Hillary Sally, right, teaches a kindergarten class at West Riverside Elementary School in Jurupa Valley on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016. In Sally’s West Riverside class, she worked with a small group of English learners to find the main idea in the story, “Pete the Cat ” They were asked questions to help them answer orally and write complete sentences. (Photo by Curt Miller, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Written by Zaidi Staveli
EdSource
California enrolls a much lower percentage of English learners in bilingual education programs than other states, according to an October report from the Century Foundation.
The researchers also found that California invests less than other states in bilingual education. They recommend that the state significantly expand investment in multilingual education, especially dual language immersion programs; Prioritize enrollment in these programs for English language learners; Invest more in recruiting and preparing bilingual teachers.
The authors stated that prioritizing enrollment of English learners in bilingual and dual-language immersion programs is important, because research has shown that these programs help English learners.
“Every year new studies show that English learners, especially young English learners, perform best when they are in some form of bilingual environment,” said Connor B. Williams, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and one of the report’s authors. . “They do their best in everything, they do their best in maintaining their mother tongue, and of course, they do their best in learning English over time, and they do the 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 have been English language learners; About half of them are currently learning English while the other half are now fluent in the language.
However, only 16.4% of the state’s English learners were enrolled in bilingual or bilingual immersion programs in 2019-2020. This percentage is three times lower than the percentage of English learners enrolled in those programs in Wisconsin (55.9%) and more than two times lower than Texas (36.7%), Illinois (35.9%), and New Jersey (33.4%). .
Williams recognized that California is still rebuilding its efforts to expand bilingual education, after a voter-approved measure, Proposition 227, severely limited it from 1997 to 2016. However, he said, “efforts to rebuild have not Be big.”
“California doesn’t allocate very significant resources to a state this size,” Williams said. “The investment in new or expanded bilingual education programs is very modest. It’s $10 million in a one-time grant competition. Delaware invests a few million a year, and has been doing so for the last 10 years. Utah spends $7 million a year on dual language .
The report finds that funding invested in expanding bilingual education lags far behind the state’s stated goals. For example, the Global California 2030 report, written in 2018, 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 students graduating Fluent in two or more languages. languages by 2040. There are currently about 750 dual immersion programs in California, according to the California Basic Educational Data System.
It’s also important for California to expand bilingual education in transitional kindergarten classrooms, where English language learners can benefit from it at a younger age, the report’s authors said. Transitional kindergarten is an additional year of schooling before kindergarten. The state is gradually expanding access to the grade each year until 2025, when all 4-year-olds will become eligible.
The new report recommended changing certification requirements for transitional kindergarten in order to hire more preschool teachers, since many preschool teachers speak Spanish and other languages, compared to K-12 teachers.
Anna Powell, senior research and policy associate at the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California at Berkeley, said she and many other early education advocates agree that current preschool teachers face an “uphill battle” to become TK teachers.
According to the CSCCE, an estimated 17,000 workers in preschool and child care programs have a bachelor’s degree, a child development teacher permit and at least six years of teaching experience in early childhood settings. However, Powell said the proposed new credentials for pre-kindergarten through third grade would only allow work as a preschool teacher to count toward a portion of the required hours.
“Experienced teachers will be required to return to school and/or gain additional qualifications first – most likely while doing a full-time teaching job,” Powell said. “Meanwhile, a middle school public school teacher can teach TK without any new clinical hours or other time-consuming requirements, as long as he or she has taken 24 units of early childhood education 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 has an ideal policy framework, but what is missing is a concrete and systematic plan, and adequate and targeted funding for effective implementation and accountability for better educational opportunities and outcomes for English language 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 better support English learners.
One way to recruit more bilingual teachers in either TK or other grades is to encourage high school graduates who have earned the state Seal of Literacy to join teacher preparation programs, Hernandez said. To obtain the State Seal of Biliteracy, graduates must demonstrate proficiency in both English and another language.
“A modest goal of 5% of the more than 400,000 candidates could significantly reduce the shortfall,” Hernandez said. “It is time to translate vision into action.”
As the diverse population of California continues to grow, the state is finding itself lagging behind other states in providing adequate bilingual education for English learners. Despite the large number of English learners in the state, there are limited resources and options for these students to fully develop their language skills. This issue is especially prevalent in Orange County, where the need for bilingual education is high. With neighboring states and cities making strides in this area, it is imperative for California to address this discrepancy in order to provide equal opportunities for all students.