When Californians overwhelmingly voted in June to end most bilingual education programs, left unanswered was how the academic achievement of English learners would be measured.

Even before approval of Proposition 227, the measure that dramatically reshaped the way English-learners are taught in California, a team of bilingual educators began working on achievement standards for these students.

The goal of the group, which is directed by the San Diego County Office of Education, has been to ensure that the standards for English-learning students statewide mirror the more rigorous language-arts standards enacted this year by the state Board of Education for California students.

Across the state, there are 1.4 million students who speak languages other than English. In San Diego County, more than 97,000 schoolchildren speak a total of 54 languages.

“We want to emphasize that this is not a two-tiered system where we have separate standards for English language learners,” said Adel Nadeau, the director of the state’s English Language Proficiency Assessment Project.

Called the Pathway to Academic Performance, the standards test listening, speaking, reading and writing skills in English for kindergarten through 12th grade students whose native languages are other than English.

“This helps us assess achievement while kids are learning English and subject matters,” Nadeau said.

For example, native English sixth-graders must be able to read for information, rather than simply learning to read, and they must understand they can get that information from different written sources.

The standards for English learners expect the same. Students must be able to recognize the different sources of information. Instead of speaking in full sentences and paragraphs in English, however, the students can draw pictures explaining the information.

“They’re getting the content, but at a level they understand,” Nadeau said.

The standards are ready for state Board of Education approval, but they are not slated for discussion by the board until after the November election, Nadeau said.

To acquaint educators with the proposed standards, the county Office of Education sponsored a forum yesterday, giving samples of the standards.

“The message we are giving is that in light of (Proposition) 227, it is so much more important that we hold ourselves accountable,” Nadeau said. “We need to know if they are, in fact, learning English at an academically high level.”

It is crucial in light of English learners’ poor performance on the state assessment test this year. Reading scores for those students generally were in the bottom fifth percentile, meaning the scores were sometimes 30 points below the average score of 50.

“This underscores that we also have high expectations for our kids,” said George Cameron, superintendent of the National School District. “We feel they can achieve high class standards.”

Assessments will fuel instruction, Cameron said.

“The more we know of children’s strengths, the more we can move them to the next level,” he said.

Hector Decena has four children who attend elementary through high school in the San Marcos Unified School District. He was at the forum yesterday to get as much information as possible to help his children.

“I want to be informed step by step how they’re going to implement this so I can ensure our children are obtaining the education they need,” Decena said.



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