The intent of California’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) is to give districts more flexibility with their state funding but at the same time to create a new school finance system that recognizes that students with specific demographic factors need greater support to address their academic needs and improve educational outcomes: English Learners, low income students and foster youth. As Governor Brown stated in January 2013, “Equal treatment for children in unequal situations is not justice”. LCFF recognized that English Learners have additional academic needs requiring additional resources to “improve or increase services”. LCFF was designed as a step towards a more equitable school finance system.
To provide guidance for LEAs in designing, funding and implementing programs for English Learners using LCFF appropriations, Californians Together, The California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE), Californian Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA), and the Center for Equity for English Learners (CEEL) developed a set of rubrics that address 10 focus areas with high impact on English Learners.
These rubrics constitute a valuable resource and important tool for district administrators, teachers, parents, board and community members to analyze the strengths and limitations of their proposed program and services for English Learners included in their LocalControl Accountability Plan (LCAP). It is hoped that the rubrics contained in this new publication will help stakeholders prioritize what needs to be improved and addressed in the annual revision of the LCAPs.
The rubrics are aligned to the research based practices documented by Drs. Patricia Gandara and María Estela Zárate in their recent publication titled “Seizing the Opportunity to Narrow the Achievement Gap for English Learners: Research-based Recommendations for the Use of LCFF Funds” from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA. These rubrics should give direction to school districts on how to actualize the equity vision and intent of the LCFF.
Permission is granted to duplicate, distribute and post these rubrics for use in the districts and community but ask that they be attributed to Californians Together, CABE, CRLA and CEEL.