Californians Together proudly advocates for policies and practices to support our state’s 1.1 million English learners. Literacy is fundamental to every student’s academic journey, and we recognize the role of the legislature in proposing solutions to improve literacy that uplift the unique needs of multilingual learners and honors their home languages and cultures. We welcome the introduction of AB 1454 by Speaker Robert Rivas—a bill that seeks to update the state Education Code to direct the state education department to make available professional development training that districts can access to support teachers who provide reading instruction.
We sincerely appreciate Speaker Rivas’s leadership in this area, and his steadfast commitment to supporting California’s English learners. We know the bill is the reflection of ongoing conversations of advocates and organizations that all had one goal in mind—improving literacy for California students.
This legislation requires the department to ensure adequate training for teachers to master literacy concepts that are aligned to the state’s English Language Arts/English Language Development Framework, including integrated and designated English language development instruction, oral language development, vocabulary and background knowledge, and comprehension. The inclusion of these concepts is critically important, as are skills related to word recognition, which are also included in the bill, for ensuring that English learners receive comprehensive instruction that meets them where they are—no matter which language they speak at home.
We will continue to monitor AB 1454, and we look forward to ensuring any potential law governing literacy instruction honors our state’s multilingual learners and those who serve them.