SYSTEM  FAILURE! For the seventh straight year, the achievement gap between English Learners and English proficient children has widened. The State Board of Education and State Superintendent equally share the blame for what can only be described as a system failure. Children, parents, teachers and administrators deserve better.

June 11, 2009: Concerned parents and community groups throughout California filed suit in San Francisco Superior Court today challenging State Superintendent Jack O’Connell’s decision to suspend monitoring of specialized education programs for Homeless, Neglected, Juvenile Justice, Migrant, English learners, and other disadvantaged youth for at least one year.  The money for these special programs comes primarily from federal funding under the No Child Left Behind Act, and must be spent to augment general education programs funded by the state. 

The lawsuit, Alejo, et al. v. O’Connell, et al, Case No. CPF 09-509568, alleges that the state must monitor and oversee the use of these funds by school districts to ensure that they are used to help academically “at risk” students overcome educational challenges.   The state retains a percentage of these federal funds  so that it can fulfill the promise it made to the U.S. Government to monitor and evaluate these programs.  The Petitioners allege that the state is unlawfully spending the money for other purposes and leaving school districts to do the same.

State School Superintendent Jack O'Connell again fails to recognize the lack of academic progress for 25% of California's students. For the sixth consecutive year, he offers no solutions to address or improve student performance. School Districts across the state will continue to be deemed as failures because of the large number of "misassigned" teachers, ineffective resources and inappropriate programs for English Learners.

California’s 2007 STAR test results again show no significant improvement. According to State Superintendent Jack O’Connell, for the past five consecutive years, the achievement gap for California’s majority minority students, Latinos and African Americans, has reached an alarming point of “social disparity”. Superintendent O’Connell’s announcement fails to mention the lack of progress made for one of California’s greatest challenge -- educating its 1.6 million English Learners.

For the fifth consecutive year, the persistent achievement gap continues to hurt English learners and haunt the California Department of Education.

On August 5, 2005 United States District Court Judge William Alsup granted plaintiffs' motion to remand the No Child Left Behind English Learner assessment litigation back to State Superior Court in San Francisco. Plaintiffs, including a broad coalition of school districts, Californians Together and other nonprofit organizations from throughout the State, filed their action in state
court on June 1, 2005. Below is the court order and the press release on this action.

The release of the 2004-2005 Achievement Test scores reveals a widening gap between English learners and English-only students that has grown every year since the first administration of the exams.

Joining Coachella Valley Unified School District, the California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE) and Californians Together jointly retained three major civil rights and education law firms to pursue a lawsuit against the State of California to enforce the provisions of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act pertaining to the academic assessment of English Learners. 

The State Board of Education (SBE) is poised to adopt sweeping changes to weaken regulations that protect the rights of parents, teachers and community members to pursue education-related complaints.  The pretext for the proposed changes to the Uniform Complaint Procedures is to comply with the Williams settlement.

The Academic Performance of All Students Shows Little Growth with Scores of English Learners Declining in Most Grade Levels.

The signing of AB 1485 (Firebaugh) by Governor Davis on October 12, 2003 ensures that alternative bilingual programs receive full funding guaranteed by the federal government’s Reading First Program.

The State Board of Education approved instructional materials containing erroneous and offensive cultural references.  The publisher, SRA/McGraw Hill apologizes, but errors result in 2-year delay in instruction tailored to English learners.

Parents of English learners are suing the Californian Department of Education over restricting the eligibility of bilingual classrooms to participate in the federally funded Reading First Program.

A demand letter was sent to the State Board of Education and the State Superintendent of Pubic Instruction to cease excluding bilingual classrooms from funding for the Reading First Program.

The newly released 2002 California Stanford 9 test scores show a widening gap in all subjects between English fluent and non English fluent students.

Parents demand the State Board of Education adopt regulations guaranteeing their rights to choose the best educational program for their children.

The State Board of Education will vote on Proposition 227 Regulations that will effect parents’ rights to choose the program for their students and how to implement the Proposition.

Newly released Stanford 9 scores demonstrate the failure of Proposition 227, which mandated English immersion programs throughout the state and promised to rapidly propel English learners to the same levels as English proficient students.