Blog

Current Job Opportunities at Californians Together

January 23, 2020 by Claudia Vizcarra

This is a very exciting time for us who are passionate and dedicated to assuring high quality biliteracy and dual language/English learner programs and services pre-school to 12th grade. With the adoption of the English Learner Roadmap and other exciting policy advances in California, we want to capitalize on this support and energy to determine the future English learner policies and practices. To move this agenda forward and with the generous support of the Gates and Hewlett Foundations, we are thrilled to announce the addition of two new positions at Californians Together. Click on the links below to download the complete job descriptions.

We are looking for:

Finance Director who will be responsible for all day-to-day business operations, implementing the organization’s business plan and providing leadership in several areas of human resource management;
Fund Developer (half-time) will plan, coordinate and implement development plans to meet fund development and budgetary goals of the organization.

Any persons who are interested in joining a team and organization that works daily to promote the talents and expertise of the students, their parents and the educators, who work for and with them, should email their resume and letter of interest, indicating the desired position, to Erika Menjívar, Office Manager, erika@californianstogether.org.

Advocates start 2020 off right by showing up at the State Board of Education meeting

January 22, 2020 by Claudia Vizcarra

On January 8, 2020, ten well-informed advocates from across the state spoke passionately on behalf of English Learners at the California State Board of Education Meeting in Sacramento. Voicing both gratitude and authentic critique, they discussed the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) template redesign, the California Spanish Language Assessment (CSA), revisions to the California State Plan for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), and Local Education Agencies’ Comprehensive Support and Improvement Plans.

Here are some examples of the testimony.

Eduardo Muñoz Muñoz, spoke as a parent representative on an English Learner Advisory Committee, to emphasize and recommend the importance of including a written response to input from DELACs for the district LCAP in accordance with Education Code Section 52062(a)(2) or 52068. He emphasized that even though it is in the statute, it is not happening as much as it should, and "we should not miss a single opportunity" to establish this two-way communication.

Stephanie Sequeira, a parent from West Contra Costa Unified, and DELAC representative echoed the call for written response, saying “we, the parents of the flatlands, we know what our kids need and we want to build that partnership with our district."

Ruth Barajas, former principal and educator, who spoke on behalf of Californians Together, shared appreciation of the changes made to the template that intend to address closing the achievement gaps, but requested stronger language requiring that LEAs identify metrics for specific student groups and include expected outcomes to narrow performance gaps. She stated, "When we tell someone they “should” do something, do they do it? They might. BUT if we say, they “shall” do something...then it tells them we expect it.." She urged the Board to use their “flexibility in authority” to change the word “should” to “shall”.

Catalina Madrigal Rupert, a parent and a former English Learner from Los Gatos called for action: "We believe one of the basic principles of the LCFF law was to attend to the student subgroups with a history of performance gaps and provide extra resources for that purpose.” “It’s 2020", she said, "let’s move forward with a clear vision of expectations and actions!"

Dr. Carolina Serna, professor, CABE Board Member and 3rd grade teacher in a dual programs raised the issue that 92% of LCAPs they reviewed had a rating of weak or no evidence of for EL student outcomes on academic achievement, and that the state auditor stated that only one district had a goal that was specific for the intended student subgroup." To avoid this, she called on the Board to make sure that differentiated growth targets are included in the instructions.

Carla Herrera, SEAL Consultant and former IQC member, spoke to the limitations of the California Spanish Assessment (CSA). She stated: "There is truth to the statement that “you teach what is tested”. If all that is tested for Spanish writing is mechanics, that sends a very narrow view of what skills a proficient writer possesses. We recommend that The California Spanish Assessment be augmented with Constructed Response (CR) Full-Write items which would set the expectation for development of authentic writing for our students. To not augment the assessment with CR items also creates a lower standard for writing in Spanish compared to what we expect of students in English on the ELA CASPP assessment."

More people testified on important issues and the response from several board members was encouraging. We will continue to advocate until the LCFF and the State Accountability system support and shine a light on the needs of current English Learner and our Reclassified English Learners.

December Newsletter

December 19, 2019 by Claudia Vizcarra

Click here to view our December 2019 newsletter.

Ed Trust West Releases a Set of Advocacy Tools for Implementing the English Learner Roadmap and Affirming the Rights of English Learners

December 11, 2019 by Claudia Vizcarra

One of our Coalition members, Ed Trust-West, has published the following materials that will help parents and advocates share the importance of the English Learner Roadmap and how to advocate at the local level to make sure English Learners have access to the programs, resources and support they deserve.

In one of the publications, they mention the sample resolutions we have share with you in our English Learner Road Map page. You can download this sample EL Roadmap resolution to advocate that Districts:

strengthen their language program options by working with DELAC to educate all parents
evaluate all programs to make sure they align with the EL Roadmap and make sure all necessary changes are included in the District's Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP),
create separate growth goals in the LCAP priority areas so that students are mastering grade level standards while attaining high levels of proficiency in both English and their home language, and
implement and expand means to recognize students who are achieving proficiency by awarding the Seal of Biliteracy.

This second resolution has language that includes early childhood programs.

Ed Trust West's Advocacy Toolkit can be found here and includes these three components:

What is California’s English Learner Roadmap? spells out the basics of the state’s vision for educating English learners;
10 Questions to Ask Your School and District about California’s English Learner Roadmap suggests conversation starters about what your school and district can do to support English learner students; and
English Learners Have Rights!: An Advocacy Guide for Parents and Other Stakeholders articulates the rights of English learners and their families.

New Job Opportunities at Californians Together

December 4, 2019 by Claudia Vizcarra

This is a very exciting time for us who are passionate and dedicated to assuring high quality biliteracy and dual language/English learner programs and services pre-school to 12th grade. With the adoption of the English Learner Roadmap and other exciting policy advances in California, we want to capitalize on this support and energy to determine the future English learner policies and practices. To move this agenda forward and with the generous support of the Gates and Hewlett Foundations, we are thrilled to announce the addition of three new positions at Californians Together. Click on the links below to download the complete job descriptions. We are looking for a:

P-12 Education Policy Associate who will work with our policy team and partner organizations to coordinate and organize campaigns to improve statewide policy and practices for educating English Learners;
Finance Director who will be responsible for all day-to-day business operations, implementing the organization’s business plan and provide leadership in several areas of human resource management;
Fund Developer (half-time) will plan, coordinate and implement development plans to meet fund development and budgetary goals of the organization.

Lynne Aoki – Our Warrior

November 25, 2019 by Claudia Vizcarra

This month we lost one of our warriors and leaders – a friend who had been at the forefront of the struggle for the rights of English Learners and their families and the movement for high- quality programs. Lynne Aoki passed away on Sunday, November 3, 2019.

A third-generation Californian, Lynne found that she would not and could not tolerate injustice from an early age. Whether it was confronting a bully or making a public stand against prejudice, she felt compelled to act.

Since that early age, Lynne continued to take action, to intervene, to inform, to persuade, to advocate for students who are English Learners and immigrants. Lynne’s immersion into immigrant and English learner advocacy came early just as California was opening up to bilingual education for students who were English learners.

As a professional, Lynne wrote and collaborated with school districts across the state to submit Title VII, III and other public and private grants uplifting bilingual programs, professional development, technology, magnet schools/desegregation, arts in education, physical education, and career technical education and quality instruction. Her work in helping to bring millions of dollars to schools educating California’s English learners has touched millions of children and their families. In addition, she was a tenacious evaluator of programs.

A partner to the districts she served, Lynne not only crunched numbers but also helped district leaders to understand their data and turn that understanding into steps to strengthen the quality, design and delivery of their programs for English learners, many times not charging for her services. She asked direct, probing questions, pushing the envelope to improve English learner programs and increase student achievement.

Her second home was Ventura County, working with several districts for decades. She was a member of the Ventura County Chapter of CABE and was actively involved in many local Ventura County campaigns.

Lynne was a part of Californians Together even before we formally became a coalition. She was “all in” to defeat Proposition 227 in 1998. As the activist she was, she held fundraisers, distributed materials to voters, made phone calls and more. With her calm, soft-spoken, can-do demeanor, she demonstrated great leadership during that difficult campaign.

As a representative of the National Association for Multicultural Education to Californians Together, Lynne attended, contributed to and provided guidance for the creation and development of the work of Californians Together. Over the last 5 years she served on our Executive Board as Secretary and was currently our Vice President at her death. Her fingerprints are all over almost every grant we have written – providing input and expert editing. Through her talent and expertise, many new funders became convinced to support our work.

Recently, Lynne served on the Gala Committee to celebrate Californians Togethers’ 20th Anniversary, using her incredible organization skills to help make the evening a success. She was also working on finalizing new criteria and procedures for awarding our Annual Multiple Pathways District Biliteracy Award. We are proud to honor Lynne by renaming this award the Aoki Multiple Pathways District Biliteracy Award.

Lynne Aoki will always be with us and we are forever grateful to her.