The impetus for the initiative was to help all students be prepared for “the jobs of tomorrow in the global economy.” Global CA 2030 also recognizes the significance of dual language immersion programs in providing high-quality instruction for the states’ 1.1 million English learners (ELs), about 40 percent of the total California student population and more than 21 percent of the United States’ 5 million English learners.

losing the achievement gap for English learners requires schools to value and build upon the knowledge and skills English learners have in their home languages that can support the development of English proficiency. Recognizing these assets also helps English learners feel that their language and culture is valued at school,” the document states.

The state had made significant progress in providing information, policies and guidance over the last decade in the form of the State Seal of Biliteracy in 2012, the English Language Arts/English Language Development (ELA/ELD) Framework in 2014, the CA Education for a Global Economy Initiative in 2016 and the English Learner Roadmap in 2017. Much like Global CA 2030, however, policy and guidance like the EL Roadmap are visionary documents that local educational agencies are expected to implement without steady funding sources, supports or accountability.

“The absence of policy obstacles is not equivalent to systemic, constructive change,” states a report from The Century Foundation, Moving from Vision to Reality: Establishing California as a National Bilingual Education and Dual-Language Immersion Leader. “Much of the improved state policy on ELs is non-binding, voluntary guidance, and statewide expansion of bilingual and dual language immersion programs does not yet appear to be a major priority for California policymakers. Indeed, the second page of the EL Roadmap states this plainly: ‘The guidance in the CA EL Roadmap is not binding on local educational agencies or other entities … the document is exemplary, and compliance with it is not mandatory.’”

As LEAs work to bring more dual language immersion programs to their schools, state leaders must simultaneously address a bilingual teacher shortage that grew roots during a time when California instituted an English-only instruction policy statewide.

“English learner education in California is a story of progress over the past 15 years, but it’s also a story of continued urgency in that we still feel the impact of the English-only policies that were passed in the 1990s,” said Manuel Buenrostro, Californians Together policy director and author of the report The State of English Learners in California Public Schools.

In 1998, California voters passed Proposition 227 requiring English-only instruction for all students in the state. This served to shut down most bilingual programs, though schools could still offer such classes to students whose parent signed a waiver. Following Prop 227’s passage, the proportion of English learners receiving bilingual instruction dropped from 30 percent to 8 percent statewide, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

“Turning off bilingual education and turning it back on is not like a light switch,” said Connor Wiliams, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation and co-author of many reports on English learners and dual language immersion programs. “By shutting it down, Prop 227 reduced demand for bilingual teachers to such a degree that all of the places that were training these teachers and supplying them stopped. So that means that when they flipped the switch back on, there was no system left to retrain or to keep training bilingual teachers. They had just cratered their supply.”

For example, in 1994–95, 1,800 teachers received their bilingual authorizations in California; in 2015–16, the year before Prop 227 was repealed, just 581 teachers received the bilingual authorization. In addition to established teacher credentialing and student bilingual education programs shutting down, virtually no new programs were being created for the better part of two decades. The overall effect of the law was to stigmatize proficiency in non-English languages.

English learner advocates worked to change the way that multilingualism was seen at the state level, aiming to reframe it as an asset. In 2016, voters approved Proposition 58, which repealed English-only instruction, allowing for schools to teach English learners using a variety of programs, including bilingual education. It also required districts to solicit family and community input as to how English learners should be taught.

Researchers have compared the academic trajectories of English learner students who participated in English-only programs versus those in dual language immersion programs, which offer “language learning and academic instruction for native speakers of English and native speakers of another language. The goals of dual language immersion programs are language proficiency and academic achievement in students’ first and second languages, and cross-cultural understanding,” according to the California Department of Education.

What they found was that while English-only instruction students performed better on various measures and assessments by third grade, that achievement plateaus in later years. The dual language immersion students, however, by high school show higher academic achievement and much higher rates of becoming English proficient then their peers instructed in English only.

Oak Grove SD and the SEAL model

That has been the experience at Oak Grove School District, located in South San Jose, where about 25 percent of its student population are English learners. In addition to long-term English learner rates that are 10 to 20 percent lower than the average in the state, the district’s reclassified English learners have the highest percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards on the state Smarter Balanced English Language Arts assessment at 79 percent.

Oak Grove, a 2019 Golden Bell Award winner in the English learners/multiliteracy category, is one of the districts in the state that continued bilingual programs during Prop 227 through parent-signed waivers and began to convert them to dual language immersion models. Today, one school is entirely dual language immersion and two additional schools have dual language immersion strands.

The district uses the Sobrato Early Academic Language (SEAL) comprehensive model of enriched language and literacy education. The SEAL model produces powerful language skills and rich academic vocabulary development through hands-on science and social studies-based thematic units addressing the Common Core State Standards. SEAL also supports parents to develop language and literacy practices with their children at home and in the classroom, which results in authentic family engagement as well as a home-to-school connection. The model provides intensive professional development to teachers and administrators, coaching and collaborative planning and reflection.

“For three years, I was working with our teachers, with our principals, around the professional development side and working with our dual language immersion programs to create a master plan on the pedagogy and how the district was going to grow it,” said Oak Grove SD Superintendent Ivan Chaidez. “It started off K-3, then every year we added a grade. Now we’re TK-8. SEAL ensures teachers are getting that designated and integrated ELD within the classroom, within the core curriculum. It’s a lot of hands-on learning from different themes that really brings science alive and it’s all very culturally relevant to our students. They’re learning about their community here in San Jose and South San Jose, they’re learning about the farms and the canneries that were here. They’re learning about the different Native American tribes that were here. It makes it all very powerful and rich. And now we’re starting to also look at how can we invest SEAL into the upper grades.”

Oak Grove is now one of two SEAL demonstration districts in the state with showcase sites. The SEAL model now serves close to 4,500 students districtwide. Since full implementation of SEAL, more than 65 percent of the district’s English learners demonstrated growth of a minimum of one language level in the California English Language Development Test (CELDT), representing an increase of 15.5 percent in comparison to achievement prior to implementation.

The board has been supportive of the programs, encouraging growth through funding allocations — including Local Control Funding Formula supplemental funds and Titles I and III federal funds — a resolution adopting the English Learner Roadmap and supporting the partnership with SEAL.

“It’s important for the district to retain our students and our population by offering choice programs like this,” said Oak Grove SD Board President Beija Gonzalez.

While dual language immersion programs benefit all children by increasing cognitive abilities and academic achievement, sociocultural competency and long-term career flexibility, research shows that inclusion of English learners is a matter of equity.

The Century Foundation’s report Ensuring Equitable Access to Dual-Language Immersion Programs: Supporting English Learners’ Emerging Bilingualism cites research that English learners “face systemic educational challenges rooted in language, race, class, and nativity. These students are disproportionately likely to be children of color and disproportionately likely to be growing up in low-income households.

“Fortunately, there is a clear research consensus on how to best address these tensions. Bilingual education programs — and particularly those that provide linguistically integrated ‘two-way’ dual-language immersion (DLI). The educational programs that best advance English learners’ linguistic and academic development: (1) support these children’s emerging bilingualism, (2) work best when they are linguistically integrated, and (3) are popular with a diverse range of families,” states the report.

“The research is pretty clear that it is a core equity question for non-native speakers of English that they do so much better academically if they have access to being able to develop and learn in both languages,” said Williams, co-author of the report. “So, when we say that all kids should learn more than one language, that’s true — that’s a good thing to shoot for. It is also the case that all kids do not benefit equally from learning another language or developing in more than one language.”

Californians Together’s Buenrostro also emphasized the importance of prioritizing English learners for these programs. “If you look at a social justice frame, you just can’t have quality programs unless everyone benefits, and for dual language immersion programs, they must meet the needs of our highest-needs students,” he said. “The DLI programs that prioritize English learners are stronger when they include and center the needs of English learners because this truly allows these programs to have students learn from each other.”

Williams suggests that LEAs make equity for English learners a priority from the start and clearly articulate equitable enrollment as a value. When resources are available to expand DLI programming, every effort should be made to grow DLI programs offering academic instruction in communities where English learners live and in languages they speak. “It’s the linguistic integration that makes it work best,” Williams said.

Anaheim Elementary School District

Anaheim ESD’s Dual Language Immersion Academy is the first of its kind in California and a 2023 CSBA Golden Bell Award winner. The DLI Academy is offered at all 24 school sites ensuring students have access to bilingualism earning them the Pathway to Biliteracy Award in kindergarten, third grade, sixth grade and eventually the State Seal of Biliteracy in high school. The district prioritizes English learners for more than half of the program slots and has partnered with Anaheim Union High School District to ensure that students have the opportunity and pathways to earn the State Seal of Biliteracy upon high school graduation.

The Anaheim ESD Board of Education believes that a comprehensive education requires a focus on rigor, relevance and relationships. “The expansion of our DLI program in AESD has been building on what already exists as a multilingual community within Anaheim,” wrote board member Juan Gabriel Alvarez in the district’s Golden Bell application.

“The availability of dual language programming at every site and in multiple languages places value and importance on the use of multiple languages in an academic setting. Through our DLI programming, we are demonstrating to our families that their cultural and linguistic assets are vital. We are proud to view our families through a culturally and linguistically relevant and supportive lens. My two sons have benefited from the DLI programming in AESD and I am so thankful that all families, no matter their background, have the opportunity to provide their children with a bilingual education.”

While the state is on its way to meeting dual language immersion expansion goals, they are being hampered by a lack of teachers with a bilingual authorization. The California Association of Bilingual Educators (CABE) cites the pause brought by Prop 227, and a lack of commitment from the state to build the supply.

“Despite the progress we have made since Proposition 58, many parents are still not aware of this opportunity or are still dealing with the lingering effects of Proposition 227 and the stigma and trauma of thinking that speaking a language other than English is ‘bad,’” CABE CEO Edgar Lampkin said. “This has continued to affect the push for dual language programs.”

“The biggest challenge is that we don’t currently have an intentional statewide systemic approach to growing our future bilingual-certified teachers,” said Barbara Flores, former CABE CEO. “We have a hodgepodge of programs to grow them; however, there are still a small number of these bilingual teacher preparation programs; not enough to meet the current demand.”

Data from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing shows there are currently 47 credentialing programs offering a bilingual authorization, indicating not much progress has been made since the Global CA 2030 goals were created, and a far cry from the aim of 100. A representative from the commission said each institution may offer more than one bilingual authorization program and in addition to the approved program pathway option, teachers also have the option to earn a bilingual authorization through an examination pathway.

Further support could be offered through county offices of education, as illustrated in Santa Barbara. The Santa Barbara County Education Office has offered support to its districts’ dual language immersion programs through the building and implementation of master plans using the guiding principles of dual language education from the center of Applied Linguistics, according to Carlos Pagán, director of Literacy and Language Support.

But Pagán knew the county office could do more. “About two years ago, I looked at the list of approved bilingual-authorized institutions and saw there are mostly institutions of higher education. So, I approached my direct supervisor and said, ‘Why don’t we apply?’”

The county office already provides preliminary and clear administrative services credentials, as well as a teacher induction program, and Pagán knew it could handle adding a bilingual authorization to the mix. “Last October, we were the first county in the state to be approved to offer the bilingual authorization program, and we completed our first cohort this past July when nine teachers completed the coursework for the authorization. Now they’re in the field gaining work experience.”

The nine teachers were supported through the state’s Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program Grant.

“I think people have to be comfortable with having two truths be there at the same time,” said Californians Together’s Buenrostro. “It’s the truth that we need to value the progress we have made, but also keep talking about what hasn’t happened. We’ve made significant growth in dual language programs than where we were a few years ago.”

The Century Foundation’s Williams said there needs to be more accountability to move the needle in a significant way. “California has done a nice job of removing structural obstacles, like getting things out of the way that prevented bilingual education and dual language immersion from growing,” he said. “It’s done a good job at starting to rebuild their training systems for bilingual teachers and more diverse teachers in general. What they haven’t yet done is committed the resources to make or to really set dual language immersion on a rapid expansion path.”