Relative English Learner Enrollment in LASD and BCS – Letter to SCCOE Board
From: Steve Brown
Several weeks ago, I sent to you an email regarding the renewal of the BCS charter petition.
I have received several questions related to the material presented. This is the second email attempting to respond to a second set of questions, “Clarify the impact of Assembly Bill 2268 on the relative English Learner enrollment in LASD and BCS”.
The most definitive response to this question should come from a lawyer. My observations follow.
Statewide there have been concerns raised about the increase in identification of TK students as English Learners. The assessment tools used to identify English Learners were not developed for learners who are not yet reading or writing. Assembly Bill 2268 was signed into law in June 2024, halting the identification of English Learners in TK until more developmentally appropriate measures and tools can be developed.
Why does this matter?
The Charter Act indicates the enrollment of a charter should reflect the enrollment of the local district with emphasis students defined as “academically low achieving.” English Learners are considered a part of this group.
BCS enrolls 23% of the students of the combined LASD+BCS students. Over the last 4 years BCS has enrolled between 12% to 18% of the combined LASD+BCS English Learners. As reported, 2023-24 BCS English Learner enrollment jumped to 21%. This was a surprise. The increase was driven by BCS reporting 63% of their TK students were English Leaners, approximately 2.6 times than the 24% reported by LASD.
Potentially this relatively large variation may be indicative of the issues identified by the state.
Since AB2268 indicates TK English Learner testing should be halted, then eliminating the TK impact on both the LASD and the BCS school-wide proportionate enrollment ratios could be accomplished using two approaches, exclude all TK enrollment data from the overall English Learner ratios or include all TK students and exclude the English Learner- designation. In either approach, the BCS enrollment of English Leaners is 17%, not the 21% reported, of the combined LASD+BCS enrollment.
Attached is a spreadsheet analyzing the 2023-24 enrollment data three different ways:
As reported, which now may be set aside due to AB2268.
BCS reported 63% of their TK students were English Learners.
LASD reported 24% of their TK students were English Learners.
Exclude all TK enrollment data from the overall ENGLISH LEARNER ratios.
Include all TK students and exclude the ENGLISH LEARNER designation.
Considering AB2268 and analyzing the numbers suggests the BCS enrollment of the combined LASD+BCS English Learner enrollment would have been 17% (vs. the reported 21%). Both the analysis of the data and the enrollment for the prior four years are in line with the 17%.
A careful review by the SCCOE Staff/Board of the BCS English Learner data will hopefully confirm BCS has only made modest progress in recent years enrolling a proportionate share of English Learners.
After a decade of unacceptable BCS enrollment results, and years of documented, concerned, time-consuming oversight by the SCCOE Board, is now the time for SCCOE Board members to be proud of their years of oversight efforts, to recognize the failure of the BCS Board to comply with repeated SCCOE guidance, and to reject the current BCS charter renewal petition, while suggesting to the BCS Board they resubmit a petition containing firm commitments to achieving annual enrollment metrics for “academically low achieving” students, and accept explicit consequences for not achieving the metrics?
Thank you for your service to the community and for your time in reading this letter.
If you have questions or comments, please let know.
Steve Brown
650-996-4895