SACRAMENO, CA—Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Anaheim) is pleased to announce that the California State Assembly approved his AB 1177 (Solorio) yesterday which seeks to close the achievement gap between English learner (EL) students and native English speakers.

“I believe every child deserves to learn English.  Unfortunately, our schools are currently failing to educate our English learners and I believe a major cause of this problem is that we have not provided them with the best instructional materials to do the job right,” said Assemblyman Solorio. 

“This bill answers the call of more than 40 school districts, the California School Boards Association and the Association of California School Administrators who have requested that the State provide additional textbook options that better address both the academic and language needs of EL students,” said Assemblyman Solorio.

“I co-authored this bill because English proficiency unlocks the door to success in American society.  Mastery of English will also improve math and science scores for every school child,” said Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine). 

The achievement gap continues to be 40 percentage points wide between English only students and English learner students.  Currently many English learner students are not passing the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) due to lack of English proficiency.  In 2005-06, only 31.1% of English learners passed the English Language Arts (ELA) portion of the CAHSEE, compared to 48.3% of the English only students who passed the test.
   
AB 1177 (Solorio) establishes the Accelerated English Acquisition and Literacy Pilot Program for school districts, with 50% or more English learner students, who want to voluntarily participate in the program.  The premise behind this bill is simple — learning English as a second language is different and more challenging than learning English as a native speaker.

The bill provides for a 5-year pilot program that provides a comprehensive reading, language arts, and English language development curriculum that is designed for EL students, especially those with little or no knowledge of English.  The goal is to accelerate the acquisition of listening, speaking, reading and writing skills in English.  The bill requires the materials to be written in English and aligned to the state’s English Language Arts (ELA) standards.  It would also provide valuable data on the effectiveness of using instructional materials that are designed to provide maximum benefit to English learner students.

A recent study on English Learners prepared as part of the package of the Getting Down to Facts education studies called for a “comprehensive instructional program that addresses both English language development and the core curriculum.”  It called for the use of instructional materials that “are created with language difference in mind” and “English language development materials designed for non-English speakers.”  This is what AB 1177 seeks to do.

The bill is sponsored by the Californians Together Coalition and supported by the Los Angeles County Office of Education, Orange County Department of Education, and California Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, among others.