English Learners in Grade School Improving

Elementary school students in Ventura County who speak little or no English continued to perform better on the Stanford 9 exam this year, and have nearly doubled their scores since testing began in 1998.

But those at the middle- and high-school levels have failed to improve at all during the same four years. That is especially evident in reading, where fewer than 5% of ninth-, 10th- and 11th-graders scored above the national average in 2001, according to state testing data released this week.

Predictably, overall test scores for students who are learning English as a second language still lag far behind scores of their English-fluent classmates.

Some educators say the results mean teachers and administrators are making progress but still have much to do in mastering how to teach California’s rigorous standards to this growing population. In Ventura County schools, more than 27,000 students are considered English learners, with 95.9% of that group speaking Spanish.

Others argue the standardized test scores mean little because the tests measure kids who have so little English proficiency that they can’t understand what they are being asked.

“If you gave an English-only speaking geologist a test on geology in Japanese, how well would he do?” asked Chuck Weis, superintendent of county schools. “In those cases, the scores are irrelevant.”

He added that the scores are artificially deflated because after students become fluent in English, they are removed from the “English learner” category.

According to the state’s results, scores for this year’s limited-English grade school students in Ventura County went up one to three percentage points, to between 15% and 27% above the national average. Math scores were much better, ranging from 32% above the national average to 41% above the average among second- through fourth-graders.

High school students have posted no gains in reading since 1998 but did boost their scores by an average of six percentage points in math during the four years to about 20% above the national average.

Across grade levels on the state’s standard-based test for English and language arts, between 91% and 97% of English learners scored below proficient. And on a new test to measure skills in writing, 36% of fourth-graders and 77% of seventh-graders earned the lowest possible scores.

Meanwhile, among students considered fluent in English, 65% scored above the national average in reading and 70% above the average in math on the Stanford 9.

The story is similar throughout California, as English learners posted small gains in exam scores this year but remained far behind other students, said Bob Anderson, an administrator in the state’s standards and assessment division.

“What we’re seeing is that we haven’t solved the problem,” he said. “The gap between English learners and English-only students is continuing.”

The drop-off in achievement at the high school level--a trend paralleled among English-speakers as well--could signal the need for more intense language instruction earlier on.

The older students get, the tougher the material is and the more difficult it is for those who never quite mastered the language to perform well, officials said.

“It’s showing us that for some reason or another, these kids don’t have enough of the language and vocabulary to comprehend what’s going on,” said Cliff Rodrigues, director of bilingual instruction for the county superintendent of schools office.

The slight improvement from past years, however, reflects the increased attention on limited-English speakers, Anderson said. “I don’t think we’ve seen the big gains so far, but I think they’re coming,” he said.

Local educators said it’s difficult to evaluate teaching programs until better data become available, which should happen next year with results of the first English Language Development Test. That exam, separate from the Stanford 9 and related standards-based tests, measures progress in basic language development skills among those still learning English.

Most local administrators said they believed the county’s limited-English students are doing better than what the latest Stanford 9 scores indicate.

In the meantime, educators vowed to continue striving for better instructional methods aimed at lessening the disparities in achievement.

A five-year study by UC Santa Barbara is underway in Santa Paula and Oxnard elementary schools to determine which teaching strategies are more successful in reaching English language learners.

“I think our standards are lofty expectations for our English-only students,” said Louise Platt, an assistant superintendent in the Santa Paula Elementary School District, where one-third of students are struggling with English. “When you add in that these kids are just learning the language, it’s going to take some time to get up to speed.”