California's English Learners and Their Long-Term Learning Outcomes

California's K-12 funding and instructional policies for English learners (ELs) have changed significantly over the past 2 decades. The major policy shifts held the potential to change student learning outcome patterns for ELs. As a first step in identifying the potential impacts of these policy shifts, this report describes changes over time in the development of academic skills and English proficiency among English learners in California. The results suggest that some combination of the policies described--from more rigorous requirements for teacher preparedness for EL students to increased funding and the introduction of transitional kindergarten--has likely made a difference in EL outcomes. This report also illuminates a gap between when students achieve English proficiency and when they are reclassified. The authors find that almost three quarters of K-cohort EL students are English proficient as measured by the California English Language development Test (CELDT) by the end of elementary school, but only half of K-cohort ELs are reclassified by that same time point. In California, where English proficiency represents only one of the four criteria students must meet to be reclassified, this discrepancy demonstrates the role played by other barriers to reclassification, most likely the criterion to demonstrate basic skills on another assessment.