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Californians Together

Championing the Success of English Learners

Action Alerts

An Important Survey We Must Act On Now!

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Our Voices are Urgently Needed NOW!

We need 10-15 minutes of your time to send a message to the State. There is a very important survey that can have a tremendous effect on the education of English Learners.

If we don’t respond, others will decide what should be included in the new design of the Local Control Accountability Plan Template for the next 3 years. The survey will take about 10 minutes, and we have some suggestions for your responses but you are welcome to respond how you best see the work moving forward.

Local Control Accountability Plan Template Redesign for 2020-2022 LCAPs:

This year, districts will be writing and submitting a new three-year LCAP using a redesigned LCAP template. This is our opportunity to urge the California Department of Education (CDE) and the State Board of Education (SBE) to include language that will require districts to comprehensively address English Learners. This survey must be completed by November 1, 2019.

The CDE has developed a survey to solicit feedback from stakeholders regarding both the draft Local Control and Accountability Plan Template (LCAP) and draft LCAP Template instructions. The survey may be accessed here: https://www.lcapredesign.org/

Based on feedback from the State Board of Education (SBE) at its September 2019 meeting, and in an effort to ensure the template and instructions support local educational agencies (LEAs) in the development of the LCAP beyond the minimum requirements, it has been decided that the CDE will present the finalized draft LCAP Template (including instructions) to the SBE at its January 2020 meeting for adoption.

Important points to address in the survey: Read the form and the directions and add short comments on the right-hand side of the survey under “Feedback about this section”.

·     Stakeholder Engagement: We suggest you choose Option A. The form and directions include language to indicate how input was received and where any of the suggestions from the important stakeholders are included in the LCAP. This validates the input from parents, students and community members and affirms that their input was heard and some suggestions were accepted.

·     Goal and Activities: In the directions under Measuring and Reporting Results for both options (which will be available to the districts to choose) there is language that says, “LEAs may identify metrics for specific subgroup”. In order to live up the equity principle of LCFF and to have districts commit to closing any achievement and performance gaps, the language should require that metrics are specific for subgroups and are differentiated from what is expected of all students so as to set an expectation of closing gaps. It is also important for the districts to include metrics specific for current English Learners and RFEPs.

Don’t let others decide what is needed for the LCAP Template for the next three years.

We need to be heard and you can make it happen.

Act Now: Help Repeal the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment (RICA)

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On July 1, 2019, Senator Rubio amended SB 614, proposing the elimination of the RICA (Reading Instruction Competency Assessment) The RICA is neither aligned to the current English Language Arts standards, the current curriculum framework nor the current teacher performance expectations. Developed in 1996, the RICA also does not reflect current research and instructional practices in literacy.

The bill shifts the evaluation of teachers’ reading and literacy knowledge from the RICA  to university coursework, teacher performance expectations and assessment of literacy competency through the accreditation program. This is good for our teacher candidates, schools and students because teacher candidates will still be required to learn how to teach reading and literacy. SB 614 (Rubio) does not remove this requirement!.

Please sign the letter requesting Assembly Member O’Donnell and members of the committee to vote “yes” on SB 614 (Rubio) and to move the bill out of the Assembly Education Committee so it can  proceed through the legislative process. Letters must be signed by Monday, July 8, 2019 by 10:00 AM.

The members of the Assembly Education Committee need to see that there is tremendous support for SB 614 (Rubio)! Please SIGN NOW!!

Help get AB 1012 out of Assembly Appropriations Committee

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ACTION ALERT!

We need your help NOW to show the members of the California Assembly Appropriations Committee that we are serious about implementing the promise of Proposition 58 of 2016…biliteracy for all students!

Please act now and send a letter by entering your information in the box to the right and click “Start Writing.”

Please sign the letter to let Assembly Member Gonzalez, Chairperson of the Assembly Appropriations Committee know how important this is to our children, schools and communities and the necessity to move off the Suspense File AB 1012 (Reyes) Bilingual and Biliteracy Program Support.

AB 1012 proposes to provide three years of funding, beginning fiscal year 2020-2021 through 2022-2023! These proposed continued investments by the Legislature in bilingual programs, professional learning, building bilingual teacher capacity, and early childhood dual language learning are critical for preparing all of our students, including English learners, to graduate with biliteracy skills and cross-cultural competencies.

AB 1012 is sponsored by Early Edge, CABE, Californians Together and Advancement Project, a strong coalition of bilingual and early childhood education advocates!

Please act now, enter your information in the box to the right and sign the letter today! Join us in ensuring opportunities are made available to all students, including our English learners, in becoming biliterate, bilingual or multilingual and to value the language assets of our state’s diverse student population in the years to come!

ACT NOW

ACTION ALERT: Ask the Governor to Sign AB 2514 (Thurmond) – Growing Bilingual Programs

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We want to thank each of you for sending letters a few weeks ago to get AB 2514 (Thurmond) out of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Our voices were heard and the bill passed out of committee unanimously with a bipartisan vote. Your help is now needed to convince Governor Brown to sign AB 2514 (Thurmond) Dual Language Grant Programs into law.

AB 2514 (Thurmond) proposes to provide up to $300,000 in grant funding to eligible schools, county offices of education and consortia so they can either expand or initiate new dual language immersion or developmental bilingual programs. What’s exciting about this bill is that grant funding would also be given to eligible schools, county offices of education, or consortia interested in establishing bilingual programs for their dual language learners in preschools!

Although no funding was allocated in this year’s budget, the signing of AB 2514 by the Governor will allow us to pursue funding next year in the 2019-2020 state budget. The bill is very clear in stating that its provisions will not be implemented if no funding is appropriated.

Letters must be sent to Governor Brown to convince him that the public and members of the education community seek his support to keep the promise of Proposition 58 by promoting and supporting dual language immersion and developmental bilingual programs.

Keeping the Promise of Proposition 58 Multilingual Programs for All Students

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Your help is needed in convincing members of the Senate Appropriations Committee to allow AB 2514 (Thurmond) Dual Language Grant Programs to continue its way through the legislative process!

AB 2514 (Thurmond) proposes to provide up to $300,000 in grant funding to eligible schools, county offices of education and consortia so they can either expand or initiate new dual language immersion or developmental bilingual programs. What’s exciting about this bill is that grant funding would also be given to eligible schools, county offices of education, or consortia interested in establishing bilingual programs for their dual language learners in pre-schools!

The problem is that specific funding for this grant program was not provided for in the 2018-2019 State Budget.  HOWEVER, moving AB 2514 through the legislative process will allow us to pursue funding next year in the 2019-2020 state budget because the bill is very clear in stating that its provisions will not be implemented if there is no funding appropriated for its provisions.

Letters must be sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee to convince them that the public and members of the education community seek the legislature’s support in keeping the promise of Proposition 58, promoting and supporting dual language immersion and developmental bilingual programs by removing AB 2514 (Thurmond) off the “Suspense File” so it can continue its way through the legislative process.

Support Assembly Bill 2514 (Thurmond) to Establish Grants for New and Expanding Bilingual Programs

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We need 3 minutes of your time for the following 2 alerts.  You must respond to each no later than Sunday May 21st, 2018. Your voices will make a difference.

ALERT 1

This letter to Assembly Member Kevin McCarty and Assembly Member Philip Ting request the inclusion in the 2018-2019 State Budget, start-up funding for school districts and consortia’s for the purpose of establishing new or expanding existing dual language immersion or developmental bilingual programs or establishing early learning bilingual programs for our young dual language learners.  Click here to send it to your Legislators, you will be able to sign and send your letter NOW!

ALERT 2

Your letter to the Chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, the Honorable Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher is needed to move AB 2514 (Thurmond) off the Assembly Appropriations Suspense File to the full Assembly for a vote.  Click here to send your letter!