California: K-12 Education

Overview

Latino students represent the largest ethnic population in California public primary and secondary schools, composing 2.7 million (44.2%) of California’s students in the 2001-2002 school year. English language learner (ELL) students represent about one in four California students, the majority of whom are Spanish-speaking (83.5%).

Currently, only 34.8% of graduating high school students in California successfully complete the high school coursework necessary for entrance into the University of California and California State University. For Latinos, the rate is much lower with only 22% completing college preparatory coursework.

NCLR supports standards-based reform, which results in increased access to challenging academic coursework for Latino students and provides schools attended by Latino children with the resources needed to implement such reforms. Specifically, NCLR strongly supports efforts to ensure that the federal law, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), is leveraged to increase learning for ELLs, create professional development opportunities for the teachers who work with them, and improve reading instruction assistance for the schools these children attend. NCLR also supports equitable access to rigorous curricula, which will subsequently increase participation in post secondary education by minority communities.

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