California’s English Learners and Their Long-Term Learning Outcomes

California’s K–12 funding and instructional policies for English learners (ELs) have changed significantly over the past 2 decades. California changed its Teaching Performance Expectations to incorporate EL instruction, required instructional materials specific to ELs statewide, integrated the Common Core State Standards into a new English Language Development Framework, overhauled its school funding system to fund ELs at a higher rate, and reinstituted bilingual education. These major policy shifts held the potential to change student learning outcome patterns for ELs.

As a first step in identifying the potential impacts of these policy shifts, this report describes changes over time in the development of academic skills and English proficiency among English learners in California. We take advantage of a stable English language proficiency testing period in California, during which a single test—the California English Language Development Test (CELDT)—was used. We use student-level longitudinal data from the 2006–07 through 2018–19 school years to examine the learning outcomes of 12 successive cohorts of students who were classified as English learners in kindergarten (K-cohort ELs) as they progressed through California’s public school system.

First, we find that kindergarten ELs are increasingly diverse linguistically, with the share of Mandarin and Arabic speakers more than doubling over the 14-year time span, reaching 2.9% and 1.4%, respectively, while the share of Spanish-speaking kindergarteners decreased from 84% to 77%. We also find that kindergarten ELs are slightly more likely to be socioeconomically disadvantaged. Second, we find that English learners’ academic achievement by 3rd grade has improved over time, shrinking the achievement gaps between K-cohort ELs and other students in English language arts (ELA) and math. Third, we find that more recent cohorts of kindergarten ELs are reaching English proficiency on the CELDT in earlier grades than previous cohorts had.

For the older cohorts who reached Grade 5 by 2018–19, we find almost no change in the overall share who were proficient in English by the end of elementary school; however, these cohorts began school between 2006 and 2012, before Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) funding increases and many of the most recent reforms were launched. We also find small improvements in reclassification rates for these older cohorts, but still only half of these kindergarten ELs were reclassified by the end of elementary school in 2018–19.

Taken together, these results show significant improvements in the academic trajectories of California’s ELs over time, likely due to improvements in the school learning environments that kindergarten ELs experienced. Our results suggest that some combination of the policies described earlier—from more rigorous requirements for teacher preparedness for EL students to increased funding and the introduction of transitional kindergarten—has likely made a difference in EL outcomes. The patterns of improvement for academic achievement in math and ELA across successive cohorts of kindergarten ELs are aligned with the timing of LCFF implementation and the staggered rollout of increased funding between 2013 and 2018. Meanwhile, the reduction in time to English proficiency appears to be gradual and steadily improves throughout the analysis period, suggesting a potentially positive role for the policies of the early 2000s, such as new regulations regarding teacher preparation and requirements for EL-specific materials in schools.

This report also illuminates a gap between when students achieve English proficiency and when they are reclassified. We find that almost three quarters of K-cohort EL students are English proficient as measured by CELDT by the end of elementary school, but only half of K-cohort ELs are reclassified by that same time point. In California, where English proficiency represents only one of the four criteria students must meet to be reclassified, this discrepancy demonstrates the role played by other barriers to reclassification, most likely the criterion to demonstrate basic skills on another assessment.

California’s English Learners and Their Long-Term Learning Outcomes by Sarah Novicoff, Sean F. Reardon, and Rucker C. Johnson is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Core operating support for LPI is provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Heising-Simons Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Raikes Foundation, Sandler Foundation, Skyline Foundation, and MacKenzie Scott. We are grateful to them for their generous support. The ideas voiced here are those of the authors and not those of our funders.

Cover photo by Allison Shelley for EDUimages.