Transcription
The California English Learner Roadmap is the new policy for English learners in the state of California. It supersedes the old Proposition 2 to 7 policy and puts in place instead a common mission and vision for all of our schools and a roadmap for how to get there.
That roadmap consists of four research-based principles which really speak to the different aspects of what we have to put in place and the connections between the two. And those principles are: number one, asset-based education that values and builds on the languages and cultures students bring and that provides them with truly affirming and safe, welcoming schools. This is an era that is about embracing the languages and the cultures children bring and providing all of our students, to the extent we can, with opportunities to develop proficiency in two or more languages.
The second principle really speaks to the quality of the intellectual work that our children are exposed to in their classrooms; of the quality of teaching and learning; high-level standards with meaningful access provided by teachers who know how to scaffold participation and support our students and really participating in class and mastering everything they need to; overcoming language barriers; learning the English they need. And it also speaks to the importance of us assuring access to all of those college preparatory classes that every child needs in order to leave our high schools college and career-ready.
Principle number three is about investing in a system with the resources, the assessments, with the professional development, the leadership development that we need in order to carry off the kind of teaching and learning that our students require. Systems includes everything from: do we have assessments that really tell us whether our children are learning and what's happening to them in both of their languages and in ways that are really reliable information for teachers and for accountability? Systems includes having the teaching staff with the skills needed to meet the needs of their English learners and the processes of professional development and professional support for them so they can continue to learn the skills they need. Systems is about having leadership that understand English Learner needs and are prepared with the skills and the approaches to really act upon that knowledge and to hold their schools accountable for moving along a path of continuous improvement toward the goals of the kind of schools we need. If we don't make those investments, it ends up just being pretty words on a page, and that's where it really falls to everybody at the local level to see to it that this roadmap guides our financial planning, our local control accountability planning, and our own school site planning.
The fourth principle is about an articulated system, a connected system from pre-school all the way through to high school graduation, all moving in the same direction to ensure that our students get the education they need; alignment and articulation all the way from preschool through graduation from high school; coherence across the system so what happens in one school is connected to what happens in another school; and so as children move from grade to grade to grade, they're receiving a pathway of education that is connected, aligned, and coordinated. What we know now is that early education is a crucial part of our system that we have to start early when those brains are just wired for language and cognitive development; those crucial years that build a foundation for later success; that we need a system that invests in early childhood education and connects it all the way up in a pathway through to high school graduation.
What the roadmap tries to do is to lay out a comprehensive view of all the things that would be happening to really support English learners; everything from ensuring access to ensuring the quality of education to seeing to it the teachers have the skills they need to pull that off; to seeing to it that there's assessment that is reliable and valid for them. By painting that comprehensive picture of what needs to be in place and by saying as a state we're reaching toward this vision of education that prepares our kids with 21st-century skills with proficiency in multiple languages, we are all moving together on a road toward the same goal.