Thousands of Fresno Unified students are lingering in English learner programs longer than research indicates they should, raising questions about how well the district is preparing these students for academic success in middle and high school and beyond.

Studies show that it should take students who speak another language at home approximately five to seven years on average to become proficient in English. Yet during the 2022-23 school year, about 40% of English-learning students in the district — or 5,421 of 13,527 students — were considered long-term English learners by the state.

The long-term designation means these students had been in U.S. schools for six or more years, and were in grade six or higher, but didn’t yet pass the criteria to move out of English learner status.

Comparatively, the state has a slightly smaller proportion, with only about 35% of its roughly 1.1 million total English learners being considered long-term, according to data from the California Department of Education.

In a district where roughly one in five of the 70,000 total students were English learners last year, educators and advocates agree that Fresno Unified needs to do a better job of helping kids achieve English fluency sooner. They worry that students who lag in English learner programs may face challenges achieving academic success and pursuing higher education.

“Half is okay, but it’s not a passing grade,” said Eden Morrison, a policy director with the Fresno chapter of the education advocacy nonprofit GO Public Schools.

Sandra Toscano, an instructional superintendent with FUSD who oversees English learner services, said her department’s goal this fall is to reduce the population of English learners in sixth grade specifically by 40%.

“That’s our focus right now,” she said, “really targeting (long-term English learners) before they enter middle school.”

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What do English learners need to do to reclassify in Fresno Unified?

Long-term English learners who move into middle and high school without having become adequately proficient in English – or “reclassifying” as fluent, as the state and districts call it – face a number of challenges academically.

Rather than having literacy development built into daily instruction like in the early grades, students in middle school and beyond are asked to learn and demonstrate their knowledge through reading and writing in English – skills holding English learners back from reclassifying, experts told the Ed Lab.

Some long-term English learners will also have to take additional classes to work on English literacy, taking up space in their schedules that would otherwise go toward electives to explore their interests, or college preparatory classes required for UC and CSU admission.

But graduating out of the English learner classification is no easy feat, as students must pass a long list of exams.

For one, English learners must score highly on a standardized test called the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California, or the ELPAC.

Students can earn a score of one through four, based on their performance in tests of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. A four is required for English learners in California to reclassify.

On top of that, English learners also have to show their literacy skills are on par with their classmates who speak English only. In Fresno Unified, one way for students in most grades to do so is by receiving a score of having “nearly met” the English Language Arts state standard or higher on the Smarter Balanced annual assessment. Alternately, the district also considers English learners’ reading scores on iReady, a standardized test within FUSD.

But with about two-thirds of the overall student population in Fresno Unified failing to meet state standards for literacy last year – a rate that was worsened by the pandemic – the district’s English learners have an uphill battle.

Another part of the difficulty of reclassifying students on time is that English learners have to meet all these criteria in a given school year.

“You can’t pass one in the fall, and then another one in the spring, and another one the following year,” said Claude Goldenberg, a professor emeritus at Stanford University. “You can’t bank passing the criteria (one at a time).”

English learner students who also have a disability face unique challenges as well. Some disabilities inhibit students’ speech or hearing, Toscano said, yet they still must achieve a passing score on the reading, writing, speaking, and listening components of the ELPAC test.

When for one reason or another, students fail to check off all the necessary boxes year after year, it starts to snowball.

“You can’t discount the fact of just feeling frustrated,” said Morrison of GO Public Schools, “and like you’re not making progress.”

Changes coming for Fresno Unified’s English learners

Fresno Unified is taking several steps to help long-term English learners reach English fluency, Toscano said.

The English learner services department will focus its after-school tutoring efforts on sixth graders in particular this coming year, in hopes that more students can reclassify before entering middle school and avoid needing to fill their schedule with extra classes in English language instruction.

The district also made changes to its reclassification criteria for English learner students with disabilities starting in May.

“Imagine that a student that is nonverbal has to take the ELPAC. Well, there’s a speaking portion in the ELPAC. And if they can’t meet that criteria, then they’ll never get a four on ELPAC,” Toscano said.

Under the updated process for English learner students with disabilities, the district will be able to rely on other classroom assessments, tailored to the student, to better monitor their progress and determine if they’re ready to be reclassified as proficient.

While being a long-term English learner comes with challenges, retired UCLA research associate William Saunders told the Ed Lab it’s wrong to think of these students as academically doomed.

Long-term English learners can still go on to reclassify and be successful, he said.

They also shouldn’t be steered away from pursuing their interests in other subjects or electives just because they need additional support in learning English.

“There’s a whole academic realm out there,” he said, “that may be the exact thing that will help them acquire English and continue to be intellectually curious.”

The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Learn about The Bee’s Education Lab at its website.