English Learners in California Schools: Unequal resources, 'Unequal outcomes

TLDR

California’s education system is criticized for providing inequitable schooling to poor and language‑minority children, with English learners comprising about 1.6 million students—roughly 40 % of the nation’s English‑learning population in 2003. The authors contend that English learners experience seven distinct inequities in their schooling and propose actionable reforms for teachers, administrators, and policymakers. These inequities arise from assigning English learners to less qualified teachers, offering inferior curricula and reduced instructional time, housing them in substandard facilities often segregated from peers, and evaluating them with invalid instruments that reveal little about their true achievement. Evidence demonstrates that English learners receive demonstrably inferior education across these seven dimensions compared to English‑speaking peers.

Abstract

The Williams vs the State of California class action suit on behalf of poor children in that state argues that California provides a fundamentally inequitable education to students based on wealth and language status. This article, an earlier version of which was prepared as background to that case, reviews the conditions of schooling for English learners in the state with the largest population of such students, totaling nearly 1.6 million in 2003, and comprising about 40 percent of nation’s English learners. We argue, with evidence, that there are seven aspects of the schooling of English language learners where students receive an education that is demonstrably inferior to that of English speakers. For example, these students are assigned to less qualified teachers, are provided with inferior curriculum and less time to cover it, are housed in inferior facilities where they are often segregated from English speaking peers, and are assessed by invalid instruments that provide little, if any, information about their actual achievement. We end with suggestions for ways in which teachers, administrators, and policymakers can begin to address these inequities, even while legal remedies may remain in the distant future.