Imagine sitting in a classroom, staring blankly at the whiteboard, unable to conceptualize the constructs of lettering and sounds — a situation detrimental to understanding meaning. Beyond the confusion, you are able to distinguish only a few familiar words among the convoluted appearance and narration, but what you see is still insufficient for comprehension.
This experience is common for many English-second language students, struggling to succeed and adapt in an english-normative education system. Language, through reading, writing, and speaking, are the foundations for academic understanding. However, existing inadequacies in bridging language barriers hinder student abilities to grasp essential concepts, further regressing ESL students’ academic success.
English-Second Language students, professionally categorized as “English-Language Learners,” are students who are unable to communicate fluently or learn effectively in English,. According to the California Department of Education, “English learners constitute 19.01 percent of the total enrollment in California public schools,” with 81.90% of the group being Spanish speakers. California has designed academic instruction programs, to provide support for English proficiency and grade-level academic standard achievement, under the awareness of the substantial population of English-Language Learners and achievement gaps separating English learners from native-English speaking peers.
Despite California education policy’s ambitious attempts at closing achievement gaps, the goals became “lost in translation” under local education policy, without the same emphasis on program implementation and academic support systems for English-Language Learners.
The continued disparity between Spanish-speaking, English-Language learners and hindrance to academic success becomes more apparent among localized school contexts and standardized testing observations.
Since Wilcox’s 2023-2024 CAASPP Testing results released, with outcomes not up to state standards, administration has placed a heavier emphasis on testing preparation and particularly incentivization. Teachers have implemented test score standard fulfillments for students requesting letters of recommendations. Administrators have begun listing names of students who’ve met or exceeded standards on TV screens in hallways. Wilcox has also tightened administration surveillance measures to ensure students are present. While these programs fixate on increasing student motivation to complete and perform optimally on CAASPP Testing, reforming arguably the most essential component — academic programs and curricula setting foundations for academic success — remain unclear.
Approaches to improving student academic performance are flawed with its current focus towards incentivizing effort. Wilcox administration neglects the correlation between English-Language Learner statuses and academic achievement derived from insufficient academic support. The publicly released CAASPP Testing results reveal a clear connection to the distributions of English-Language Learners in California public schools. Distributed by ethnicity, Wilcox’s Hispanic students represent the greatest population of academic struggling students, with 65.36% not meeting or only nearly meeting California’s English language arts standards and 87.84% not meeting or only nearly meeting California’s math standards. These statistics, aligning with California’s majority Hispanic English-Language Learner population, highlight the broader academic challenges complicating standardized testing success.
The correlation between English-Language Learners and Spanish-speaking students, compounded with performance distributions in math subjects, reveals a broader struggle for entry into higher education. English as a second language ultimately serves as a detriment in other scholarly subjects such as math, under curricula taught in English and only building upon previous foundations. Without a secure foundation in math due to language barriers, students are set up for failure.
Our education system, particularly localized schools, must take more drastic measures in education policy towards academic support for English-Language Learners. While Wilcox currently has an English Language Development (ELD) Department, with five designated ELD teachers, programs like these must expand further to accommodate for English-Language learning success. On-campus student initiatives such as Wilcox Ambassadors have taken on the roles of reshaping district education policy to implement bilingual support programs helping tutor students while overcoming language barriers. Wilcox High School and local school districts must be more proactive in implementing programs to maximize support for English-Language learners.
