Report: SDUSD's English Learners Perform Below Average in State Fluency Tests

Students in San Diego County who are classified as English learners performed slightly better than the state average in standardized tests to determine fluency, the California Department of Education announced Wednesday.

Of the nearly 101,000 students in San Diego County to take the California English Language Development Test in the current school year, 10 percent scored in the "advanced" category and another 33 percent scored in the "early advanced" category, according to the CDE.

However, students in the San Diego Unified School District, the largest in the county and second biggest in the state, performed slightly below the state average, with 8 percent advanced and 32 percent early advanced, according to CDE data.

Statewide, 9 percent scored in the advanced category and 33 percent in the early advanced slot.

"We want every English learner to become proficient while making progress in all academic subjects," said Tom Torlakson, the state superintendent of public instruction. "These results show our students are making important strides toward English language fluency, which will help them tremendously as they work toward their educational goals."

The state goal is for students to be advanced or early advanced overall, with no less than an intermediate score in one of the individual testing areas—listening, speaking, reading and writing. The test is one of four criteria set out by the state to determine fluency.

CELDT results have been about the same the past few years at the state, San Diego County and SDUSD levels, following big gains from 2006 to 2008.

In the 2006-07 school year in San Diego County, 6 percent of students were advanced and 24 percent early advanced. In San Diego Unified, the results were 4 percent advanced and 21 percent early advanced.

-City News Service