LASD and BCS English Language Learners (EL) – Letter to the SCCOE Board
TO: SCCOE Board and Staff
RE: THANK YOU for your Continued Commitment to Achieving Diversity
The SCCOE staff and Board have expressed concerns regarding the under enrollment at Bullis Charter School (BCS) of four different groups including students who are English learners, Hispanic, socioeconomically disadvantaged and students with disabilities.
I am writing this email in response to public comments made by key leaders that they needed to better understand the enrollment data.
Please see our research into how BCS under enrolls students with disabilities.
This email, focused on students who are English learners (EL), draws on data readily available from the California Department of Education (CDE) online data bases. The data was generated and entered into the CDE data bases annually by LASD and BCS staff. The following and attached material are summaries of their data. https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/ad/fileselsch.asp
The data indicates that relative to LASD:
BCS is under enrolling EL students, and has for each of the last 10 years.
Spanish home language EL students, Hispanic students, and Economically Disadvantaged (FRPM) students are particularly underrepresented at BCS, both compared to the district as a whole and to the physically adjacent neighborhoods.
Please see our research into how BCS under enrolls English Learners.
The pandemic disrupted many aspects of employment/unemployment, local vs remote residency for work, and in-person vs remote classroom education. Potentially, the normal EL classroom experience, some initial EL classification and reclassification tests were not completed. The disruptions in the last couple years suggests an indicative picture might best viewed by looking at annual enrollment data over the last decade.
BCS is in the Los Altos School District (LASD). Over the last decade, each year BCS has enrolled a lower proportion of EL students than LASD. During the 10 years, approximately 7% (~560 student-school-years) of BCS’s students were EL students. Over the same time period, approximately 12% (~5,000 student-school-years) of the LASD students were EL students. The cumulative effect of this disproportionate EL enrollment, has resulted in LASD serving ~300 disproportionally additional EL students, and BCS under serving ~300 fewer EL students. Putting this in context, BCS has under-enrolled a proportionate number of EL students by one-third.
Examining the distribution of home languages adds additional insight into the composition of the EL students. For example, during the last three school years, approximately 75% of the EL students were concentrated in six identified languages:
Spanish EL students - LASD was higher than BCS
Both Mandarin and Cantonese EL students – BCS was higher than LASD
Russian, Japanese, Korean EL Students - LASD and BCS served similar proportions
Over the last decade, ~40% of the BCS EL Students had Mandarin and Cantonese home language while ~ 5% of the BCS EL Students had Spanish home language.
Historically, the reclassification of prior year English learners (EL) to current year reclassified fluent English proficient (RFEP), suggests that the most significant EL numerical challenge is in the physical neighborhoods of two schools with the highest concentration of students with Spanish as their home language.
Approximately 70% of the LASD Spanish home language EL students attended Santa Rita school and Almond school; the campuses closest to their families’ residences. The original BCS elementary campus (now BCS North) is physically located between the Santa Rita and Almond campuses (The BCS North campus is 0.6 mile from Santa Rita and 1.7 miles from Almond.) The CDE online data base indicates the vast majority of Spanish home language EL Students are being served by the Santa Rita and Almond, not BCS.
Thank you once again for embracing the diversity in our community and ensuring equitable treatment for all students and families.
Steve Brown
Please see the attachment for tables, graphs and links to various data sources.
Exbibit A – English Leaners (EL) The Last Three Years (Page 1 to 4)
Exhibit B – The Last Decade – All English Learners (Page 5 to 7)
Exhibit C - The Last Decade - FRPM, Hispanic and Spanish EL Students ( Page 8)
Exhibit D – The Last Decade – Spanish English Learners (Page 9 to 10)
Exhibit E – The Last Decade – Ethnicity (Page 11 to 12)
Exhibit F – The Last Decade – Economically Disadvantaged (Page 13 to 14)
Footnote and Link to Data Sources ( Page 15)
LASD and BCS English Language Learners (EL)
Joe Hurd, the former Chairman of the BCS board, published a letter in the Town Crier on March 4, 2020. He made the following comment, “I believe that every public school should help all children learn and thrive.” He also stated that “Bullis Charter School wants to ensure that what we’re doing works for the larger community, and especially for English-language learner and socioeconomically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities.” Mr. Hurd also commented “English-language learner and socioeconomically disadvantaged students’ attendance is not going to magically increase overnight.” This is a great point!
Why does this matter?
English language acquisition is the first/foundational step toward academic achievement.
The Public Service Obligation of Publicly Funded Schools
Publicly funded schools, both LASD and BCS, are fundamental institutions of our democracy. Public funding requires both compliance with the legal structures and the expectation of service to ALL the students.
“The real safeguard of democracy is education.” – 1938 - Franklin D. Roosevelt
“All residents of this nation are kin in some way by blood or culture of a foreign land. Yet they are primarily and necessarily a part of the new and distinct civilization of the United States.” 1944 – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Frank Murphy
“American schools have been charged with creating unity out of a nation of immigrants from a hundred different cultures and languages…” Peter Schrag, a refugee from Nazi Germany, a writer, educator, and former Guggenheim Fellow
“A stable and democratic society is impossible without a minimum degree of literacy and knowledge on the part of most citizens and without widespread acceptance of some common values.” Milton Friedman, the champion of free markets, argued that public funding of education is justified by public benefit. The public pursuit of equity for every child requires government funding.
LASD and BCS have a shared duty to prepare ALL students, including Hispanic and Economically Disadvantaged Students, to be admitted to and succeed in the UC System.
Los Angeles Times, July 21, 2021 - University of California (UC) Admissions
Among California applicants, Latinos were the largest group admitted for the second year in a row, making up 37% of freshman seats.
About 45% of prospective freshmen admitted were low-income while 45% were the first in their families to attend a four-year university.
New York Times, July 22, 2021 - How Racist Is America?
In 2000, more than 30 percent of Hispanics dropped out of high school. By 2016, only 10 percent did. In 1999, a third of Hispanics aged 18 to 24 were in college; now, nearly half are.
The Hispanic experience in America is beginning to look similar to the experience of Irish Americans or Italian Americans or other past immigrant groups - a period of struggle followed by integration into the middle class.