SBCSS News and Press Releases

County CELDT Scores Exceed Growth Rate in State

2005-02-08

SAN BERNARDINO – The number of English Learner students in San Bernardino County who reached proficiency levels in their California English Language Development Test grew to 47 percent, a 5 percent increase from last year and ahead of the state’s growth rate.

The 47 percent of English Learners who reached their overall proficiency levels represented 14.1 percent in the advanced level and 33.1 percent in the early advanced category among 69,960 county students in kindergarten through 12th grade. That was more than 5 percent higher proficiency than the advanced (9.8 percent) and early advanced (32.2) from the 2003-04 CELDT testing.

“The continued growth in the number of students reaching proficiency levels shows how successful intervention programs have been countywide,” County Superintendent Herbert Fischer said. “The growth is encouraging, but there still is plenty of work left to do to ensure all English Learners are successful in their educations.”

Proficiency levels for county students have grown from 26 percent in 2001-02, the first year of state reporting, to 47 for the 2004-05.

The county’s English Learner proficiency rates mirrored those of the state, which had 47 percent reaching proficiency, a breakdown of 15 percent in advanced and 32 percent in early advanced. The CELDT tests English Learners in four skill levels – listening, speaking, reading and writing. Statewide, there were 1.344 million English Learners, a 1.3 percent drop from 2003-04. The county’s English Learners population continues to grow, 1.2 percent higher than the 69,111 from 2003-04.

Data shows that English Learners who attain higher levels of English proficiency are more likely to reach higher levels of academic achievement. Results of the state’s California English Language Development Test are available at the California Department of Education’s Web site, www: cde.ca.gov.