Educational Equity
AACRE is committed to policies and practices that provide all students with equal opportunities to learn and excel within the public school system. AACRE's advocacy has a particular focus on addressing the needs of English learners and their parents. In California, the number of students designated as English Learners has grown over 35 percent in the last decade. According to the California Department of Education, one in four children – or nearly 1.6 million students – in the K-12 educational system is an English Learner (EL), and virtually all these children come from homes where English is not the primary language. The top primary languages spoken by EL students are Spanish, Vietnamese, Hmong, Cantonese, Tagalog, and Korean.
It is well established that meaningful parent involvement is a critical factor in a student obtaining a quality education. When parents are involved students are more likely to earn higher grade point averages and scores; enroll in more challenging programs; pass more classes and earn more credits; attend school regularly; and have better social skills. However, despite legal requirements to provide translated documents, many limited English proficient parents continue to face tremendous barriers in obtaining accessible information about important matters such as report cards, the consequences of the high school exit exam, standardized tests, disciplinary actions, and health information.
This year AACRE is sponsoring AB590 (Solorio), which would provide matching grants to a pilot number of school districts to develop better communicate with with LEP parents and involve them in their children’s education. In 2006, AACRE sponsored and secured the enactment of AB 680 (Chan), legislation that will improve monitoring of schools for compliance with existing state laws mandating language assistance for parents. See AACRE Agenda for positions AACRE is taking on other bills in education.