Credit: Californians Together

English learners from Hoover Schoolhouse in Redwood City participate in Sobrato Early Academic Language, a K-3 literacy plan that researchers for Californians Together identified every bit constructive for language evolution.

Credit: Californians Together

English language learners from Hoover Schoolhouse in Redwood Urban center participate in Sobrato Early Bookish Language, a K-3 literacy programme that researchers for Californians Together identified as effective for language development.

In passing the Every Student Succeeds Deed, Congress rolled dorsum the federal government'south overall reach into testing requirements for K-12 education. But there is a significant exception: English learners.

The successor law to the No Child Left Behind Act significantly expands states' obligations to measure the progress of students who don't yet communicate fluently or learn effectively in English. The constabulary besides compels them to act when schools consistently fail to help those students get proficient.

The new provisions are an acknowledgment that multilingual America must do more to meet the linguistic communication needs of a student subgroup – comprising 10 pct of school children nationwide and 22 per centum, about 1.4 million students, in California – that has trailed in graduation rates, college access and other key academic indicators.

The Every Student Succeeds Human activity makes tracking the progress of English learners a summit priority in each state's school accountability system. It requires states to standardize statewide criteria for designating students English language learners and for reclassifying them as no longer needing extra language instruction. In one case they're reclassified, the police force requires states to monitor former English learners for four years – two years longer than currently done.

California, which adopted new English language linguistic communication development standards in 2022 and a curriculum framework for teaching English learners in 2014, is further forth than nigh states in meeting the accountability requirements of the law, said Robert Linquanti, one of the nation's foremost experts on English learner policy and systems and the project director for English Learner Evaluation and Accountability Back up at the enquiry agency WestEd. Many states view California'due south new standards, which describe the language knowledge and skills English learners need to perform at grade level, and its curriculum framework equally models, Linquanti said.

"The Every Student Succeeds Deed won't sidetrack California; it should provide a tailwind so that it tin proceed its approach," he said.

Big focus on English learners

Under the new federal law, English learners become more than only ane of many student subgroups whose bookish achievements must be tracked by schools receiving federal Title I dollars for depression-income children. Their progress toward English proficiency becomes a priority in a land's school accountability arrangement. Others include high school graduation rates, and exam scores – along with multi-year growth on those scores – of all students and subgroups, including English language learners, on the state's academic standards. In California, that includes Mutual Cadre standards for math and English arts and, shortly, the Next Generation Science Standards.

Consistent with its shift of power from Washington to united states, the new law volition continue the No Child Left Backside Human activity's requirement that states write their own standards for English language development that correspond to a state'south science, math and English linguistic communication arts standards for all students. States must create their ain English language proficiency test, identify schools with the lowest-performing English learners and then oversee plans for schoolhouse improvement. They must report the progress of long-term English learners, those still not skilful after receiving language support for five years.

California is well positioned for the transition. Information technology is developing a new English language proficiency test, English language Linguistic communication Proficiency Assessments for California, which will be aligned to its new English language development standards. The examination is scheduled to be introduced in 2022 as a replacement for the current test, the California English language Language Development Test, which is aligned to the previous standards.

Equally role of their Local Control and Accountability Plans, districts are already required to annually calculate the per centum of English learners who become proficient on the state language test and the rate at which English language learners subsequently are designated fluent-English language proficient.

The State Lath of Education is currently designing a statewide set of performance goals for these and other bookish metrics. The Every Student Succeeds Human activity requires that states include performance on the new proficiency test for English learners as a key metric and, at a minimum, identify and work with the 5 percent of schools with the lowest-scoring English learners.

Shelly Spiegel-Coleman, executive director of Californians Together, a coalition of organizations that advocate for English learners, expressed optimism about the changes. "Having EL students be included equally part of the mainstream accountability organization makes their progress or lack of progress more visible," she wrote in an electronic mail. "If this new attention causes districts and schools to develop a comprehensive approach to services and programs and informs the district LCAPs, at that place could be a direct effect on outcomes."

But, she added, "Just the inclusion of these scores does not create high quality programs and services for English language learners."

Uniform entry and leave criteria

Each state will have to develop and apply uniform criteria and procedures for identifying English learners and for reclassifying them as English-language proficient, ensuring statewide consistency.

That will be a significant alter in California. Most states use only test scores on their English language proficiency test for reclassification. California has identified English learners based on how well they do on the language evolution exam just has left it up to districts and students' teachers to besides weigh a mix of factors, including teacher judgment, scores on other standardized academic tests and parent consultations. As a result, the reclassification process has been subjective and inconsistent, with some students reclassified perhaps too soon and others retained also long every bit English learners, which often limits their access to rigorous courses, Linquanti said.

A report that Linquanti co-authored for the Council of Chief Land School Officers concludes that states should use at least two measures for reclassification, including observations of how students use language in classroom settings. Yet, teachers should be trained in using common evaluation criteria, the report says.

Other changes in federal law include:

  • Counting English language learners differently when calculating funding. The federal government had calculated the number of English learners based on a Demography survey of how parents perceived their child's English fluency, which has led to an undercount in California. The federal authorities will be able to partly use states' own counts, which would heighten the total number of English learners in the land and atomic number 82 to about $20 meg more annually in federal funding, Linquanti said.
  • Grouping the test scores of students newly classified as English-proficient with current English learners. This was a controversial alter. Proponents said monitoring erstwhile English learners for four years instead of the current ii years will provide of import data about how well they perform in middle and high school and nigh how accurate the exit criteria are. "However, past including former English learners, overall scores for the subgroup volition rising and may mask the operation of current English learners," Delia Pompa, senior young man for education policy at the Migration Policy Establish in Washington, D.C., wrote in a commentary for EdSource.
  • Requiring states to distinguish between English language learners with a learning disability and English language learners in general. This will provide a better picture of both groups. Experts say that some English learners are being identified as having a cognitive inability when what they need is more language acquisition aid. Other English language learners do take a learning inability but aren't receiving specialized support.

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