English-Learners Test Results Show Slight Change

Santa Clara County students who took this year’s California English Language Development Test, or CELDT, edged ahead of the state average on performance but fell slightly when compared with the county’s scores from last year.

The CELDT test is given annually to students identified as English learners until the student passes into a zone that reclassifies them as fluent in English. The test assesses listening, speaking, reading and writing for students from kindergarten through grade 12. Scores are reported on five performance levels—beginning being the lowest level to advanced on the higher spectrum—and students are considered proficient in English once they attain an overall rating of early advanced or better.

A 2 percent drop was seen in the county’s students who performed at the early advanced level from 32 percent to 30 percent, and the number at the advanced level dropped from 12 percent to 10 percent.

A fairly significant “achievement gap” was also found among county test takers, the Santa Clara County Office of Education reports, with less than a third of Spanish-speaking students scoring as proficient, while proficiency among students of other primary languages ranged from 46 percent for Filipino to 67 percent for Mandarin.

According to Larry Slonaker, county schools public information coordinator, the office of education is working hard to eliminate the achievement gap and also boost the success of English learners with two noteworthy projects.

“A Look at Learning (A.L.L) has great potential to boost the achievement of English learners,” said Slonacker. “The goal is to increase English learners’ achievement by helping to enable teachers to implement English Language Development and Specially Designed Academic instruction in English practices so that English learners will success academically and acquire English quickly.”

In its preliminary stages, A.L.L., a pilot program used in 18 districts across nine counties, has two major components: job embedded professional development and research-based practices for English learners and collaborative coaching support to teachers in key focus areas.

Another initiative, SJ2020, a large collaborative supported by the county office of education, the city of San Jose, school districts, businesses, nonprofits and colleges, aims at eliminating the achievement gap.

“The achievement gap refers to the disparity in academic performance between two groups: lower-performing Hispanic/Latino and African-American students, and higher-performing Asian and white/non-Hispanic students,” Slonaker said.

Since it was launched in October 2009, SJ2020 has progressed in several important areas, according to Slonaker.

A series of evaluation metrics to track progress has been created, an Early Learning Master Plan has been launched, and four interconnected focus areas have been formed—early learning, home and community, school and classroom, and college and career success.

Slonaker also said the office has focused its efforts on outreach, professional development and other efforts in early learning, career technical education and the visual and performing arts, all of which “we believe are important avenues toward eliminating the gap.”

Compared with the rest of the nation, California has the greatest number of students whose primary language is not English. More than 100 languages are spoken by the state's English learners, of which approximately 85 percent speak Spanish, according to the California Office of Education.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson blames the decrease in scores on the state’s budget cuts and the overwhelming task teachers have in accomplishing more with less.

"These results demonstrate that the valiant efforts of teachers and school administrators to help our students become fluent in English are being undermined by budget cuts that are crowding classes and shortening the school year," he said. "For years, we've been asking our schools to do more with less, and somehow they have managed to deliver. That cannot go on forever. The only way to achieve and sustain the excellence we want for English learners and all students is to invest in our schools again," he said.

The scores were released Tuesday, the same day Torlakson announced his decision to compete for additional funds through the U.S. Department of Education to create a new English-language proficiency assessment system aligned to the new college and career ready standards.

"As the state that is home to one of every three English learners in the nation and, as such, we are in a unique position to lead this effort, and I am very optimistic that our efforts will be successful," he said.

The new English-language proficiency assessment would replace the current CELDT for English learners. Applications are due to the U.S. Department of Education by June 3, with awards scheduled to be announced in the early fall.