Equity for English Learners: Evidence from Four Years of California’s Local Control Funding Formula

ABSTRACT

This study examined evidence of equity for English Learners-one of the three targeted student groups–in the early implementation of California’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) across data sets from seven studies. We used social justice inquiry methods and data integration analytic approaches that included purposeful sampling of districts’ Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs), and data integration analyses of interviews with education leaders to examine how equity was advanced for English Learners. Our findings reveal that the quest for equity for English Learners is elusive and requires multilevel efforts to reverse the national, state, and local histories of unequal treatment, deficit orientations, socio-political dynamics, and legacies of unequal funding that still permeate many schools. Further advances in equity will require greater systemic coherence that sharpens the focus on educational outcomes for English Learners. California’s most recent policy shifts–including the passage of Proposition 58 and the English Learner Roadmap–show promise of systemic coherence and alignment to an assets-based approach for English Learners in the state and nation, as tangible evidence of equity in services and outcomes are still works in progress.

Notes

¹ “Unduplicated count” means that each pupil is counted only once even if the pupil meets more than one of these criteria (EC sections 2574(b)(2) and 42238.02(b)(1)).

² California’s Eight Priorities: Priority 1: Basic Services, including assignment of fully credentialed teachers, adequate facilities, and access to standards aligned materials; Priority 2: Implementation of State Standards, including English Language Development (ELD); Priority 3: Parental Involvement; Priority 4: Pupil Achievement. including standardized assessments and English language proficiency; Priority 5: Pupil Engagement, including attendance/absenteeism, dropout and graduation rates; Priority 6: School Climate; Priority 7: Course Access; Priority 8: Pupil Outcomes.

³ State indicators: High School Graduation Rate; Academic Performance; Suspension Rate; English Learner Progress; Preparation for College/Career; and Chronic Absenteeism.

⁴ Local indicators: Basic Conditions; Implementation of Academic Standards; School Climate Survey; and Parent Involvement and Engagement.

⁵ “Subsidiarity is the idea that a central authority should only perform those tasks, which cannot be performed at a more immediate or local level.” (Kershner, C. March 24, 2014. Subsidiarity: California’s Messy Politics of Local Control. Education Week Blog: On California. Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/on_california/2014/03/subsidiarity_californias_messy_politics_of_local_control.html).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Magaly Lavadenz

Magaly Lavadenz, PhD, is Distinguished Professor of English Learner Research, Policy, and Practice and founding Executive Director of the Center for Equity for English Learners in the School of Education at Loyola Marymount University. She has served in a variety of leadership positions in higher education, as well as in professional organizations statewide and nationally, including as past president of the Californians Together, the California Council on Teacher Education, and the California Association for Bilingual Education. Her research addresses the intersections and impact of policies and practices for culturally and linguistically diverse students, their teachers and school leaders. Her work is published in numerous articles, chapters, and books, including Questioning our Practices: Bilingual Teacher-Researchers and Transformative Inquiry and Latino Civil Rights in Education: La Lucha Sigue, co-edited with Anaida Colón Muñiz.

Elvira G. Armas

Elvira G. Armas, EdD, is the Director of Programs and Partnerships for the Center for Equity for English Learners (CEEL) and Affiliated Faculty in the School of Education at Loyola Marymount University. She has served as a bilingual classroom teacher, mentor, district advisor, adjunct professor, staff and curriculum developer, and Co-Principal Investigator and project director on numerous state and national grants. Her areas of expertise include integrated standards-based curriculum and instruction, assessment, and family/community engagement in culturally and linguistically diverse settings; she is an active collaborator with preK–12th grade educators. She has also co-authored several articles, policy briefs, and book chapters about issues related to teaching, learning, parent/community engagement, and assessment.

Marco A. Murillo

Marco A. Murillo, PhD, is a Senior Research Associate at Loyola Marymount University’s Center for Equity for English Learners. His research interests focus on the secondary school experience of immigrant youth, as well as issues relating to college readiness and access for low-income, students of color. He holds a BA in Political Science and History from the University of California San Diego and a PhD in Education (Urban Schooling) from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Sylvia Jáuregui Hodge

Sylvia Jáuregui Hodge, MEd, is completing her Doctorate in Educational Leadership for Social Justice at Loyola Marymount University, where she serves as the Doctoral Fellow at the Center for Equity for English Learners, and Assistant Director for the National Professional Development grant Project ROYAL: Rigorous Opportunities for Young-Children to Accelerate Language and Literacy: Effects of the Sobrato Early Academic Language (SEAL) Model. A former classroom teacher, she served in highly-diverse, multilingual, Title I public schools in Texas. In 2014, she was awarded a fellowship from the National Head Start Association in Washington, D.C., where she co-authored a report on successful two-generational approaches used by Head Start and Early Head Start programs. Her doctoral research focus is on school funding policies and how they affect the educational opportunities of English Learners.