Report calls for big changes in educating state’s English learners
Researchers studying a group of California school districts are highly critical of the state’s system for providing services to English language learners in a report released this week.
Citing disparities in results and strategies among districts, professors from Stanford and other universities called for creating common, statewide criteria for determining who English learners are and for determining when they no longer need extra help. They also recommend:
- Stronger monitoring to ensure that English learners have access to core academic classes and demanding content, the lack of which contributes to a lower graduation rate and readiness for college.
- Better preparing new teachers and training existing teachers to understand second language acquisition and how to incorporate language instruction in all content areas.
- Ending the general ban on bilingual education and creating incentives for districts to expand bilingual and dual language immersion programs, which researchers said can be more effective than English-only instruction in teaching English fluency. An initiative to rescind Proposition 227, the 1998 general ban on bilingual education, will be on the ballot in 2016.
The report incorporates findings of three school district–university research partnerships: in Los Angeles Unified, in a collaboration of seven small and medium-sized districts known as the English Language Learner Leadership Network, Report calls for big changes in educating state’s English learners | EdSource:
