OCTOBER 2017

AMAYA GARCIA

EDUCATING CALIFORNIA’S ENGLISH LEARNERSWestminster Brings Students’ Home Languages Into the Mainstream

About the Author

Amaya Garcia is a senior researcher with the Education Policy program at New America. A member of the Dual Language Learners National Work Group, she provides research and analysis on policies and

programs related to dual language education, bilingual teacher preparation and early education. Prior to joining New America, Garcia was a policy analyst at the D.C. State Board of Education and a research associate at the American Institutes of Research. She holds a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Maryland-College Park, a master’s degree in cognitive studies in education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a bachelor’s degree in English and psychology from the University of Iowa.

Acknowledgments

This work would not have been possible without the generous support of the Heising-Simons and McKnight Foundations. Many thanks to the parents, administrators, staff and educators in Westminster School District for their time and generosity in sharing their stories: Renae Bryant, Beverlee Mathenia, Shannon Villanueva, Nicole Jacobson, Cyndi Paik, Huong Dang, Patty Pelton, Quynh-Tram Vu, Janice Kamada, Veronica Alvarez, Christopher Carrillo, and Gabe Rodriguez. Natalie Tran from the National Resource Center on Asian Languages, Jan Gustafson-Corea from the California Association for Bilingual Education, and Tracey Gaglio from the Orange County Department of Education provided essential information on Westminster’s programs in the context of the county, state, and country. I am grateful to New America colleagues Elena Silva, Kevin Carey, Janie Tankard Carnock, and Sabrina Detlef for their thoughtful comments and edits and to Anthony Hanna for writing sidebars on pertinent California state laws. Tyler Richardett provided layout and communication support. Special thanks to Ruby Takanishi for reviewing an earlier draft of the paper.

Terminology

This paper uses the term English learner (EL) to refer to students between the ages of 3–21 enrolled in the PreK–12 educational system who have a native language other than English and are in the process of developing their academic English language proficiency. This definition aligns with that used in a recent consensus report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures.

About New America

New America is committed to renewing American politics, prosperity, and purpose in the Digital Age. We generate big ideas, bridge the gap between technology and policy, and curate broad public conversation. We combine the best of a policy research institute, technology laboratory, public forum, media platform, and a venture capital fund for ideas. We are a distinctive community of thinkers, writers, researchers, technologists, and community activists who believe deeply in the possibility of American renewal.

Find out more at newamerica.org/our-story.

About the Education Policy Program

New America’s Education Policy program uses original research and policy analysis to solve the nation’s critical education problems, serving as a trusted source of objective analysis and innovative ideas for policymakers, educators, and the public at large. We combine a steadfast concern for low-income and historically disadvantaged people with a belief that better information about education can vastly improve both the policies that govern educational institutions and the quality of learning itself. Our work encompasses the full range of educational opportunities, from early learning to primary and secondary education, college, and the workforce.

Our work is made possible through generous grants from the Alliance for Early Success; the Buffett Early Childhood Fund; the Foundation for Child Development; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; the Joyce Foundation; the George Kaiser Family Foundation; the JPMorgan Chase & Co.; the Kresge Foundation; Lumina Foundation; the McKnight Foundation; the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation; the David and Lucile Packard Foundation; the Siemens Foundation; the W. Clement and Jessie V. Stone Foundation; the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation; and the Walton Family Foundation. The views expressed in this report are those of its author and do not necessarily represent the views of foundations, their officers, or employees.

Find out more at newamerica.org/education-policy.

Contents

Introduction 2

An Overview of Westminster 5

A Snapshot of Two Programs 9

What Is Next for Westminster 15

Notes 16

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On the first day of school, Soledad Vidaurri went to register her brother’s children in their local school in Westminster, CA but was told they could not be admitted due to their lack of English language skills. The courts would later find Westminster Elementary School had denied Gonzalo, Jr., Geronimo, and Sylvia Mendez admission based on the fact that they had a Spanish surname and a dark complexion.1

At the time, 1944, the exclusion of Mexican-American students was a common practice in Southern California, where school district after school district constructed “Mexican” schools in response to pressure from white parents. This practice was also part of a widespread effort to “Americanize” Mexican children.2 These children were forbidden from speaking Spanish at school and largely taught basic skills. As Sylvia Mendez reflected in an Education Week video about her experience in one of these schools, “we were being taught how to be good maids, we were being taught how to clean, how to sew, how to quilt. We weren’t being taught academics.”3

After appealing to the local school board and failing, Vidaurri’s brother Gonzalo Mendez and his wife Felicíta decided to take action. In 1945, Mendez joined with four other Mexican-American fathers to file a lawsuit against four school districts (Westminster, Garden Grove, El Modeno, and Santa Ana) using the argument that segregation was a

violation of their rights under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment. A year later, Federal District Court Judge Paul J. McCormick ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and wrote in his decision that “a paramount requisite on the American system of public education is social equality. It must be open to all children by unified school association regardless of lineage.”4

The school districts appealed McCormick’s decision, only to lose again. Two months later, in June 1947, California Governor Earl Warren (who would later serve as a Supreme Court justice during the Brown v. Board of Education case) repealed segregation in the state’s schools.

Seventy years later, Mendez v. Westminster continues to be an important legacy in the Westminster School District, a K-8 district where nearly 50 percent of students are English learners (ELs) and the majority of students are Latino and Asian (see Figures 1 and 2). The district has undertaken major initiatives in recent years to advance equity for English learners, as guaranteed by civil rights law, with major investments to develop students’ emerging multilingualism at school. In particular, Westminster made strides in prioritizing the needs of English learners with the creation of a district-level Office of Language Acquisition in 2014, which has been instrumental in its efforts to develop and implement dual language immersion programs in Vietnamese and Spanish.5

INTRODUCTION

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Figure 1 | Westminster School District Top Languages Spoken by EL Students

Figure 2 | Westminster School District Student Demographics

Source: California Department of Education, http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/.

44+38+13+5+T44%Hispanic

38%Asian

13%White

5%Other

68+32+T68%economically

disadvantaged

12+88+T12%special

education

49+51+T49%English learners

55%Spanish

41%Vietnamese

1%Arabic

0.5%Catonese

0.5%Korean

2%Other55+41+1+1+2+T

Educating California’s English Learners: Westminster Brings Students’ Home Languages Into the Mainstream 3

California is on the cusp of a potential resurgence in bilingual education thanks to the recent passage of Proposition 58, which scales back components of the state’s English-only law and provides districts with greater flexibility in providing bilingual

instruction for all students (see Shifting Away from English-Only Instruction for ELs in California). This paper explores Westminster’s process in designing and implementing two distinct dual language immersion programs in the span of two years.

Shifting Away from English-Only Instruction for ELs in California by Anthony Hanna

In 1998, the state of California passed Proposition 227, which placed severe restrictions on the use of bilingual instruction in K–12 schools. Among these restrictions was the provision that English learner (EL) students be taught entirely in English within special classes, separate from mainstream classes.6 Furthermore, parents who wanted their children to receive bilingual instruction were required to submit waivers to have them placed in bilingual programs, which were consequently in short supply. According to a Hechinger Report article on the state’s history of bilingual education, the shortage of programs stemmed from stringent requirements placed on schools to demonstrate that bilingual instruction would serve the needs of the school’s population.7 As a result, just 5 percent of California’s 1.4 million EL students received bilingual instruction after the passage of Proposition 227, as compared to 30 percent who received it prior to the passage of the law.8 The law provided a complement to the state’s existing law naming English as the official language of California, which prohibited the legislature from “passing laws which diminish or ignore the role of English as the state’s common language.”9

Proposition 227 set off a cascading effect, with Arizona and Massachusetts passing similar laws limiting the use of bilingual education for EL students. Indeed, California has served as a bellwether of EL policy due in part to its historical role in the framing of district and state responsibilities to these students. The 1974 Supreme Court ruling of Lau v. Nichols, regarding Chinese students in San Francisco who claimed to have been denied equal education by their school district due to their low English proficiency, helped spur the creation of federal guidelines issued by the Office of Civil Rights on how to provide proper education to ELs.10

The passage of Proposition 58 in 2016, however, lifted the barriers to bilingual education for students and schools. Beginning in July of 2017, California schools seeking to provide bilingual instruction will no longer need to be considered exceptions to the requirement of English-only instruction. Instead, schools may use a variety of instructional methods to promote English proficiency for their EL population, including bilingual education. This new law also stipulates that districts must identify how community members believe EL students should be taught.11 In this way, the law opens the door for schools to use different methods of instruction to find the best fit for their EL populations.

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Educating California’s English Learners: Westminster Brings Students’ Home Languages Into the Mainstream 5

AN OVERVIEW OF WESTMINSTER

Westminster City lies in the northwest part of Orange County, a county with a reputation for affluence, conservatism, and a healthy tourism industry. According to Renae Bryant, former executive director of the Office of Language Acquisition in Westminster School District, the city stands out from the rest of the county. She said, “70 percent of our students are eligible for free and reduced-priced lunch. People don’t think of those demographics when they think of Orange County.”12 The city is home to notable levels of linguistic diversity as well, with a full 65 percent of residents speaking a language other than English at home.13 By comparison, only 47 percent of Orange County residents speak a language other than English at home.

Westminster School District’s linguistic diversity is evident in the size and stability of its English learner student population, which over the past 20 years has stayed between 40 to 50 percent of all enrollment. During that time, the instructional programs used to support ELs’ academic and English language development have shifted between English-only and bilingual approaches. In the early 1990s, the district offered primary language instruction classes (PLIC) that provided ELs with core instruction in their primary languages and primary language assistance classes (PLAC) where core instruction was delivered in English, but students received assistance in their home languages from a paraprofessional. However,

only a small number of ELs (around 60 students) were able to receive these services, given the district’s shortage in bilingual educators.14 The district made some effort to increase the number of bilingual educators by paying for teachers to take Vietnamese and Spanish classes and asking some to sign a document saying that they would become bilingual.15 All of these efforts came to an abrupt halt in 1996 when the school board voted to become an “English-only” district, which was quickly followed by the state’s passage of Proposition 227.16

But that changed again in 2015, when the Vietnamese dual language immersion program at DeMille Elementary School (located in an area known as Little Saigon) started, with two kindergarten classes.17 In 2016, the district launched a Spanish dual language immersion program at Willmore Elementary school in preschool (a half-day program that serves three and four-year-old children) and kindergarten. Both programs use a 50/50 model where instruction is split evenly between English and the partner language (see Dual Language Immersion Program Models). Importantly, these programs, which aim to help students become bilingual and biliterate, represent a marked shift from the district’s bilingual programs in the 1990s that sought to quickly transition students into English-only settings and promote English language proficiency only.

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According to Bryant, the district implemented these programs in response to the growing research base suggesting that dual language immersion is one of the most effective instructional approaches for promoting ELs’ linguistic and academic development.18 According to the recent consensus report, Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures, multiple studies have found that “ELs who develop high levels of proficiency in both [their first

language] L1 and English relative to those with low levels of bilingual proficiency are more successful at closing the achievement gap in reading with their native English-speaking peers.”19 There is emerging evidence that over the long term ELs enrolled in dual language immersion programs have higher levels of achievement and rates of reclassification (e.g., achieving English language proficiency and exiting EL status) than ELs enrolled in other types of instructional programs.20

Westminster’s programs are also evidence of a responsive leadership team willing to take into account the needs and interests of the community. Dual language immersion programs were identified by the community as a need within the district’s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), which is mandated under the state’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) that drives school funding (see A New Education Funding System for California). Moreover, the district’s Board of Trustees has set the goal of preparing all students to be responsible, resilient, resourceful, and productive world citizens in a changing and diverse society. “Our entire district supports dual language immersion because we know it’s a critical component for preparing our students for the 21st century economy and will give them a competitive advantage whether they are going into college or careers,” superintendent Cyndi Paik told us.21

Dual Language Immersion Program Models

Dual language immersion programs provide content area (e.g. math, social studies, english language arts) instruction in two languages, such as English and Spanish. The most common models used in dual language immersion programs are:

90/10: These programs begin with a 90 percent to 10 percent ratio of classroom instruction conducted in the partner language (e.g. Spanish, Mandarin) to English, and shift towards a 50/50 balance over a period of years.

50/50: These programs begin with an equal ratio of classroom instruction conducted in the partner language to English. This ratio can be achieved by splitting instructional time evenly by day or alternating language by day or week.

Note: Portions of this sidebar were adapted from: Amaya Garcia and Conor P. Williams, Stories from the Nation’s Capital: Building Instructional Programs and Supports for Dual Language Learners from PreK-3rd Grade in Washington, DC (Washington, DC: New America, 2015).

DeMille Elementary School Main Office. Photo: Amaya Garcia.

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The programs are helping to boost enrollment, which has been declining over the past several years as families move out of the district in search of more affordable housing. Indeed, both schools were selected due their student demographics, with space available to house a growing program. Willmore “used to be double the size. This year we added four classrooms and next year we will add four more classrooms,” said principal Nicole Jacobson.22 Importantly, the program is open to families who live outside of the district and use inter-district transfers to enroll in Westminster’s schools. The increase in student enrollment has helped to prevent teacher layoffs at DeMille and Willmore. “Teachers’ biggest fear is that they would lose their jobs,” said DeMille’s principal Shannon Villanueva. “The reality is that the dual program has saved positions. This year I was slated to lose a first and second grade teacher but I just hired them into the open English partner teacher positions.”23

Early evidence suggests that the dual language immersion programs at DeMille and Willmore have also promoted EL and non-EL integration due to their popularity with parents. In the years since Mendez v. Westminster, the issue of Latino and EL student segregation has not abated. In Westminster, many families choose to attend schools close to where they live and those who are more affluent select not to attend schools with large numbers of low-income students. As a result, there are wide variations in EL enrollment between schools in Westminster and only a handful of schools educate equal numbers of Asian, Latino, and White students. Those schools with the lowest levels of EL enrollment educate a disproportionately high number of white students, which mirrors larger national trends suggesting that EL students are triply segregated by language, socioeconomic status, and race.24 Some researchers and advocates argue that dual language immersion programs could help bolster integration due to their popularity with families of all backgrounds.25

The reality is that the dual program has saved positions. This year I was slated to lose a first and second grade teacher but I just hired them into the open English partner teacher positions.

— Shannon Villanueva, Principal, DeMille Elementary School

A New Education Funding System for California by Anthony Hanna

In 2013, California’s state legislature passed the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) to create a system of equitable funding for districts that serve high percentages of traditionally disadvantaged groups such as English Learners (ELs) and low-income students. The formula outlines three separate funding components: base grants, which are given to all districts in the same amount per pupil; supplemental grants, which provide an additional 20 percent of the base grant for each high-need student enrolled in the district; and a concentration grant for districts with high-needs students who make up more than 55 percent of the district’s enrollment.26 The reasoning for moving towards this system of funding was to increase or improve services for high-needs students such as ELs and low-income students in proportion to the increase in funding for each district.27

To ensure more transparent accountability in return for the allocation of LCFF funds, districts were tasked with creating Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs), outlining how funding will be used to improve outcomes for each group of students over a three-year period.28 Some strong examples of LCAP measures found by Californians Together, a state-based advocacy organization for ELs, include providing structured interventions for long-term English Learners (LTELs) and providing professional development focused on emotional and cultural awareness for teachers and staff working with ELs.29, 30

Yet, while districts are expected to spend LCFF funds proportionately to improve outcomes for high-needs students and narrow the achievement gap, they are not required to list expenditures specifically for this group of students. Instead, they may choose to use “quantitative and/or qualitative

descriptions” of how services for EL and other-high needs students will increase.31

This practice of excluding details on expenditures has caused many parents and advocacy organizations to object to what they view as ineffective uses of LCFF funds by multiple school districts. One lawsuit filed against the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) in July of 2015 claimed that the district was not proportionately using the extra funds it received to improve programs for low-income and EL students.32 But LAUSD is not the only district that has been criticized for a lack of transparency in its use of funds. In fact, the ACLU of Southern California has found that most districts failed to account for a majority of their LCFF funds in the first year of the policy’s implementation.33 The Education Trust–West also found that, while LCFF has improved funding equity between districts in the three years since it was passed, students in high-poverty schools still have far less access to the services that they need than students in low-poverty schools.34 Many parents and advocacy groups argue that this discrepancy is largely a result of the flexibility afforded to districts in drafting LCAPs and allocating LCFF funds.35

A new bill introduced into the California legislature in February 2017 sought to address the frustrations stemming from a lack of transparency in school funding. Under AB-1321, superintendents would be required to report the per-pupil expenditures of their districts (including personnel and non-personnel expenses), disaggregated by the source of funds, and to establish a methodology for disaggregating LCFF funds.36 However, in July 2017, the language of the bill was amended to remove the requirements around data disaggregation.

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Educating California’s English Learners: Westminster Brings Students’ Home Languages Into the Mainstream 9

Willmore Elementary School: Building a Spanish Dual Language Immersion Preschool Program

Dual language immersion programs are becoming increasingly sought after as parents begin to recognize the advantages that come with being bilingual. In Westminster, parents are very clear about their reasons for enrolling their children in the district’s new Spanish-English dual language immersion preschool program. “My daughter is four years old and, being bilingual myself, I know that it’s very important to learn multiple languages. There are so many benefits to being multilingual,” shared parent Lauren Vu Tran, adding that her daughter “is a sponge, singing songs and always showing off that she can speak Spanish.”

Beyond the academic benefits, research has also uncovered multiple cognitive benefits of bilingualism.37 For example, bilinguals of all ages demonstrate a stronger ability to control their attention and switch attention between tasks.38 Several studies also point to advantages in metalinguistic awareness (our understanding of how language is structured, which is an essential component of learning how to read).39 But as EL researcher and expert Linda Espinosa notes, these advantages are primarily conferred to children who develop both languages at the same time. As she writes in a 2015 article, ELs in early childhood

programs “have fewer opportunities to develop proficiency in both of their languages as English-only instruction is the most common language offered in preschools. This means that young emergent bilingual children in the United States are unlikely to benefit from the cognitive advantages of balanced bilingualism.”40 Given what we are learning about the positive impacts of bilingualism, many early education advocates and researchers argue that early exposure to two languages is essential.

Beverlee Mathenia, executive director of Early Education & Expanded Learning in Westminster, told us that starting a Spanish-English preschool dual language immersion program was a “no-brainer” for the district.41 In the context of Orange County, the program would be among one of the first public programs in the area and help attract more families to the district. Moreover, the initiative also aligned with guidance from local advocacy groups such as the California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE) and Californians Together on designing an LCAP with a high impact for English learners. The guidance cites increasing access to early childhood programs that help develop the home language and English as an exemplary practice.42

The Spanish program at Willmore Elementary School was developed and planned over a period of several months (an admittedly short timeline

A SNAPSHOT OF TWO PROGR AMS

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since experts suggest taking a full year for program planning). Mathenia leveraged her existing relationships in the central office to work across programs, including building a strong relationship with the Office of Language Acquisition, to get the program up and running. Part of that work included collaborating with Bryant and Christopher Carrillo, the district’s Spanish translator, on family outreach and recruitment. They canvassed the local swap meet, held parent information nights, and even went door-to-door in an attempt to pull in more Spanish speaking families. Carrillo said that some of these families had hesitations about dual language immersion and felt that their children could just learn Spanish at home. He said, “you have to sell them on the idea that [the program] will teach them to read and write in Spanish and help with jobs in the future.”43

Moreover, Mathenia looked outside of the district for expertise and guidance. First, she visited other dual language immersion preschool providers in the area to learn from them and get a sense of best practices. She also worked with Christie Baird from the Orange County Department of Education who provided recommendations on curriculum and instruction in addition to helping research the 50/50 preschool model. And finally, she sought guidance on the most appropriate program model to use in a half-day dual language immersion program from Linda Espinosa, who suggested that the program be structured as a 50/50 model where the language of instruction alternates by day. One advantage of a 50/50 model is that it provides native Spanish speakers and native English speakers with equal exposure to the two languages and allows for teachers to track their development and growth in both languages.

One challenge in designing the program was making it fit within the regulations that govern early education programs in California. Regulations specify that programs use the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP) to assess student learning and development across eight domains. Moreover, program quality is gauged using the state’s Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) which examines child development, teacher

qualifications, teacher-child interactions, and classroom environment, among other measures.

Westminster’s program is funded through California’s state preschool program and parent tuition. Tuition is set at $110 per week, although many families receive tuition assistance to ensure access for all. The program serves an equal number of ELs and non-ELs and is offered for three hours per day, five days per week.44 Veronica Alvarez, the program’s lead teacher, noted that the balance in enrollment between native English speakers and native Spanish speakers has led to language brokering between students: “kids will translate my directions from Spanish for the English-only students.”45

Alvarez had been teaching in the district for nine years and was interested in working in the program due to her own experience growing up bilingual. She knows the value of promoting a student’s home language and culture firsthand, but admitted that it has been a challenging first year. “It’s definitely stretched me to the max,” she told us. “It’s very

Veronica Alvarez leads a whole group discussion with her three-year-old preschoolers. Photo: Amaya Garcia.

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tiring constantly thinking in both languages and wondering what is best to present in each language. There’s been lots of trial and error.” However, she has found ways to make classroom activities and instruction more efficient and effective with the help of two teaching assistants. The three of them “divide and conquer” and often use small groups to facilitate learning.

A visit to Alvarez’s classroom shows her strategy at work. As she worked with a group of children at a table on an art activity, another group of children was engaged in block building with one of the teacher assistants, and a third group was in the dramatic play area with the other assistant. The classroom was alive with language as children were asked questions about the tasks in which they were involved. All of the children were engaged and despite the fact that many spoke in English, the teachers used only Spanish.

On the district side, both Bryant and Mathenia worked hard to ensure that Alvarez had the support necessary to be successful by providing her with additional planning time and access to professional development such as the CABE annual meeting. Despite the challenges, Alvarez admitted that it has been amazing to watch her students’ language skills progress and to have such involved parents (at least four parents volunteer in her classroom each week). Parents gushed about her skills as a teacher, with one sharing that they had “lucked out” with Ms. Alvarez and another praised her strong communication with parents. Many also spoke about the importance of the academic and social-emotional support being provided to their children. “The teachers address the social things that come with up with the kids. It’s clear that they care about them like their own children,” said one parent.46

Principal Nicole Jacobson was hired late in the program planning process and was quick to admit that she faced a “big learning curve” but embraced the challenge. Within two days of being hired as principal, she attended the Association of Two-Way and Dual Language Education (ATDLE) conference. She has also visited other districts to learn about

their dual language immersion programs. Last school year, Jacobson invested a lot of energy into ensuring that teachers across the school had the opportunity to learn about each other’s work and feel comfortable with the adoption of the dual language immersion program as a strand within the school. “I learned quickly that you have to act quickly so people don’t make assumptions. I had a little more work to do to bring everyone together so I took teachers from both sides to see a dual language immersion program in El Cajon,” she said.4748

This year, the program has grown to include transitional kindergarten and first grade and enrolls approximately 170 students. The program will add a grade level every year and eventually be offered all the way through fifth grade. The school held weekly tours in February and March and the majority of parents were eager to enroll. “We love the fact that they are excited about it and believe in it,” said Jacobson. But, she added, “I need to be upfront in saying that this is difficult. Your kids will be tired.” The district asks parents to attend a Family Commitment Night to help prospective parents get a better sense of what their children are in for and encourage them to commit to staying in the program through fifth grade.

DeMille Elementary: Leveraging Partnerships to Launch a Vietnamese Dual Language Immersion Program

On a typical morning in Huong Dang’s kindergarten classroom, a group of 15 students sits on the rug in front of a SmartBoard as she leads them through a Vietnamese language arts lesson on the Trung sisters, who are national heroes for leading a rebellion against Chinese rule in AD 40. The sisters are shown wielding swords while riding on their elephants, an image that has been immortalized in statues and processions honoring their legacy. Dang uses the images to teach her students vocabulary and engage in discussion about what is happening in the photos of the sisters.

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Vietnamese materials are hard to come by, so Dang created the lesson by adapting from a textbook and pulling pictures from the Internet during her daily planning time. She worked with one of her classroom parents, Annie Phan, to translate the history book into language that would be comprehensible for kindergarteners. Another parent, Nancy Pham, explained the difficulty of translating materials into Vietnamese: “on the Vietnamese side, there’s no books, no translations of ‘The Cow Jumped Over the Moon.’ When you translate from English, it’s very difficult to read,” she said. “Some of the words that are translated are very hard; even I don’t understand them.”49

Part of the challenge in accessing textbooks and materials in Vietnamese is because members of the local Vietnamese community oppose using anything produced in Vietnam. Shannon Villanueva, principal of DeMille, shared a story about one of the books used at a local middle school that included Communist symbols and language, which ignited a full-blown controversy and ended up being covered by the local newspaper.50

As Westminster Mayor Tri Ta, who is Vietnamese-American and whose daughter was in the middle school program, told the Orange County Register, “That language is not appropriate for the

Vietnamese community here. The community came here for freedom, so we do not accept symbols of communism.”51 To that end, the district formed a textbook vetting committee to help select culturally- and linguistically-appropriate materials.

Vincent Thieu Vo, who runs the Westminster Vietnamese Language and Culture School and has played in active role in the development of the district’s program, explained that the community lacks trust in the Communist Vietnamese government:

everything that comes from there is fake education [and] propaganda. We tried to not select the books from Vietnam and go back to real textbooks, good Vietnamese, correct grammar, concise. [In Vietnam], there is a tendency to do propaganda—even rewrite history. We don’t like that. We don’t want that. We want to teach the students the real history of what happened. That’s my goal.52

The district leveraged Vo’s expertise by recruiting him to be on the Dual Language Immersion (DLI) Task Force, comprised of parents, community members, teachers, school staff, administrators, and experts in dual language immersion programs from the Orange County Office of Education. The DLI task

Huong Dang teaches a lesson on the Trung sisters to her kindergarten class. Photo: Amaya Garcia.

Vietnamese books in Ms. Dang’s classroom library. Photo: Amaya Garcia.

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force was charged with a range of responsibilities and tasks including: program promotion and advocacy, helping to design the program schedule (see Table 1) and report card addendum detailing students’ progress in Vietnamese, building capacity

by reading DLI research, sharing progress, and identifying resources for DLI families.

Bryant, who led the district’s planning process, also relied on community partners to help promote the Vietnamese program. For example, the Vietnamese-language television station, Saigon Entertainment Television, provided opportunities to discuss the program on its shows. The Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce disseminated program flyers to its stakeholders as did the local Vietnamese culture and language schools. DeMille parent Nancy Phan told us that she keeps a stack of brochures in her car to give to people that she meets around the community.

According to Natalie Tran, director of the National Resource Center for Asian Languages (NRCAL) at California State University, Fullerton, “community engagement is key to dual language immersion. There are a lot of resources in the community such as heritage language schools that have been around for decades. The challenge is to draw on

A first grade student’s work. Photo: Amaya Garcia.

Source: Shannon Villanueva, interview with author, April 25, 2017.

Kindergarten Schedule First Grade Schedule

• Vietnamese language arts

• Vietnamese language development (for English-only students)

• Math (switches between English and Vietnamese every other day)

• English language arts

• English language development (for EL students)

• Science (Vietnamese)

• Social Studies (English)

• Specials (English)

• Vietnamese language arts

• English language arts

• English language development

• Vietnamese language development

• Math (switches between English and Vietnamese every other day)

• Science (English)

• Social Studies (Vietnamese)

• Specials (English)

Table 1 | Vietnamese Program Schedule

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these resources and align them to mainstream education.”53 NRCAL, which is funded by a U.S. Department of Education grant and is one of seven language resource centers across the country, is an important district partner. NRCAL develops resources and materials, provides teacher professional development and training, and supports dual language immersion programs for less commonly taught languages including Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese.

This need for cultural sensitivity tied to language is particularly true for Vietnamese programs, given the tensions around using resources published in Vietnam. There are differences in the Vietnamese language that have made some words become highly contested. Tran notes that there are two streams of Vietnamese language, “Pre-1975” (which is spoken by the majority of those living in Westminster) and “Post-1975” (which is spoken in Vietnam), and that certain words can evoke negative emotions. She played a key role in communicating these challenges to Bryant and other district leaders and was an essential partner in forming connections between the district and Vietnamese community organizations.

Beyond being sensitive to language, NRCAL’s books and resources are designed to be applicable and relevant to children’s everyday experiences such as going to school and making friends. The books are structured to be like early readers that help students learn common sight words in Vietnamese.54 In addition, the center has created assessments that can be used to track student’s oral proficiency in Vietnamese.

NRCAL also provides Vietnamese dual language immersion teachers with regular professional development throughout the school year and in the summer via a five-day institute. For example, teachers from Westminster attended a three-day professional development seminar in March 2016 and were able to collaborate with colleagues from other districts on lesson planning, sharing resources, and building cultural knowledge. These teachers also participate in a three-day summer

institute offered by local Vietnamese culture and language schools.

In addition to working with partners in Southern California, the district has forged relationships with organizations and school districts farther afield. These included Highline Public Schools in Burien, WA, which had implemented a Vietnamese dual language immersion program the year before. Bryant and Villanueva were able to visit Highline to see that program and learn more about the nuances of developing a Vietnamese dual language immersion program.55

Tran notes that NRCAL’s partnership with Westminster and other districts, including Highline Public Schools and Garden Grove School District, has allowed for a sharing of resources and led the organization to see the importance of developing greater supports for Vietnamese programs. NRCAL plans to publish a Vietnamese dual language immersion program implementation guide so that other districts do not have to build these programs from scratch.

As Westminster prepares for its third year of implementation, it has seen increased demand for the program. This fall, DeMille will open three Vietnamese dual language immersion kindergarten classrooms and serve a total of 154 K–2 grade students. For Vietnamese parents, the program has been a “dream come true” and will provide their children a chance to surpass them in terms of their proficiency in the language.56 “It’s scary to be a pioneer, but I’m glad we took that leap of faith,” said parent Nancy Phan.57

But demand is not simply coming from Vietnamese families. Parent Lourdes Maria Pavia, whose son is already fluent in Spanish and English, said participating in the program makes sense given the demographics of Westminster and will provide her son with a rare opportunity to become trilingual. “Speaking three languages will give him an advantage,” she said.58

EDUCATION POLICY Educating California’s English Learners: Westminster Brings Students’ Home Languages Into the Mainstream 15

As the Spanish and Vietnamese programs within Willmore and DeMille continue to grow to fifth grade, the district will preserve its central role in ensuring that both programs are high-quality and adhere to the Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education developed by the Center for Applied Linguistics.59 These principles have been central to the design of both programs. Moreover, Bryant has developed two non-negotiables for the programs: that they use a 50/50 program model and maintain equal access for speakers of the partner language to ensure that ELs maintain access to the program.

One innovation that the district has adopted is the Pathway to Biliteracy, which is an extension of the state’s Seal of Biliteracy that offers high school graduates the opportunity to demonstrate their proficiency in a second language and earn a seal on their diplomas. The Seal of Biliteracy was developed by Californians Together, a statewide advocacy coalition, and signed into law in 2012; since then, 25 additional states have adopted the seal. The Pathway to Biliteracy is being led locally by the Orange County Department of Education (OCDE) and offers students the opportunity to demonstrate their emerging biliteracy as early as preschool. Criteria include for children in early childhood programs (preschool through kindergarten) include being able to: verbally identify primary colors in both English and the target language; count and recite in numbers 1–10 in both English and the

target language; count objects numbering 1–5 in both English and the target language; and follow three-step instructions in both English and the target language, among others.60

According to Tracey Gaglio, coordinator in the OCDE Office of English Language Development and Multiliteracy Pathways, the criteria were developed by a task force who was charged with identifying “age-appropriate tasks that would promote that pathway” but not go beyond “what teachers are already doing in their classrooms.”61 Students can earn recognition at the end of preschool, transitional kindergarten, kindergarten and then we jump to third grade, fifth grade, and eighth grade.

Westminster leaders are also eager to share their experience in developing these programs with other districts around the state and have presented at several conferences. Bryant and Villanueva developed a “Top Ten” list of essential elements for dual language immersion program design and implementation: at the top is relationships, a theme that resonated in conversations with multiple district and program leaders.62 First, there are the relationships within the district that need to be forged in order to promote collaboration and build on the expertise of staff working across programs such as early childhood education and language acquisition. Second come relationships within school buildings to help integrate dual

WHAT IS NEXT FOR WESTMINSTER

EDUCATION POLICY16

language immersion programs into the larger school community and secure understanding from teachers and parents on how the strand will benefit the school. Finally, there are the relationships created with the larger community to help develop buy-in from city leadership, facilitate outreach and recruitment, and ensure the development of a culturally-responsive program.

As Villanueva acknowledged, while DeMille may be the first school in the state to implement a Vietnamese dual language immersion program,

it will not be alone for long thanks to the passage of Proposition 58.63 As of now, the district plans to expand the current dual language immersion programs all the way to eighth grade and is in communication with local high schools to plan for continuity. The lessons offered by Westminster can serve to highlight the importance of planning that takes into account the varying needs of local constituencies and value of developing dual language immersion programs that place equity for ELs front and center.

Notes1 Richard R. Valencia, “The Mexican-American Struggle for Equal Educational Opportunity in Mendez v. Westminster: Helping to Pave the Way for Brown v. Board of Education,” Teachers College Record 107, no. 3 (March 2005): 389–423.

2 Charles Wollenberg, “Mendez v. Westminster: Race, Nationality and Segregation in California Schools,” California Historical Quarterly (Winter 1974): 317–332.

3 Lesli A. Maxwell, “Sylvia Mendez and California’s School Desegregation Story,” Education Week, May 16, 2014, http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2014/05/sylvia_mendez_and_californias_.html.

4 As quoted in Richard R. Valencia, “The Mexican-American Struggle for Equal Educational Opportunity in Mendez v. Westminster: Helping to Pave the Way for Brown v. Board of Education,” Teachers College Record 107 no. 3 (March 2005): 404.

5 Westminster was recently profiled by the Education Trust–West for its work promoting equity for EL students through science. See Sarah Feldman and Verónica Flores Malagon, Unlocking Learning: Science as a Lever for English Learner Equity (Oakland, CA: The Education Trust–West, January 2017). The district was also recognized as a Bright Spot by the White House Initiative for Educational Excellence for Hispanics in 2015 for its Vietnamese dual language immersion program and progress in increasing EL student achievement: https://

www2.ed.gov/about/inits/list/hispanic-initiative/bright-spots.html?queries%5Bsearch%5D=westminster.

6 California Legislative Analyst’s Office, Proposition 227, English Language in Public Schools, http://www.lao.ca.gov/ballot/1998/227_06_1998.htm.

7 Lillian Mongeau, “Battle of Bilingual Education Once Again Brewing in California,” The Hechinger Report, April 19, 2016, http://hechingerreport.org/bilingual-battle-brewing-californiaagain/.

8 Desiree Carver-Thomas and Linda Darling-Hammond, Bilingual Teacher Shortages in California: A Problem Likely to Grow (Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute, 2017).

9 BallotPedia, “California Proposition 63, English is the Official Language Amendment (1986),” https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_63,_English_is_the_Official_Language_Amendment_(1986).

10 Gloria Stewner-Manzanares, “The Bilingual Education Act: Twenty Years Later,” National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education (Fall 1988), https://ncela.ed.gov/files/rcd/BE021037/Fall88_6.pdf.

11 California Legislative Analyst’s Office, Proposition 58, English Language Education, http://www.lao.ca.gov/BallotAnalysis/Proposition?number=58&year=2016.

12 Interview with author, April 24, 2017.

EDUCATION POLICY Educating California’s English Learners: Westminster Brings Students’ Home Languages Into the Mainstream 17

13 United States Census Bureau Quick Facts, Westminster City, California, https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/westminstercitycalifornia/PST045216#qf-headnote-a.

14 Eric Bailey, “Countywide: State Board OKs English-Only Teaching in Westminster,” Los Angeles Times, February 10, 1996, http://articles.latimes.com/1996-02-10/local/me-34529_1_bilingual-education.

15 E-mail from Shannon Villanueva, July 12, 2017.

16 Eric Bailey, “Countywide: State Board OKs English-Only Teaching in Westminster,” Los Angeles Times (February 10, 1996), http://articles.latimes.com/1996-02-10/local/me-34529_1_bilingual-education.

17 Alex Chan, “Little Saigon School to Provide Instruction in English and Vietnamese,” Los Angeles Times (August 28, 2015), http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-vietnamese-school-20150828-story.html.

18 E-mail with author, June 9, 2017.

19 Ruby Takanishi and Suzanne Le Menestrel, eds., Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2017), 11, http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/Reports/2017/promoting-the-educational-success-of-children-and-youth-learning-English.aspx.

20 Rachel A. Valentino and Sean F. Reardon, “Effectiveness of Four Instructional Programs Designed to Serve English Learners: Variation by Ethnicity and Initial English Proficiency,” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 37, no. 4 (2015): 612–637; Jennifer L. Steele, Robert O. Slater, Gema Zamarro, Trey Miller, Jennifer Li, Susan Burkhauser, and Michael Bacon, “Effects of Dual-Language Immersion Programs on Student Achievement: Evidence From Lottery Data,” American Educational Research Journal 54, no. 1S (April 2017): 282S–306S; Ilana Umansky and Sean F. Reardon, “Reclassification Patterns Among Latino English Learner Students in Bilingual, dual language immersion, and English Immersion Classrooms,” American Educational Research Journal 51, no. 5 (2014): 879–912.

21 Interview with author, April 25, 2017.

22 Interview with author, April 24, 2017.

23 Interview with author, April 25, 2017.

24 Julian Vasquez Heilig and Jennifer Jellison Holme, “Nearly 50 Years Post-Jim Crow: Persisting and Expansive School Segregation for African American, Latina/o, and ELL Students in Texas,” Education and Urban Society 45, no. 5 (2013): 609–632; Janie T. Carnock and April Ege, “The ‘Triple Segregation’ of Latinos, ELLs: What Can We Do?” Ed Central (blog), New America, November 17, 2015, https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/edcentral/latinos-segregation/.

25 Rebecca Klein, “Schools Are Incredibly Segregated, But Teaching Kids in Two Languages Could Help,” Huffington Post, December 16, 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dual-language-school-desegregation_us_564cc274e4b031745cef329a; Conor Williams and Catherine Brown, “Schools that Teach in Two Languages Foster Integration—So How Come so Many Families Can’t Find Programs?” The Hechinger Report, August 31, 2016, http://hechingerreport.org/schools-that-teach-in-two-languages-foster-integration-so-how-come-so-many-families-cant-find-programs/.

26 California Department of Education, LCFF Frequently Asked Questions, 2017, http://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/lc/lcfffaq.asp#FC.

27 “A Guide to California’s Local Control Funding Formula,” EdSource, 2016, https://edsource.org/2016/local-control-funding-formula-guide-lcff/89272#.

28 Amaya Garcia, “The Art of Implementation: California’s LCAPs Fall Short for ELs,” EdCentral (blog), New America, May 29, 2015, https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/edcentral/california-lcff/.

29 Laurie Olsen, Elvira Armas, and Magaly Lavadenz, A Review of Year 2 LCAPS: A Weak Response to English Learners (Long Beach, CA: Californians Together, 2016), 13–19, http://www.ciclt.net/ul/calto/LCAPSReview2016Web.pdf.

30 Elvira Armas, Magaly Lavadenz, and Laurie Olsen, Falling Short on the Promise to English Learners: A Report on Year One LCAPs (Long Beach, CA: Californians Together, 2015), 17, http://www.ctdev.changeagentsproductions.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/A-Report-on-Year-One-LCAPs_2015-04-22.pdf.

31 “A Guide to California’s Local Control Funding Formula,” EdSource, 2016, https://edsource.org/2016/local-control-funding-formula-guide-lcff/89272#.

EDUCATION POLICY18

32 John Fensterwald, “Suit Claims LA Unified Underfunding Low-Income Kids, English Learners,” EdSource, July 1, 2015, https://edsource.org/2015/suit-claims-la-unified-underfunding-low-income-kids-english-learners/82377.

33 David Sapp, “Making the Local Control Funding Formula Work,” ACLU of Southern California, August 16, 2015, https://www.aclusocal.org/en/news/making-local-control-funding-formula-work.

34 Theresa Chen and Carrie Hahnel, The Steep Road to Resource Equity in California Education (Oakland, CA: Education Trust–West, 2017), https://west.edtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/11/ETW_Steep-Road-to-Resource-Equity-in-CA_Final_Report_April_11_2017.pdf.

35 John Fensterwald, “Superintendents, Advocacy Groups at Odds over Revising LCAP,” EdSource, July 11, 2016, https://edsource.org/2016/superintendents-advocacy-groups-at-odds-over-revising-lcap/566851.

36 California Legislature, AB 1321, as amended, Education finance: fiscal transparency, 2017, https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1321.

37 Ruby Takanishi and Suzanne Le Menestrel, eds., Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2017), http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/Reports/2017/promoting-the-educational-success-of-children-and-youth-learning-English.aspx.

38 Ellen Bialystok, Fergus I. M. Craik, and Gigi Luk, “Bilingualism: Consequences for Mind and Brain,” Trends in Cognitive Sciences (April 2012): 240–250, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3322418/.

39 Raluca Barac, Ellen Bialystok, Dina C. Castro, and Marta Sanchez, “The Cognitive Development of Young Dual Language Learners: A Critical Review,” Early Childhood Research Quarterly 29, no. 4 (2014): 699–714. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4180217/; Ellen Bialystok, Fergus I. M. Craik, and Gigi Luk, “Bilingualism: Consequences for Mind and Brain,” Trends in Cognitive Sciences (April 2012): 240–250. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3322418/; Sylvia Joseph Galambos and Kenji Hakuta, “Subject-Specific and Task-Specific Characteristics of Metalinguistic Awareness in Bilingual Children,” Applied Psycholinguistics 9 (1988): 141–162.

40 Linda M. Espinosa, “Challenges and Benefits of Early Bilingualism in the United States’ Context,” Global Education Review 2, no. 1 (2015): 40–52, 45, http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1055271.pdf.

41 Interview with author, April 24, 2017.

42 Californians Together, California Association for Bilingual Education, California Rural Legal Assistance, and the Center for Equity for English Learners, Does Your Local Control Accountability (LCAP) Plan Deliver on The Promise of Increased or Improved Services for English Learners? 10 Research Aligned Rubrics to Help Answer the Question and Guide Your Program (February 2015): 9, http://www.ctdev.changeagentsproductions.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/LCAP-rubrics-Eng.pdf.

43 Interview with author, April 24, 2017.

44 The three-year-old program serves 24 children and runs from 7:45 a.m.–10:45 a.m. The four-year-old program also serves 24 children and runs from 11:45 a.m.–2:45 p.m. Willmore also offers a full-day preschool program that offers extended learning opportunities for children enrolled in the half-day dual language immersion program.

45 Interview with author, April 24, 2017.

46 Interview with author, April 24, 2017.

47 Interview with author, April 24, 2017.

48 El Cajon is located in San Diego County and is about 100 miles south of Westminster.

49 Interview with author, April 25, 2017.

50 Interview with author, April 25, 2017.

51 Chris Haire, “Westminster School District pulls Vietnamese textbook amid criticism that it’s pro-Communist,” Orange County Register, April 25, 2015, http://www.ocregister.com/2015/04/25/westminster-school-district-pulls-vietnamese-textbook-amid-criticism-that-its-pro-communist/.

52 Interview with author, April 25, 2017.

53 Interview with author, April 24, 2017.

54 The district also recently learned that Reading A to Z, a commonly-used program that provides leveled readers, will be translating some of its books into Vietnamese.

EDUCATION POLICY Educating California’s English Learners: Westminster Brings Students’ Home Languages Into the Mainstream 19

55 Currently, only four school districts in the U.S. have a Vietnamese dual language immersion program: Highline Public Schools (WA), Houston Independent School District (TX), Portland Public Schools (OR), and Westminster School District (CA).

56 Annie Phan and Nancy Phan, interview with author, April 25, 2017.

57 Interview with author, April 25, 2017.

58 Interview with author, April 25, 2017.

59 Elizabeth R. Howard, Julie Sugarman, Donna Christian, Kathryn J. Lindholm-Leary and David Rogers, Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education, Second Edition (Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics, 2007), http://www.cal.org/twi/pdfs/guiding-principles.pdf.

60 See Orange County Department of Education, “Dear District Colleagues” letter, February 4, 2015, http://www.ocde.us/SSI/Documents/Pathway%20Biliteracy%20English%20Version.pdf for full criteria up through grade 8.

61 Interview with author, May 12, 2017.

62 The full top ten list includes: 1) Relationships; 2) Right People in the Right Seats on Bus; 3) Passion; 4) Knowledge and Capacity Building; 5) Leadership; 6) Partnerships; 7) DLI Task Force; 8) Promotion; 9) Resources; and 10) CAL’s Guiding Principles. Shared with author via email from Renae Bryant, June 9, 2017.

63 Interview with author, April 25, 2017.

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