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San Francisco — Several prominent education advocacy organizations released a report today sounding an urgent alarm over the need for increased transparency and public accountability mechanisms in the spending of some $55B in one-time and on-going state and federal funds available to California to spur the recovery of public schools across the state. In 20 recommendations, they also call for increased stakeholder engagement, more services to students with unique needs, re-engagement strategies, consideration of staff allocation and the integration of new practices and technology use into learning, and more. 

The report, co-authored by Children Now, Public Advocates, the National Center for Youth Law and Californians Together presents findings from a review of 48 Learning Continuity & Attendance Plans (LCPs), which were required of school districts, county offices of education and charter schools (Local Education Agencies, LEAs) in the fall of 2020 during the height of the pandemic. The report is titled “How Districts Planned for Pandemic Learning: Equity-Driven Practices and Lessons Learned from 2020 Learning Continuity and Attendance Plans.”

In the report, the organizations urge school districts to learn from their 2020 experiences as they plan for unprecedented amounts of federal and state investments in education.

“This is a once in a generation opportunity to reimagine our schools with transformative investments that can ensure all students will thrive,” said Erin Apte, Legislative Counsel with Public Advocates. “We cannot repeat past mistakes from 2020-21, when districts did not publicly account for billions of dollars in federal and state pandemic relief funds. This left stakeholders, who under the law must be partners in planning, in the dark about how these funds were spent,” added Apte.

School districts across the state are currently developing their Local Control and Accountability Plans (known as LCAPs) to address the pressing needs of California’s 6 million students, some returning to school sites this fall for the first time in more than a year. Many returning students are low-income, English learners, foster youth, and students with disabilities, who are homeless, or incarcerated.

“We reviewed these plans and budgets to get a snapshot of how districts were willing to support some of our most underserved students in California,” said Atasi Uppal, Senior Policy Attorney at the National Center for Youth Law. “We were very concerned to find almost a complete lack of information regarding how districts were going to help youth in the juvenile justice system and youth experiencing homelessness access pandemic-related needs such as stable internet, mental health services and supportive reengagement strategies for those disconnected from school. Districts must make intentional, intensive investments to support these young people during the upcoming school year; they need tailored interventions and services more than ever before.”

The authors of the report identified both promising practices in the 48 LCPs that other districts could emulate, as well as concerning trends, particularly regarding investments and omissions of important information that districts were required to report. For example, most of the plans the authors reviewed did a poor job of clearly showing how LEAs invested the more than $8 billion in pandemic relief they received, in addition to billions in ongoing state funding, including Supplemental and Concentration (“S&C”) funds generated by students in foster care, students in low-income families, and English learners (“high-need students”).

“Students in foster care face so many challenges that can disrupt learning and the pandemic has further exacerbated the situation,” said Danielle Wondra, Senior Policy and Outreach Associate, Child Welfare, for Children Now. “It is imperative that LEAs provide greater details in their plans about the supports they will provide to students in foster care, describe how these services address the specific challenges these students face, and meaningfully consider how the supports they provide are differentiated to meet the unique needs of students in foster care. If they don’t, students in foster care will continue to fall further and further behind,” added Wondra.

Noting that the pandemic is not yet behind us, the authors of the report make a series of recommendations concerning what LEAs should prioritize now as they create their legally-required local spending plans and millions of California students move to in-person learning. They focus on more accountability to ensure funds are spent effectively and the integration of critical services such as mental health promotion, social-emotional learning, peer support, and trauma-informed practices into school and classroom environments.

A full list of the report’s recommendations follows.

Click here for a copy of the report.

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RECOMMENDATIONS FROM “How Districts Planned for Pandemic Learning: Equity-Driven Practices and Lessons Learned from 2020 Learning Continuity and Attendance Plans.”

As LEAs plan for the 2021-22 school year, complete their Annual Update and determine their budget decisions, we urge them – and the California Department of Education, which supports and guides them – to consider the following key recommendations to better plan for and support the education of all students, and particularly students with unique needs:

1.     Engage in more targeted outreach to students and families, particularly reaching out to student groups representing vulnerable populations and families of students with unique needs, during the stakeholder engagement process. Include ample time for multiple opportunities for feedback on LEA plans, and invite feedback in multiple modalities, including through live meetings, focus groups, surveys, feedback forms and other mediums. Promotion of feedback opportunities and all feedback methods should be offered in languages that are representative of families within the LEA.
2.     Ensure students with unique needs receive priority, early access to additional learning time and in-person individual or small cohort instruction, as soon as available.
3.     Include more detail on the services provided to students in foster care, including how those services will support their unique needs.
4.     Provide information on specific strategies to deliver English Language Development to English learners.
5.     COEs should provide increased, specific information on services and supports for incarcerated youth.
6.     Highlight how services provided to all students (such as devices and connectivity, reengagement strategies, tutoring and other learning loss mitigation strategies) will be differentiated for students in foster care, students experiencing homelessness, and English learners.
7.     Provide greater specificity around how LEAs will hire, shift and reallocate staff roles and responsibilities to address the particular challenges that students with unique needs face – for example, staff to provide services, develop emergency distance learning plans and complete reviews and assessments for students with disabilities without delay. Provide a list of staff allocated to support each subgroup of students with unique needs.
8.     To address the heightened stress and trauma students are experiencing during COVID-19, prioritize and strengthen mental health and wellness in planning, invest in increased access to mental health supports and services, and provide specific details on how LEAs will identify needs, provide school-based services, and ensure connections to additional services during both in-person and remote instruction.
9.     Integrate mental health promotion, social-emotional learning, peer support, and trauma-informed practices into school and classroom environments, and ensure teachers and staff receive ongoing professional development opportunities to help embed and sustain these practices.
10. Monitor staff and administrator engagement in general professional development, and ensure a sustainable plan for ongoing professional development and support exists (including but not limited to the use of professional learning communities).
11. Increase inclusive access to technology and internet connectivity, and invest in added supports for families who need help engaging with technology.
12. Provide greater detail about assessments to measure learning loss and considerations for specific student groups, and more information about how the LEA will measure the effectiveness of their learning loss mitigation strategies through use of diagnostic tools such as assessments, surveys or attendance data, disaggregated by student group. Such data will help LEAs identify and prioritize subgroups that have experienced instructional loss for delivery of learning loss mitigation strategies and small cohort in-person instruction.
13. Clearly delineate the synchronous and asynchronous minutes of instruction that students can expect on a daily basis.
14. Invest in additional supplies and make learning centers available to students who do not have a suitable learning environment in the home.
15. The state should require LEAs to include detailed tables and appendices in their Annual Update explaining how they used their supplemental and concentration funding, whether or not they provided that detail in their Learning Continuity Plan.
16. Account in their Annual Update for the use of health and safety expenditures connected to in-person or on-campus instruction if the LEA did not actually reopen.
17. Provide greater detail when describing staffing expenditures to enable stakeholders to understand whether the funds are covering base salaries or increasing staff time to implement specific programs.
18. Clearly link the justification for every action in the Summary of Increased/Improved Services for high-need students to the associated goal, action/service description, and expenditure amount.
19. The state should provide additional training and capacity building to LEAs to improve their understanding of how to demonstrate increased and improved services, pursuant to their proportionality obligation under law
20. The state should require LEAs to significantly improve transparency around budget and investments, including but not limited to providing specific information about the funding sources for investments listed in their budget planning documents, including Learning Continuity Plans, LCAPs, and Expanded Learning Opportunities Grant plans.

Recognized for their commitment to bilingualism and biliteracy culminating with a pathway to the Seal of Biliteracy, both Anaheim Elementary School District and Anaheim Union High School District will be presented with the award during a ceremony at this week’s California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE) Virtual Conference.

Long Beach, Calif. — Anaheim Elementary School District and Anaheim Union High School District have been named recipients of the 2021 Lynne Aoki Multiple Pathways District Recognition Award (LAMPDRA). Renamed this year in memory of bilingual and multicultural education advocate, Lynne Aoki, this award given by Californians Together celebrates districts that are leading the way to world-class language education in preschool through 12th grade.  

An award ceremony will take place during the California Association for  Bilingual Education’s  (CABE) 2021 Virtual Conference on Thursday, March 25, 2021 at 4:50 p.m. in the Exhibit Hall at the Californians Together Virtual Booth. 

“We are so proud to uplift these districts doing exemplary work to enable all students to attain high levels of proficiency in two or more languages. We’re especially proud that this is the first year we are presenting  the award in honor of our warrior, Lynne Aoki, who devoted her life to advocating for bilingual education and multicultural education programs for English learners and immigrant students,” said Martha Hernández, Executive Director of Californians Together.  

Both districts met multiple criteria to qualify including:

• Establishing a State Seal of Biliteracy Program (grades 9-12) for at least two years
• Benchmarking progress toward high levels of biliteracy by recognizing and awarding students along a continuum (grades K-8)
• Offering well-articulated pathway programs PreK – 12th grade 
• Providing access to language study across the district and accessible to all communities
• Hiring qualified staff
• Instituting a district, school and community culture for celebrating languages and cultural diversity

Anaheim Elementary School District’s (AESD) long history of valuing biliteracy and multilingualism made it a stand out, which includes the passage of multiple board resolutions in support of biliteracy, the articulation and strong partnership with Anaheim Union High School District to ensure that students have the opportunity and pathways to earn the State Seal of Biliteracy upon high school graduation, and the priority placed on hiring biliterate, diverse teachers. 

“Anaheim Elementary School District provides a high-quality education designed to reach and teach all students and to prepare them for a bright and promising future in our rapidly changing world. By being the first district to offer Dual Language Immersion at all of our 23 schools we eliminated barriers and have provided access to all our students. AESD is proud to provide a pathway that develops multiple language proficiency, fosters cultural and linguistic appreciation and cross cultural competency needed to flourish within our global community, said Dr. Christopher Downing, Superintendent of AESD. 

Of special note is the districts’ Transforming Academic and Cultural Identidad through Biliteracy (TACIB) prototype project developed to create a dual language option in mathematics and science for students entering junior high school. The district also offers the only Korean Dual Language Immersion Program in Orange County. 

The selection committee also recognized Anaheim Union High School District (AUHSD) for being a pioneer in the implementation of the Seal of Biliteracy before legislation was passed. The district has passed multiple board resolutions in support of biliteracy, issued a jointly written dual language vision statement with feeder elementary schools, and made it a priority to hire biliterate, diverse teachers. 

Upon learning about their selection for this award, Superintendent Michael Matsuda said “ We are proud of the 54 languages represented by our scholars and their families at Anaheim Union High School District (AUHSD). We worked diligently to offer American Sign Language, Arabic, French, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish and Vietnamese World Languages, as well as Spanish Dual Language Immersion and Vietnamese Dual Language Immersion (the first secondary Vietnamese Dual Language Immersion program in the United States). We are proud that yearly over 1,100 Seal of Biliteracy Awards are earned by our seniors in fifteen different languages, and hundreds of AUHSD and Orange County Department of Education Pathways to Biliteracy Awards are earned by our eighth grade scholars.”

“It is a tremendous honor for Anaheim Union High School District to be selected to receive the inaugural 2021 Lynne Aoki Multiple Pathways District Recognition Award. I was blessed with knowing Lynne for twenty years. She was a champion of advocating for multiliteracy, English learners and students of color in particular,” he added. 

Originally called the Multiple Pathways District Recognition Award, the award was renamed to honor Lynne Aoki who passed away in November of 2019. She was a founder and board member of Californians Together. 

Aoki was a third-generation Californian, who at an early age knew that she would and could not tolerate injustice. Whether it was confronting a bully or making a public stand against prejudice, she felt compelled to act. One memorable fight against injustice concluded when she accepted a posthumous diploma from UC Berkeley that had been denied to her father because he was one of many Japanese Americans interned during WWII.

She focused her professional efforts on increasing equity and excellence in education, with a particular emphasis on English language acquisition, bilingual education and multicultural education programs for English learners and immigrant students. 

Aoki  also played a leadership role in local, state, and national organizations. She was an active participant in CABE – the California Association of Bilingual Education. She also served on the Board of the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) as a Regional Director.

For more information, or for interviews, please contact Ashley Aguirre at ashley@californianstogether.org 

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Californians Together is a statewide advocacy coalition of powerful organizations from all segments of the education community including teachers, administrators, board members, parents and civil rights non-profit groups. Our member organizations come together around the goal of better educating 1.1 million English learners by improving California’s schools and promoting equitable educational policy. 

http://www.californianstogether.org

Twenty organizations including Advancement Project California, California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE), Education Trust-West, Sobrato Early Academic Language (SEAL), and Unidos US join in calling upon state leadership to build an accountability system ELs deserve and that will serve the state’s goals of equity and quality education for all. 

( Visit the Accountability Brief Homepage ) 

(Read the Full Brief)

Long Beach, CA —  Today Californians Together introduces a new framework for accountability focused on the needs of English learner (EL) students in California. The new brief titled, The Accountability System English Learners Deserve: Framework for An Effective and Coherent Accountability System for ELs, examines the state’s current system, identifies areas of improvement, sets aspirational goals for what a structure that is transparent and honest about EL needs could achieve, and outlines steps to build a framework that supports all levels of the state’s educational system and moves toward a more equitable and assets-oriented approach. 

The framework also provides recommendations for addressing high priority gaps that require urgent action, especially in light of the COVID-19 era. Led by Laurie Olsen, Ph.D., the framework was developed by Californians Together’s coalition members and educators across the state. 

“If we don’t have an accurate representation of where our EL students stand, we don’t have a way to ensure that we’re adequately meeting their needs. Especially in a pandemic,  it will require a full commitment to help them catch up to their peers in the coming years” says Martha Hernández, Executive Director of Californians Together. 

Californians Together hopes that state leaders will use the brief as a guide in their current development of the academic growth models for Mathematics and Language Arts, determining English learner progress, and in setting higher expectations for districts and schools. Use of the framework will support and enhance the implementation of the vision set forth in the California English Learner Roadmap policy. California needs to adopt an accountability system that fosters, motivates, and uses multiple measures to inform continuous improvement for equitable student outcomes, especially for English learners. 

“Our current system makes it difficult to assess improvement accurately because it continues to mask EL outcomes on key academic indicators and set low expectations for districts to support language development,” says Hernández. “In the spirit of continuous improvement, our state should utilize the break in normal activity due to the worldwide pandemic to reassess and update policy decisions related to English learner outcomes. We owe it to our students to build a statewide system to support English learners to reach their full potential.”  

Twenty organizations including Advancement Project California, California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE), the Education Trust-West, Sobrato Early Academic Language (SEAL), and Unidos US join Californians Together in calling upon state leadership to step up and build the accountability system English learners deserve and that will serve the state’s goals of equity and quality education for all. 

To read the full brief and for a list of all signers visit: caltog.co/accountability

The 5 Components Of An Effective and Coherent Accountability System For ELs

1. Setting high expectations for all schools and LEAs regarding EL achievement. 
2. Assessing and monitoring against those expectations (State Accountability and District Continuous Improvement).
3. Ensuring action by identifying areas for improvement and promise.
4. Engaging all levels of the system (including the state) with clear roles for the California Department of Education, the County Offices of Education, and the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence.
5. Supporting key drivers of success throughout, including:

• Engages stakeholders. 
• Provides transparency.
• Establishes an equity imperative.
• Focuses on meaningful continuous improvement. 
• Provides adequate resources.  

About Californians Together

Californians Together is a statewide advocacy coalition of powerful organizations from all segments of the education community including teachers, administrators, board members, parents and civil rights non-profit groups. Our member organizations come together around the goal of better educating 1.1 million English Learners by improving California’s schools and promoting equitable educational policy.

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Media Contact: Ashley Aguirre ashley@californianstogether.org