Among West Valley districts, the Arcadia Unified School District had the highest percentage of English-proficient students. 64% of the district's English learners scored at the "proficient" level on the English Language Development Test. That compares to 36 percent of English learners statewide who scored proficient on the test.
Area school districts did better than average on the 2004 California English Language Development Test of English learning students. Sixty-six percent of students tested in Arcadia Unified School District scored in the advanced categories.
City of Arcadia provides language access services to ensure equal access to city services. The city has formally recognized Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Korean, Tagalog, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Hindi.
In the transition to the new federal No Child Left Behind Program, the Arcadia Board of Education is losing money and is being forced to cut the number of English language instructional aides in elementary school.
School district gets CAP test scores. Although Arcadia students remained comfortably above the 80th percentile in most categories in California Assessment Program test scores, the influx of Limited English Proficient (LEP) students into the district is having a definite impact. In 1976, there were 63 limited or non-English speaking students in Arcadia school district. As of October 1 this year, 539 students are in the LEP program. 78% of LEP students are Asian; 14 % are Spanish, 2 % European, with the remainder from other cultures. Fifteen languages are represented. See hard copy in Box 51.
A study released today by the Public Policy Institute of California found students' progress toward English proficiency is linked to their native language and socioeconomic status more than the length of time they've been in the country. A comparison chart of San Gabriel Valley schools is included.
Westridge School is one of the first San Gabriel Valley private schools to offer Mandarin Chinese language classes. Parents and educators believe a knowledge of Chinese makes their students competitive in the marketplace. Arcadia High School already offers five Mandarin classes.