LUSD board discusses English-learner reclassification rates

The Lodi Unified School District on Tuesday evening discussed how many students each year are reclassified from English learners to fluent in English.

From the 2014-15 school year to the 2016-17 school year, the reclassification rate increased from 4.1 percent to 16.78 percent, according to Lisa Kotowski, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, but that number decreased to 12.89 percent in the 2017-18 school year.

“We were on a steady increase of reclassifying students ... because of changes to the criteria,” Kotowski said. “In the 2017-18 year we took a little drop because of a more rigorous criteria. We knew the tests would be more difficult, but the reclassification rate was actually higher than we thought it would be.”

The district begins testing Englishlearner students when they first enter school — typically in kindergarten — and test them again each year to track their progress.

Most English learners spend three to five years in development programs, Kotowski said, although some students take more than five years and are considered long-term English learners.

“I still think we’re doing good work with English learners, and continue to look at English learners and reclassify them so that when they go to middle school and high school they can take more electives and more classes that interest them,” Kotowski said.

Schools provide English learners with a minimum of 30 minutes per day of English language development, Kotowski said, along with multiple classes that utilize resources such as Rosetta Stone to improve their fluency.

A number of after-school programs are also available, which Kotowski said have more flexibility then regular classes in terms of how they can help students learn English.

Board President George Neely stressed the importance of ensuring that English learners become fluent, he said, in order to meet the district’s literacy goals.

“If we have kindergartners who are at level one, that greatly takes away from their ability to read at grade level by third grade,” Neely said.

The district also has a large number of English learners entering high school, Kotowski said, adding that schools are taking steps to help them become fluent such as working with the Lodi Public Library, which provides services to English learners in elementary schools as well.

“We do have a high level of students entering our ninth and 10th grades who are newcomers to the U.S. and California schools who hardly speak any English,” Kotowski said. “That creates challenges for teachers, but we are working on a number of programs for them.”

Board member Ron Heberle agreed with Neely about the importance of ensuring that English learners become fluent, and asked Kotowski whether the district follows them throughout their academic careers once they are reclassified as fluent.

“The statute requires that we follow them for four years to make sure they don’t fall back, so our teachers continue to monitor them throughout those four years,” Kotowski said.