LINGUISTIC MINORITY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Patrica Gándara, Julie Maxwell-Jolly, and Russell W. Rumberger

April 2008

In 2006 the Governor and the California Legislature commissioned a set of 23 papers, collectively referred to as Getting Down to Facts, funded by a consortium of foundations with the objective of “provid[ing] common ground for understanding the current state of California school finance and governance.” The operating hypothesis was that with good information on all aspects of the educational governance and finance systems of the state, efficiencies and funding enhancements could be made that would improve the achievement of the state’s students, which ranks toward the bottom on national comparisons. The studies were designed to be more descriptive than prescriptive, but they were intended to form a basis for engaging stakeholders in deep conversations about possible policy alternatives.

This document is an extension of the original report entitled Resource Needs for California’s English Learners, authored by Patricia Gándara and Russell Rumberger, and is the result of deliberations from several informal meetings and two formal convenings of major stakeholders in the area of English Learner education. Its intent is to suggest a series of policy options, based on data examined in the initial report, that the state might want to consider to strengthen the educational offerings provided to California’s linguistic minority students.

Julie Maxwell-Jolly, Patrica Gándara and Lina Méndez Benavídez

February 2007

*Because it draws on both research knowledge and expert knowledge this report has not been peer reviewed.

This report is a synthesis of research, challenges, and best practices in the education of secondary English Learners (ELs). It incorporates a summary of three days of presentations and discussions by key national experts in the spring of 2005, observations and findings from our own research, and key issues from the research literature. The report provides an overview of the most pressing issues facing schools in the instruction of secondary English Learners. It also includes the perspectives of people in the schools and in the classrooms who are attempting to meet these students' needs, as well as individuals who have been grappling with the challenges from the world of policy. The report concludes with our recommendations for California education policy informed by all of the above: the challenges that secondary EL students and teachers face, the needs and limitations of teachers and schools in the state, and the best practices cited by both researchers and practitioners. Many recommendations were suggested.

Policy Report #2006-1

Norm Gold, with Julie Maxwell-Jolly

June 2006

A Policy Brief (PDF, 4 pgs.) on this report is available. This brief was originally published in the UC LMRI Newsletter, V.15, No.3.

Policy Report #2002-1

Phillip Kaufman, MPR Associates

August 2002

This paper explores the feasibility of collecting longitudinal survey data on students within California schools as a way of supplementing the information California currently collects on its students. Hopefully, this paper will be the start of a process that will lead to the institution of what we in this paper tentatively call the California Education Longitudinal Study (CELS). After demonstrating the feasibility of a CELS during a briefing with policymakers in Sacramento on April 27, 2001 (see Appendix B), my presumption is that California will either contract with other outside consultants familiar with data collection operations or use current state government staff to develop a full written design of CELS. This design should lead, in turn, to either an in- house data collection or a data collection by a survey research firm familiar with large-scale longitudinal surveys.

Policy Report #2001-1

Robert Linquanti, WestEd

September 2001

This policy report focuses on the tensions and dilemmas surrounding one of the most common milestones used for defining and measuring English Learners' (ELs) progress: their redesignation or reclassification from limited to fluent English proficient (FEP). Although reclassification can have important consequences for students and for the education programs that serve them-determining instructional services, performance expectations, and evaluative judgments of programs-the concept of reclassification, as currently defined and implemented, cannot credibly carry this responsibility. In fact, it may actually be contributing to educational inequity, lack of accountability, and student failure.

UC LMRI, Education Policy Center

Gandara, P., Maxwell-Jolly, J., Garcia, E., Asato, J., Gutierrez, K., Stritikus, T., Curry, J.

April 2000

In June 1998, California voters passed Proposition 227, which severely restricted the use of primary language for instructing English learners, and instead called for a transitional program of "structured English immersion" that was not normally to last more than one year. What has been the initial impact of Proposition 227?...

UC LMRI

Russell W. Rumberger and Patricia Gandara

April 2000

An increasing number of students entering California's schools come from non-English speaking backgrounds. Although some of these language minority students enter school already proficient in English, the majority do not. These students are now referred to as English learners...

Policy Report #2000-1

Kenji Hakuta, Yuko Goto Butler and Daria Witt, Stanford University

January 2000

One of the most commonly asked questions about the education of language minority students is how long they need special services, such as English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and bilingual education. Under the U. S. Supreme Court's interpretation of the Civil Rights Act in Lau v. Nichols (1974), local school districts and states have an obligation to provide appropriate services to limited-English-proficient students (in California now referred to as EL or English learner students), but policymakers have long debated setting time limits for students to receive such services...

UC LMRI, Education Policy Center

Patricia Gandara

1997 - revised Feb. 1999

The following report was written at the request of the Latino Caucus of the California Legislature and was completed in April of 1997 as the debate surrounding Proposition 227 was getting underway. The mpetus for the report was the concern of the caucus that much of the rhetoric in the press and on the street was that "bilingual education had failed." The Caucus asked the question, "Is there research evidence that bilingual education works?" Hence, the task that was put to us was "not" to provide an accounting of studies and essays on all sides of the issue, but to essentially "present the case" for bilingual education...