English proficiency is on the up

BURBANK — The English proficiency of Burbank Unified School District students whose first language is not English went up by 8% in the past two years, the results of a state study released Wednesday showed.

The California English Language Development Test, or CELDT, assesses the progress of second-language learners in order to bring them up to speed with native English speakers, said Lily Roberts, administrator of the test program with the California Department of Education.

“It’s a primary indicator of, ‘Is a student acquiring the English language enough to function in a regular classroom with their English-language peers?’” she said.

Of the 1,646 Burbank students who took the test, 46%, or 757, of English learners tested at either “advanced” or “early advanced” proficiency, an 8% jump from 2007-08. Statewide, 36% of test-takers scored in the “advanced” or “early advanced” categories.

“What we’re really seeing is a higher percentage at those higher levels than we’ve had before,” said Joel Shapiro, deputy superintendent of the Burbank Unified School District.

Burbank’s performance is consistent with increases statewide, he added.

“This mirrors what we’ve seen across the state. . . but we are exceeding state levels by more than 10%,” he said.

In addition, the number of students testing in the test’s bottom categories is on the decline, he said.

“What you really see in Burbank that’s different is the very small percentage at the beginning and low intermediate levels,” he said.

The bulk of English language learners in Burbank schools come from a Spanish-speaking background, followed by Armenian, Korean and Arabic speakers, Shapiro said.

Students who meet English-proficiency standards are able to be “reclassified,” or placed in general English classes with their peers, he said.

“The results are very hopeful for a lot of reasons. . . . ,” he said. “It shows more students are acquiring English faster. It also would predict a high rate of students being reclassified into the main English program. And therefore we would expect to see higher levels of achievement overall.”

Students whose test results do not meet English proficiency requirements are provided special English training at school, then are retested the following year, Roberts said.

State officials give the test annually to kindergarten through 12th-grade students, assessing their abilities to speak and understand English. Students in second grade and above are also tested on reading and writing in English. The test designates students’ abilities as being: beginning; early intermediate; intermediate; early advanced and advanced.

Test results also help federal officials determine how to distribute Title III funding to schools for supporting programs for limited-English proficient and immigrant students, Roberts said.

Compared with other states, California has the most students whose original language is not English, according to a report from Jack O’Connell, state superintendent of public instruction.

More than 100 languages are spoken among English learners in the state — 85% of whom speak Spanish, the report said.