Abstract:
This study examines the impact of Proposition 227 on educational outcomes for California’s 1.5 million English learners. Building on prior research (Parrish, Pérez, Merickel, & Linquanti, 2006), we compare English learner and English-only student achievement by grade level, using data from the California Standards Test from 2003 to 2007. While both ELs and EOs show a positive trend in CST scores over time, there were differences between the slopes for the two groups in Grades 6, 7, and 8. Specifically, the 8th grade test score trend line for English learners shows a less positive slope than the test score trend line for English-only students, suggesting evidence of negative impact for ELs relative to EOs. However, the 6th grade test score trend line for ELs shows a more positive slope than the test score trend line for EOs, suggesting the ELs showed more relative progress over time than EOs. This pattern suggests that Prop 227 had a localized negative impact that was especially observable in the 8th grade data. However, in the subsequent 2 years of implementation, as detected in the 6th and even in the 7th grade data, the EL achievement seems to have increased relative to EO achievement. Further analysis comparing school districts in which ELs were performing especially better or worse over time relative to EO students found no statistically significant differences in instructional programs for English learners or in demographics across these two types of districts. However, limitations of the state data system, specifically the lack of student-level data about instructional services, as well as the lack of longitudinal data at the student level, limit the explanatory power of this analysis.
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