The percentage of students who do not speak English as their
primary language at home and are considered proficient in English
increased by more than 600 percent from a year ago, according to
test results.
The percentage of students who do not speak English as their primary language at home and are considered proficient in English increased by more than 600 percent from a year ago, according to test results.
The percentage of the 1,466 San Benito County English Language Learners considered proficient in English went from 4 percent last year to 25 percent this year, according to numbers released by the California Department of Education.
“It means that, hopefully, we’re focusing our instruction correctly,” said county Superintendent of Schools Tim Foley. “We’re using data we get from all of our testing systems. … We have to remember that early gains are harder and harder to maintain, as we’ve seen with the STAR test and the API (Academic Performance Index).”
English Language Learners are students who do not speak English and/or speak another language at home.
The numbers reflect test scores on the California English Language Development Test given to all English Language Learners in the state from July 1 to Oct. 31, 2002.
More than 1,800 students were tested in the county, but 1,466 of those took the test last year.
“These scores ask, ‘Are our kids making the grade?’ You bet they are,” said Lonna Martinez, coordinator of English Language Learners with the Hollister School District.
Test results for the HSD, the biggest district in the county with the most English Language Learners, improved from 4 percent meeting English proficiency last year to 24 percent this year. There were 1,213 students in the HSD who took the CELDT both years.
Statewide, the percentage increased from 11 percent to 32 percent. The test is aligned with state-adopted English Language Development Standards and measures listening and speaking skills for kindergarten through first grade and listening, speaking, reading and writing skills for grades two through 12.
Martinez said many local educators think the test helps better target students who are not yet proficient in English.
“Many people I’ve talked to feel the information provided is extremely valuable,” she said. “… The test is matched with the standards. It gives teachers information about students so they know where to begin instruction.
“It’s another tool for schools to use to improve the proficiency of Limited English Proficiency students.”
Based on their performance on the categories on the test, English Language Learners are ranked in one of five categories – advanced, early advanced, intermediate, early intermediate and beginning.
The students are then ranked for overall proficiency and placed in one of the three categories. Proficient in English is defined as ranking in the advanced or early advanced categories.
In its second year, the test results can be broken into two categories – longitudinal and overall.
Longitudinal scores match students to their scores last year. For instance, the results of this year’s second graders are compared with last year’s first graders. The overall assessment compares all the English Language Learners who took the test this year to all those who took it last year.
Martinez organized a task force of administrators and teachers who are going through the assessment student by student to see how much progress each individual made.
“We’re doing it instead of looking at the big, aggregate group,” she said. “We want to know what the numbers really mean.”
English Language Learners go through reclassification every year. It is based on the CELDT, STAR, teacher recommendations and parent input, Foley said. What the assessment doesn’t take into consideration is when students are reclassified, he said.
The test is required by the state to assess all English Language Learners with one state-approved test during a specified period.
Students taking the writing and reading parts of the CELDT are given a multiple-choice test and a writing sample to complete. The listening and speaking portions are tested on a one-on-one basis at each school site. This part takes about 30 minutes per student, Martinez said.
For more information on the CELDT results, go to celdt.cde.ca.gov/.
California English Language Development Test 2002
Annual assessment of the 1,466 San Benito County
students who were tested.
20012002
Advanced05
Early Advanced420
Intermediate3635
Early Intermediate3228
Beginner2713
Source: California Department of Education
