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Californians Together

Championing the Success of English Learners

English Learner Support

A new EL Resource Hub and much, much more!

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Our Latest Newsletter

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Now Available: New Resource Hub Gathers Tools to Bring California’s English Learner Roadmap to Life 

As California leads the way to protect our families and uphold our values in response to COVID-19, it is more important than ever for us to come together and share resources to ensure all of our students, particularly Dual Language Learners and English learners, thrive. We’re proud to partner with leading advocates to advance the California English Learner Roadmap’s vision of honoring equity, ensuring meaningful access and embracing the diversity that makes our state great. In collaboration with six other organizations committed to advancing equity in education, we’ve launched the English Learner Roadmap Resource Hub to translate vision to action across our state. Together, we will harness the power of language to prepare our students to participate in a global, diverse and multilingual world, thus ensuring a thriving future for California.

EVENT August 14: English Learner Roadmap Administrator Focus Group

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We are excited to announce the convening of an English Learner Roadmap Administrator Focus Group session facilitated by Dr. Laurie Olsen in partnership with Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) and ACSA President Linda Kaminski, in a statewide effort to assist and support administrators to implement the new English Learner (EL) policy.

The goal of the convening is to seek critical administrator input regarding the tools, resources, materials and support administrators will need to implement the EL Roadmap in their district and school. We need to hear directly from administrators in order to develop those resources and ultimately realize the promise of greater success for California’s English Learners.

Space is limited, register now. Register here

Press Release: Masking the Focus on English Learners

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State Accountability System Obscures English Learners’ Unique Needs

Study of local plans identifies key improvements to fix the system

 

Sacramento, CA – August 14, 2018 – Californians Together is releasing a new report today entitled Masking the Focus on English Learners which questions the efficacy of the state accountability system in identifying the needs of English Learners accurately. The report states that by combining data from two English Learner subgroups (current and reclassified), the system masks the distinct needs of each subgroup and diminishes the urgency to address the numerous educational needs of current English Learners thus undermining the central equity intent of the Local Control Funding Formula. The report’s strongest recommendation is that the state discontinue aggregating the two subgroups and instead report them separately for analysis and planning.

“There is great potential for California school districts to be misled by the results of the combined EL subgroup on the Dashboard.  The decision to combine this data from two student groups with distinct language and academic profiles masks and impedes districts from addressing their distinct academic needs” said researcher and co-author, Dr. Magaly Lavadenz.

The report also states that the system largely misses the mark in identifying research-based programs, actions, and services for English Learners.

Key findings presented in the report include:

  • Despite all 24 districts being rated at the two lowest levels for English Learner performance, only 6 mentioned a concern for achievement in English Language Arts and only 1 specified a concern for their overall achievement.
  • Minimal attention was paid to analysis of English Learner outcomes
  • Course access and targeted services were inconsistently provided to current English Learners
  • Minimal specific professional development was offered to teachers of English Learners.

“Obscuring current English Learner results has detrimental effects on districts’ abilities to address goals in local plans, set growth targets, focus program, and services and allocate funds for this group of students.  We call on the State Board of Education to rectify this accountability policy in order to ensure every English Learner can best be served,” said Shelly Spiegel-Coleman, Executive Director of Californians Together.

The study was conducted in collaboration with the Center for Equity for English Learners at Loyola Marymount University and reviewed local plans for 24 school districts that serve 23% of California’s English Learners.

You can view and download the report at www.californianstogether.org

 

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New Report – Masking the Focus on English Learners: The Consequences of California’s Accountability System’s Dashboard on Year 4 Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs)

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Our latest report Masking the Focus on English Learners questions the efficacy of the state accountability system in identifying the needs of English Learners accurately. The report states that by combining data from two English Learner subgroups (current and reclassified), the system masks the distinct needs of each subgroup and diminishes the urgency to address the numerous educational needs of current English Learners thus undermining the central equity intent of the Local Control Funding Formula. The report’s strongest recommendation is that the state discontinue aggregating the two subgroups and instead report them separately for analysis and planning.

View and Download The Report
View and Download The Executive Summary
View The Press Release

October 16, 2018: Kagan Workshop – Brain Friendly Teaching for Language Acquisition

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Join us for this amazing workshop!

 

Download flyer

Kagan’s publications and workshops are based on a research program conducted by Dr. Spencer Kagan beginning in 1968.

Dr. Kagan and his associates discovered that children of all ages in many parts of the world acted quite differently when placed in certain types of situations. He could manipulate the interaction patterns of children and make them more cooperative or more competitive. Dr. Kagan applied his findings to education and was a pioneer in the cooperative learning movement. He has dedicated his life’s work helping educators create more cooperative, interactive classrooms that produce smarter, more caring and cooperative students.

Dr. Kagan’s book, Kagan Cooperative Learning, is the single most comprehensive and most popular book in the field of cooperative learning and is considered the must-have guide for active engagement strategies.

Here’s a great video about their approach.

And now, the details:

WHEN:             Tuesday October 16, 2018, from 8 am – 3 pm
WHERE:           Grand Hotel – 4101 E. Willow St. Long Beach, 90813

Register HERE

Questions?       erika@californianstogether.org – 562-983-1333