right thing for all students. AB 2222’s introduction is an important step forward on the road to universal literacy in California. We must get it on the right track and take it across the finish line.

    •••

    Claude Goldenberg is Nomellini & Olivier Professor of Education, emeritus, in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University and a former first grade and junior high teacher.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • ‘Serving adult learners’: California community colleges are expanding short-term career programs

    ‘Serving adult learners’: California community colleges are expanding short-term career programs


    Joanne Scott, left, practices pharmaceutical compounding, part of Mt. San Antonio College’s short-term vocational pharmaceutical technician program.

    Michael Burke/EdSource

    Top Takeaways
    • Short-term vocational certificates, especially those in health fields, are growing across community colleges.
    • At Mt. San Antonio College, 83% of students complete the programs on their first try.
    • Officials see vocational training as a way to recover enrollments, which dropped sharply during the pandemic.

    Joanne Scott had been without full-time work for about two decades and was struggling to reenter the workforce. Then she learned this year about a short-term pharmacy technician program at Mt. San Antonio College in eastern Los Angeles County. 

    Scott, 45, is a stand-up comedian who performs about twice a week in Los Angeles, usually at The Elysian Theater in the city’s Frogtown neighborhood, but was looking for a more consistent paycheck. She and her husband have twin 11-year-old boys, and Scott wanted to contribute more. 

    “Obviously, being a performer is not steady,” she said. 

    Scott thought something in the medical field would be promising because of the high demand in the job market. She landed on the pharmaceutical program in part because it fit her schedule. The noncredit program is just 20 weeks long, and classes are during the day, allowing Scott to still perform comedy in the evenings. Students who get their certificate often enter the workforce right away as a pharmaceutical technician, either at a retail location like Walgreens or within a hospital. 

    The program is one of 48 short-term vocational programs that Mt. San Antonio has added in the past five years as part of an effort to serve more adults and prepare them for the workforce. Most of the new programs are in health fields, but the college has also added programs in areas such as tax accounting, welding and appliance repair.

    It’s reflective of a growing trend across the state’s community colleges to target more programs at adult students who, because they often work or have family to support, have less time for school than traditional-aged students do. College officials say that enrolling those adults is one way to reverse steep pandemic declines across all populations.

    Serving large portions of the San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire, Mt. San Antonio has prioritized noncredit vocational programs because many adults in the region are interested in upskilling or finding new careers, said Martha Garcia, the college’s president and CEO. 

    “If we look at trends for our traditional students, 18 to 24, that population is decreasing,” Garcia said. “I’ve analyzed our demographics, and if I want to impact this community at the greatest level that I can, I need to focus on serving adult learners, because that’s where we have the greatest level of need.”

    The number of adult learners in the community college system took a massive hit during the pandemic: Head counts for students age 35 and older declined by about 25% between 2019 and 2021, an even higher rate than students in the 18 to 24 age range. 

    Those enrollments have, however, been steadily recovering in recent years, especially among students aged 35 to 44, who are now enrolled near their pre-pandemic levels. 

    One of the reasons for that is the expansion of short-term, noncredit vocational programs. 

    The programs are tuition-free for students, which is common for noncredit programs across the state. That helps the community colleges compete with for-profit colleges and other institutions that offer their own short-term programs, often with much higher tuition rates. 

    The colleges also benefit because they receive state funding for students enrolled in noncredit programs. 

    In 2023-24, community college enrollment statewide in noncredit career programs rose to nearly 82,000 full-time equivalent students, up about 37,000 from pandemic lows and also much higher than pre-pandemic levels. 

    Mt. San Antonio now has 89 noncredit vocational programs, and about 83% of students who enroll complete their chosen program on the first try. That’s much better than the percentage of students who typically finish longer degree programs at California’s community colleges: Fewer than 1 in 10 students complete an associate degree or transfer to a four-year university within two years of enrolling, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

    Most of the vocational programs at Mt. San Antonio have a limited number of spots and are open to students with a high school diploma or equivalent on a first-come, first-served basis. The college’s licensed vocational nursing program has more stringent admission standards, requiring students to submit high school transcripts, write a personal statement and demonstrate basic skills competency. 

    On a recent Tuesday morning on the Mt San Antonio campus, Scott and other students in her program were practicing pharmaceutical compounding, a process that involves mixing or altering drug ingredients to create a medication. In a classroom on the other side of the campus, students in the medical assistant program — another noncredit vocational program — were practicing cleaning minor wounds on one another. 

    Many of the programs also include an externship, essentially an unpaid internship with a local employer in which students shadow employees or get additional hands-on training. Pharmacy technician students complete a 120-hour externship at a retail location or at a nearby hospital such as Casa Colina in Pomona. Students who do well in their externships often get hired right away, said Amy Kamel, the instructor for the pharmaceutical technician program.

    Whenever Mt. San Antonio designs a new vocational program, it’s typically based on labor market data and filling a need, said Diana Lupercio, the college’s director of short-term vocational programs. 

    “One of the main questions that students will ask us is, what can I do with this? They want to make sure it’s going to lead to a job,” Lupercio said. 

    Other times, students enroll as a first step to a more advanced degree, like going to pharmacy school or a registered nursing program. Registered nursing programs at California’s community colleges are typically competitive, with the number of applications often exceeding the number of available spots. 

    Sabrina Hernandez, 29, enrolled in the medical assistant program because it seemed like a “good stepping stone” to a career in health care. Hernandez, who is considering becoming a nurse, initially attended Fullerton College after high school and dropped out to work. She recently finished the medical assistant program at Mt. San Antonio and has started applying for jobs, which she’s hopeful will give her a better sense of whether she wants to continue on her current path.

    “I thought this was a good way to make sure I actually like being in a hospital,” she said. Hernandez eventually plans to return to college if she can get admitted to a registered nursing program and is hoping her new certification will bolster her application.

    Scott, the pharmaceutical tech student, has some interest in pursuing a more advanced degree and going to pharmacy school, but isn’t certain because doing so would lead to a more stressful career. 

    For now, she is going to class from 8 am to about 1:30 pm each Monday through Thursday and hoping to land a job at a hospital, which she said she would prefer to a retail job because she’d be interacting with doctors and nurses rather than directly with patients. 

    “I’m just looking forward to a reliable paycheck,” she said. “All my friends are performers who are poor, and I’ve been texting them saying, ‘You gotta go back to college.’”





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  • California educators protest Trump’s proposed cuts for English learners

    California educators protest Trump’s proposed cuts for English learners


    Students at Rudsdale Continuation High School in Oakland, California.

    Credit: Anne Wernikoff for Edsource

    Magaly Lavadenz was excited about what she felt could be a game-changer for students who are learning English as a second language.

    The Center for Equity for English Learners (CEEL) at Loyola Marymount University, which Lavadenz directs, had just won a grant in October 2024 for $5.7 million from the U.S. Department of Education to establish a National Comprehensive Center on English Learners and Multilingualism.

    The center would provide resources, training and materials to state education agencies and tribal education agencies so they could, in turn, help districts provide the best support to English learners.

    “There was so much excitement about this work,” Lavadenz said. 

    Then, four months later, in February, Lavadenz received a letter from the U.S. Department of Education terminating the grant and claiming that it violated President Donald Trump’s executive order on diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI. 

    It was a chilling foreshadowing of what would come.

    The Trump administration later cut the vast majority of the staff of the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA), which is charged with administering federal funding for English learners, providing resources and training to schools, and making sure states provide the instruction and services they are required to provide to English learners.

    Then, in Trump’s budget request released May 2, he proposed eliminating the federal funding earmarked for English learners and immigrant students under Title III of the Every Student Succeeds Act, the federal education law.

    “To end overreach from Washington and restore the rightful role of State oversight in education, the Budget proposes to eliminate the misnamed English Language Acquisition program which actually deemphasizes English primacy by funding NGOs and States to encourage bilingualism,” reads the budget proposal. “The historically low reading scores for all students mean States and communities need to unite—not divide—classrooms using evidence-based literacy instruction materials to improve outcomes for all students.”

    Researchers, advocates, and school district administrators say the termination of grants and proposed cuts to funding for schools are misinformed and violate federal law.

    “There are civil rights laws that protect English learners,” Lavadenz said. “We believe that the U.S. Department of Education is in violation of those.”

    Both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 require public schools to ensure that English learners can participate fully in school at the same level as their English-speaking peers. The U.S. Supreme Court decided in the Lau v. Nichols case in 1974 that schools must provide additional instruction to students who do not speak English fluently to make sure they can understand the content of their classes. 

    Education leaders in California said the cuts to Title III would be devastating. Title III funds are sent to state education agencies, like the California Department of Education, to distribute to schools based on the number of immigrant and English learner students they have. They are to be used to help students understand academic content in their classes and to help them learn English.

    Debra Duardo, the Los Angeles County superintendent of schools, said she was “deeply concerned” by the Trump administration’s proposal to eliminate Title III. In the 2023-24 school year, schools in L.A. County received approximately $30 million in Title III funding for English learners, she said, which was used for tutoring, support staff, instructional coaching, and high-quality supplemental materials. In addition, they received $2.5 million for immigrant students, which were used to help support family literacy and outreach, school personnel, tutorials, mentoring, and academic and career counseling.

    “This decision would have devastating impacts on Los Angeles County schools, where we serve one of the nation’s largest populations of English learners and children from migrant families,” Duardo said. 

    Lavadenz said if the funds are cut, districts may stop providing services to English learners, or they may remove funding from other areas to keep providing services.

    “There’s going to be potential not just for the elimination of services, but we’re going to be pitting student groups against each other,” Lavadenz said.

    Nicole Knight, executive director of English Language Learner and Multilingual Achievement at Oakland Unified School District, agreed.

    “Ultimately, cutting support for English learners jeopardizes the quality of education for all students, as districts would be forced to divert resources from other critical priorities in order to meet their legal obligations to provide language services,” Knight said.

    In addition, a loss of funds would likely mean no federal monitoring, collection of data on English learners, or oversight to make sure states or school districts are actually providing the services they are required to under the law.

    “I am devastated to see that work dismantled at the federal level,” said Knight. “It feels like years of progress and good work are being erased.”

    Efraín Tovar, who teaches recent immigrant students at Abraham Lincoln Middle School in Selma Unified School District in the Central Valley and is also the founder of the California Newcomer Network, said his district has used Title III funds to buy supplemental curriculum and computer software for newcomer students. He said some districts have used the funds to create innovative Saturday programs for recent immigrant students to help them learn.

    “Here in Selma, those funds have helped me directly impact my students’ educational journey,” Tovar said. Every single dollar in public education helps. If those funds are not given by the federal government, the question we have at the local level is, will the state then make it a priority to fund those special programs?”

    Many California leaders disagreed with the administration’s arguments that bilingual education or encouraging bilingualism makes students less likely to speak English. 

    “Decades of research clearly support dual-language and multilingual programs as the most effective models for helping students acquire English and achieve long-term academic success,” Knight said. “I can only hold on to hope that our lawmakers will attend to the evidence, the research, and their conscience to make the right decision for our young people.”

    Lavadenz is not convinced, however, that Congress will end up cutting all that funding, especially given that some Republican states like Texas have a long history of encouraging, or even requiring, bilingual education for English learners.

    “This is an evolving story,” she said. “The states that have a lot more to lose are not necessarily progressive states like California.”





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  • Identifying CODA students as bilingual learners boosts academic success

    Identifying CODA students as bilingual learners boosts academic success


    Children of Deaf Adults attending the KODAWest summer camp.

    Courtesy: KODAWest

    Three decades ago, I was flagged as needing special education services because I had a Deaf parent.

    The teachers found gaps in my academic and linguistic development. I received those services for six years until a school speech pathologist noted that my language and speech delays were because of a language difference — American Sign Language, or ASL, was my first language — and not a language disorder. 

    Not recognizing earlier that special education services were not what I needed was a waste of resources, not to mention unhelpful to my progress as a student. What I needed was support as an English learner; instead, I had to sink or swim as I figured out school on my own.

    The same is true of my student Ryan, a third-grader, and a CODA — a child of Deaf adults. Ryan and I are both bilingual; we learned American Sign Language as our first language and English as our second. There are significant language differences between ASL and English. ASL has its own grammar and syntax and is wholly separate from English. However, children who learn American Sign Language as their first language are not classified as English learners. This is why Ryan is identified as a special education student, not an English learner, just as I was 30 years ago.

    Just like my teachers, Ryan’s teachers worried that he might have a learning disability. Ryan was not assessed in sign language when evaluated for special education services, so he was placed in a special day class. He was identified as having a specific learning disability, a language disorder and articulation errors.

    Just as I didn’t need special education services, neither does Ryan. If ASL were considered a language separate from English, Ryan would be an English learner. As such, he would have access to language support in the general education setting. He would not be placed in a special education class or lose valuable time learning with his peers while he receives services from a speech language pathologist. 

    General education classrooms are designed to support English language development, which children like Ryan also need. Receiving language support means getting help with learning a second language by sounding out letters and words, understanding the phonics behind them, syntax and vocabulary, and building connections between English and American Sign Language so that students can grow their vocabulary in both languages. 

    Identifying Ryan as an English learner would also have preserved his multiculturalism by celebrating his cultural and linguistic differences. English learner programs are designed to incorporate students’ native languages and cultural backgrounds into the learning process. At their best, these programs validate heritage and provide an inclusive environment, empowering students to share their unique perspectives and helping them feel like they belong in our classrooms. This is what Ryan needs. 

    I struggled with my identity for a long time, and sometimes, I still do. It took me several years to catch up to my peers academically and linguistically, and all the while, I didn’t understand why learning was so hard for me. I certainly didn’t think of myself as bilingual. My mother could not help me with phonics or reading in spoken language, so my homework took me hours to complete. Often, I used my lunchtime to sit with teachers to help me with projects, and I would go to friends’ houses after school, so their parents would help me with my work. It shouldn’t have been this difficult, but it was.

    Children of Deaf adults deserve to be successful in their education and should have help learning English alongside their bilingual peers who use spoken languages. Although my experience is 30 years older than Ryan’s, it is eerily similar.

    Change is needed, and the time is now, because every student deserves to succeed. 

    •••

    Olivia Chavez-Hart, Ed.D., is an itinerant teacher of the Deaf and hard of hearing and an induction coach in the San Bernardino City Unified School District in San Bernardino. She is a 2024-25 Teach Plus California Senior Policy Fellow.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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