The new pathway targets LBUSD students with severe cognitive disabilities who did not meet previous reclassification criteria.
The Long Beach Unified School district approved a new Reclassification pathway at their Jan. 17 meeting to create more opportunities for English learners with disabilities to qualify as proficient English speakers.
Reclassification is the process by which a student transitions from English Learner (EL) to English proficient status. According to the California Department of Education, there are currently about 10,853 English Learners in LBUSD, 12.2% of which are Long Term English Learners (LTEL)—meaning they’ve remained at the same proficiency level for two or more years—and 6.5% are at risk of becoming LTELs.
Before the board’s most recent approval, English learners had two pathways for Reclassification: the traditional pathway and an alternate pathway for students with disabilities. The newly approved pathway intends to provide an additional opportunity for students with severe cognitive disabilities who were not eligible under the prior two.
The traditional Reclassification pathway looks at four criteria:
- English Language Performance Assessment for California (ELPAC) scores
- Teacher evaluations
- Parent and guardian consultation
- District assessment test scores like iReady and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC)
A second pathway designed for students with cognitive disabilities uses the same criteria, but with an alternative ELPAC instead.
The district’s newly approved pathway is looking at students with severe cognitive disabilities who are eligible for the alternative ELPAC and have attempted to take it or were unsuccessful in taking it. This third pathway is only for students in fifth grade and above who have been enrolled in LBUSD for at least six years.
The ELPAC is a standardized test that measures a student’s progress toward English proficiency. EL students have to take the ELPAC or Alternate ELPAC every year. To start the reclassification process, students need to score “well developed” on the ELPAC or “fluent” on the Alternate ELPAC.
The district’s research department identifies students eligible for reclassification by looking at the data from the different assessments and contacts their teachers. The new pathway would allow students who were not identified in the alternate pathway approach to be identified by their Individualized Education Program (IEP) team instead who can look at the language ability that matches the student’s cognitive ability.
Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction and Professional Development Christopher Lund said LBUSD is among the few districts that will incorporate this approach.
“It really does put us in a unique category to allow the IEP teams to address students that historically would never have reclassified based on the current criteria,” Lund said.
Lund added that this third pathway is based on a recommendation from the district’s Community Advisory Committee to expand opportunities for students with disabilities to reclassify through alternative pathways.
The district presented the revised reclassification criteria to the District English Learner Advisory Committee on Jan. 9 for review and comment.
“I think this is a huge win for not just our multilingual learners or students with disabilities, but for our district in terms of students [and] in terms of addressing equity gaps that we have,” board member Juan Benitez said.
