California rethinks how to identify 4-year-olds who need extra help learning English

A transitional kindergarten student at Castro Valley Unified’s Independent Elementary School looks at a letter book.

Credit: Andrew Reed / EdSource

California education officials are tasked with a difficult mission over the next few months — finding the best way to figure out which 4-year-olds need extra help learning English.

What makes this a challenge is that children at this age are still developing language skills, and they aren’t used to tests. In past assessments, children would sometimes cry and put their heads down on the desk.

When children enroll for the first time in California’s TK-12 schools, families must fill out a survey about the languages they speak at home. If a child speaks a language other than English, the school is required to use the English Language Proficiency Assessment for California (ELPAC) to determine whether the student is an English learner.

Up until last school year, students in transitional kindergarten, or TK, had to take this test as well. But the California Legislature exempted these children after educators reported that 4-year-olds were overwhelmed, and advocates said young children were being identified as English learners simply because they were too young to answer the questions on a test not designed for preschoolers.

An analysis by the California Department of Education found that transitional kindergartners were more likely to have a low proficiency score in English on the ELPAC. In 2023-24, the last year that the ELPAC was required in TK, 81% of TK students tested were at the lowest level of English proficiency, compared to 67% of kindergartners tested. 

Beginning last year, transitional kindergartners were not assessed for English language proficiency, a decision many TK teachers celebrated.

For now, California has no formal way of determining transitional kindergartners’ English proficiency, which means schools miss out on federal and state funding for English learners. Schools are not required by law to provide students with language services or report their academic or language progress on the California School Dashboard.

But this summer, the state Legislature set aside $10 million in the budget to select a new screener for schools to use to identify TK students who need more help learning English. The state superintendent of public instruction has to select a list of screeners by March 31, which will then be tested in some districts in 2026-27 before requiring screening in 2027-28.

“We are still in the early stages and details about the screener selection process are coming soon,” said Michelle Hatfield, a spokesperson for the California Department of Education.

The Legislature also made a temporary fix to help schools recover what they lost in state funding for TK English learners until 2027.

Teachers wary of testing

There’s some controversy over whether a new screening instrument is necessary for children this young.

“Technically, they’re all learning English at this age,” said Jacquilla Burris, a TK teacher in the Fresno Unified School District. “There’s not a lot of difference for a child who is a non-English speaker.”

She and other teachers interviewed by EdSource said they are relieved that students are no longer required to take the ELPAC and questioned why the state needs another assessment.

“I think it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money. For TK? Really?” said Paula Merrigan, who teaches TK in Castro Valley. 

She said all children in her class are working on developing their vocabulary and language skills, no matter their native language. For example, she frequently stops to clarify what words mean when reading a book, she said.

“Today I said, ‘Do you know what grin means?’ They said no. I was like, ‘Oh, it’s a smile,’” Merrigan said. “Even my native English speakers need the skills because they don’t have the vocabulary.”

However, many researchers and educators say schools need a way to identify which students need more language support.

“Some people might say we’re all learning language in TK,” said Bernadette Zermeño, professor and multilingual specialist with the California Early Childhood Mentor Program. “That’s true, and our multilingual geniuses, as I like to call them, need extra support.”

Screening can also help schools target materials and training for teachers.

“We need to ensure that we’re providing those tools and resources to schools to help support not just English but also the home language,” said Carolyne Crolotte, director of policy at Early Edge California, a nonprofit that advocated to exempt TK students from taking the ELPAC.

What tools exist

A screening instrument for this age group should focus more on speaking and understanding, rather than reading and writing, since most children have not yet learned those skills, researchers said. In addition, the vocabulary used should be more basic than for an older age group, and the assessment should be short and engaging, using games, stories and conversation. Researchers also said the most accurate assessment of a child’s language skills comes from observing how they interact with others.

Teachers said it is crucial that young children be observed or tested in an environment and with a person with whom they feel comfortable. Otherwise, children may be too shy or anxious to get accurate results.

A 2024 study by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and New America found that 15 states require screening of preschoolers to identify whether they are English learners. Most use one of five screeners — Pre-IPT, preLAS, preLAS Observational Assessment, Oklahoma Pre-Kindergarten Screening Tool (PKST) and Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey (WMLS) — most of which were not developed specifically for students who speak languages other than English.

“It’s all over the place,” said Rebecca Bergey, principal researcher for AIR. She said some states, like Texas and Illinois, require screening to identify English learners in preschool in part because they have laws requiring schools to provide bilingual programs if they have a certain percentage of English learners, and to prioritize how to use funding.

Other states have chosen not to identify English learners until kindergarten, partly because bilingual children are developing both languages simultaneously at this age, she said.

“Language in this time frame is developing so rapidly and changing and dynamic. So I think there’s some caution. Even the best-designed assessment is going to be limited in what it tells us. And there’s a risk of inappropriately identifying students,” Bergey said.

California’s preschool survey

California already has a family language survey, with a follow-up interview, used in state-subsidized preschools, which serve the same age group as TK, for identifying preschoolers who are dual language learners. The term is used to recognize that a child is learning both English and their home language at the same time at this age. 

“There’s this continuous missed opportunity of alignment with our preschools, that’s not addressed enough,” said Zermeño. “We shouldn’t be a whole separate entity.”

However, she and others said the survey and interview need to be complemented by teacher and parent observations to pinpoint areas where students need extra support. She recommended that TK teachers have paid time to visit families’ homes so they can observe how the child speaks English and other languages with different family members. Those observations can then be complemented by observation of how a child interacts with peers and teachers.

Several TK teachers said the survey alone should not be used to identify students as English learners, in part because parents don’t always disclose the languages other than English spoken in the home to avoid their children being labeled an English learner, which they sometimes perceive as a disadvantage.

At the same time, teachers said, other parents report that a language other than English is spoken at home, but in reality, though adults may speak another language, the children only speak English.

Even some students who only speak English have a hard time passing the English proficiency test, teachers said, which is one reason they are concerned when students are misidentified early on.

“Maybe they’re special ed, maybe they’re absent all the time, maybe they’re in foster care, maybe they’re homeless, maybe they have a certain home life, and because of that they’re lacking so many skills,” said Marcella Gutierrez, a Mountain View TK teacher. “We don’t want kids labeled English learners when they’re just behind academically.”

EdSource reporter Lasherica Thornton contributed to this article.