Of the nearly 1,900 English-language learners in the Morgan Hill Unified School District, only 135 were reclassified as English proficient last year, according to the latest figures.
That means more than 20 percent of the district's 9,000 students were classified as English learners in 2006-07, according to Ricardo Amador, the district's coordinator of English language development, categorical programs and migrant education.
The remaining students face a challenging academic future in Morgan Hill schools as a recent report presented to school trustees shows many of them move from the schools making their academic tracking from grade to grade difficult.
Amador told trustees during their Nov. 6 meeting that while the English learner population has increased over 10 years, so has the district's entire population. According to his information, the district served 1,195 English learners during the 1997-98 school year, 1,333 in the 2001-02 school year and 1,794 during the 2005-06 school year.
Amador stressed that because of the fluid nature of the program, it is difficult to compare the number of English learners from year to year.
"These are not necessarily the same students," he said as he walked trustees through two charts showing numbers of English learners by school over a 10-year period and showing a breakdown of the number of students by grade level for the 2006-07 school year.
"While it seems obvious that there are more ELL students in the lower grades, we're not necessarily seeing students in the upper grades who have been in the district for a while," he said.
Migrant students, particularly, come in out of the district at different grade levels, so looking at one year's fifth-grade students, for example, and comparing them to the next year's sixth-graders will not be a comparison of the same students.
The data shows, for the 2006-07 school year, 224 learners in kindergarten, 238 first-graders, 193 second-graders, 184 third-graders, 169 fourth-graders, 156 fifth-graders, 157 sixth-graders, 100 seventh-graders, 116 eighth-graders, 101 ninth-graders, 105 10th-graders, 78 11th-graders and 57 12th-graders for a total of 1,879.
Spanish is not the only first language spoken by students in the district. There are 30 different languages, including Vietnamese, Cantonese, Punjabi, Mandarin, Filipino and Russian, spoken by students in the district.
Last year, 135 English learners were reclassified, Amador told trustees, which means they have become proficient in English.
When students enroll in a California school for the first time, they are given a home language survey. If there is a language other than English in the child's home or in his background, the school is required to test for English proficiency using the California English Language Development Test, or CELDT. There are four parts to the tests, listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Student results fall in one of five proficiency levels. The lowest is beginning, moving up to early intermediate, intermediate, early advanced and finally to advanced.
The CELDT was first used in May 2001.
San Martin/Gwinn Elementary has the highest number of English learners, with 247 last year. Principal P.J. Foehr and his staff have created many positive programs to help their students, Superintendent Alan Nishino told trustees. The school reaches out to its students and parents with regular English Learner Advisory Committee, or ELAC, meetings and translators at the Home and School Club meetings.
Live Oak High, with fewer students, has more English learners than Sobrato High. Last year, Live Oak had 221 while Sobrato had 102. Amador told trustees that Live Oak has the only program for students who test at levels one and two on the CELDT.
The lowest levels of the test signify students who are beginners and early intermediate with their English proficiency.
Trustee Shelle Thomas asked Amador if a program could be started at Sobrato to even out the numbers, but as trustees discussed the idea, she and others agreed that having the high school program focused at one school might better serve the students rather than diluting it between the two schools..
Marilyn Dubil Marilyn Dubil covered education and law enforcement for The Times.
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