 What it will do tonight is talk a little bit about the science from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. I will present data from a fairly extensive report that was published this last late spring. It is essentially entitled, Promoting Educational Success of Children and Earth Learning English in the United States, and we subtitle it, Promising Futures, because their past has not been as distinctive as it would like, positive, but we think, given the science, given what we know now, that futures are clearly promising, not only in the United States, but around the globe. If you have something to do, don't have anything to do at night, it is a 600-page report which covers every scientific aspect that we could essentially uncover, and I'll later tell you how you might get that report, and you don't have to read the entire 600 pages, but I'll try to do justice to that effort. I want to at least preface this by indicating as well that the National Academy of Sciences is an independent body. It brings together scholars, researchers, practitioners, policymakers, to essentially address the science around various topics. Starting from issues related to climate change, to issues of agriculture, and of course to education and child development. So anyone serving in the National Academy, as a member of the Academy or a member of the panel of any of the scientific reports, does so without pay, is identified themselves as someone who can essentially identify the science in an independent manner, without any particular shades of political or otherwise nuances. So it's important to understand that National Academy stands as an independent agency to provide information to colleagues like yourself, and essentially does so in a very independent manner. What the report focuses on are issues that are critical and important to children who are learning English as a second language in the United States, issues related to demographics, specific issues related to language development, the evolution of policy. This is an important aspect of this population of students in the United States, and also specific populations including those children with disabilities, children who may be homeless and immigrant, children who are living in native people, reservations, etc. Assessment, which is critical to this population, the workforce that essentially touches this population in critical ways. Recommendations for school success, and of course we're all researchers, so a research agenda as well. I won't touch on all of these areas tonight, but the 600 page report does touch on all of those areas, and it's critical to know that it's a very comprehensive analysis. I'll use the term science because many of you are attuned to the notion of research based inquiry, research based programs, etc. We have the National Academy does not begin a study of this magnitude without first determining that there is a science that is not just accumulation of several research studies, but accumulation of multiple research studies which address essentially critical questions around the issues that it investigates. So we have developed essentially over the last two decades a science of language development, multiple language development, and education of children who come to school not speaking the language of the school. So this is essentially a science that I am essentially elaborating tonight as best I can. We did focus on birth to age eight. We think this was a different period in a child's life, in a student's life, than later in that life. However, we also covered the K-12. So that the reason why this report is so long is that we have developed quite a lot of knowledge, a science of the youngest children, zero to five, learning more than one language, as well as a multiple set of information or science of those children who are entering formal educational circumstances in the K-12 sector. We call the children from zero to five dual language learners. These are children who are in a very different place than kids who may be learning a language later in life. These children essentially are going through significant developmental periods. The brain is developing at high intensities. They are intersecting with aspects of language. I mean, they're going from zero to 100 miles an hour in three to four years. So if you can think of someone who is born, who may be uttering or crying, and in three or four years, they are essentially communicating in very significant ways. After that sector, the English language learners or English learners population are those children who are in formal educational settings in schools. And we wanted to make that essentially distinction very clear to those of us, those of you reading the report. Who are these children? Well, first of all, the younger the child is, the more likely they are also US citizens. However, the older the child is up to age 18, you can see approximately close to 50% of those kids are coming into the US schools, essentially from in immigrant circumstances, they themselves are immigrants. But in the early years, before age five and age five, almost 94% of the children are US citizens. So that this population is already here. It is a very large population and essentially is not going away. Whether immigration increases or decreases, these kids are already in our preschools, in our hospitals, in our early care facilities or in families. So that is the distinction. Probably important to also indicate is that many of the children are in immigrant circumstances. That is one parent or more than or two parents are born outside of the United States and therefore immigrants. So we cannot ignore the immigrant circumstances of these children for many of them at least. What kind of languages they speak? Well, 72% are Spanish speakers, but there are a variety of languages that you would have enumerated here. But quite frankly in the report, we identify up to 200 different languages in the United States, including very many indigenous languages, languages of native peoples of the Americas. So that it is a very diverse population. It is a diverse population linguistically, and it's a very diverse population culturally. We do understand that the majority are Spanish speakers, but it's not the case that we can ignore other populations in addition. One chapter identifies where these kids come from. Many of them may, in fact, in those different languages be in refugee circumstances. They may be coming from very different kinds of communities and nations, and that diversity now exists in this country. Where are they? Well, they're throughout the United States. The numbers there indicate the growth sectors in the United States. Clearly, the darker states are states that have historically had very large numbers of dual language learners and English learners. However, the light blue are states that have emerged in the last decade for their large populations. So that in this case, we're talking at least 20 to 25% of the population in schools or in preschools. Essentially, our children who do not speak English as a primary language. The 2016 information related to babies born in the United States indicates that 26% of babies born this last, in 2016, we'll have a 2017 data, 26% were born to mothers whose language was not English. So that's a very large problem. It's one fourth of the population. The reason the mother's speaking a language is that essentially children will learn primarily the language of the mom. There's no offense to the men in the audience, but they'll learn that language. Let's see. What is the data tell you about children who are essentially are dealing with more than one language in the United States? First of all, early proficiency in, I think we might have missed the slide, yeah. All children have the capacity essentially to learn more than one language. This is global data, not just data in the United States. Independent of issues like poverty, independent of issues like immigrant status, independent of a number of different problematic, might call problematic issues. Children can learn more than two languages. The brain essentially is capable of handling more than two languages. The most we know of is seven languages in places like India and along the, in Brazil, along the, along the rivers in Brazil. However, in the United States, learning two to three languages is not compromised in any way with regard to brain development, child development, or learning and educational development. This is one of the most profound conclusions that this report made. It is not very recently that we still have individuals who believe learning two language is detrimental, detrimental cognitively, detrimental linguistically, detrimental socially. The evidence is very clear now, and this is one point we made very straightforwardly throughout the report. Everyone has the capacity, children have the capacity to acquire two languages. It's not an issue at all. How they acquire those languages and what kinds of circumstances, what kinds of exposure, what kinds of adults interact, what kind of children interact with them are clearly important. But every child born has the capacity essentially to handle it. Yes, there are disabilities, but the language disability amongst bilingual children across the world is less than 1%. So the overall language disability for children learning one language is 2%. So it is not any different for those children. So it's very important. How does one learn two languages? The report points out that strong L1 skills support learning English in the United States. So clearly there are implications of that, but clearly the evidence is very far reaching. So we looked at young children, everything from the ages of one all the way through age five, looking at developmental profiles, etc. Is that that L1 language supporting English seems to be critical. Learning two languages associated with improved cognitive, executive function, and social interactions. So systematic exposure to English and ongoing support of L1 is critical. Early on as well as later, all the way through high school. All children have the capacity to learn two languages as I said earlier. Strong L1 language support, that learning of English. Learning two languages associated with improved cognitive, executive function, and social interactions. Executive function, many of you know early child educators is an important phenomena. And the children began early on to determine what's important in their environment. Turns out bilingual children can actually do that better in certain circumstances than monolingual children. They're dealing with a symbolic world that is not arbitrary. It's very systematic. More than one language essentially allows that kind of systematicity essentially in organization. Earlier exposure three years of age is consistently associated with language skills in the second language. And the quantity of quality of input essentially is important in essentially the acquisition of those two languages. Improved executive function skills, community competence, even one I'd like to point out is social, cultural, and family benefits. Lily Wong-Filmer, one of the members of the committee, has extensively researched this notion of family relations and essentially being able to communicate in that family. So these kinds of things pay off for children. And essentially that's why the report makes a very strong case. Empirically research rise in the science seems to essentially support the notion that bilingualism is probably a good thing, not a bad thing. Conceptualizing educational success is turned to learning and education. Clearly, we need to understand if we need to really have educational status being positive, we need to understand the linguistic and cultural demographics, the diversity. Who are the community? Who are the kids? Any teacher who essentially confronts any director, any preschool volunteer, essentially will essentially deal with this notion of diversity, linguistic and cultural diversity. It's not the case that language is separate from culture. They interact. And essentially if we don't understand that diversity, that linguistic and cultural demographic reality, then we cannot reach that positive educational status. Certainly in terms of learning and forming educational endeavors, whether they're in preschool, whether they're even earlier than that, and certainly in the K-12 sector, we have to have, think of appropriate standards or guidelines for children learning more than one language. We have to have responsive instruction. Instruction, we might say, well, good instruction is good instruction. Good instruction for children learning two languages has very specific attributes. We'll cover some of those. And therefore, we've taken into account what I would call the responsive instruction, what the committee called responsive instruction. We can't understand that education standard without a teacher and the leadership workforce. Who touches our children? Who organizes educational endeavors, whether it's preschool or in the K-12 sector? Who leads those endeavors? What kinds of information and expertise do they bring to bear on that? That is clearly important in understanding the broader conceptualization of educational status of these children. Assessments are critical for this population. We need to know how they're doing, what they come with, and where we essentially might assess to learn how we might better benefit them. So assessment is an important critical element of this conceptualization, this conceptual framework. Pre-K and K-12 programs. Ten years ago, we wouldn't have inserted pre-K. We would have said K, K-12. The report makes it very clear pre-K experiences for these children is absolutely critical. It is important. It pays off later in the K-12 sector, but it is important even in the pre-K sector where children are beginning to develop very complex forms of language and learning and educational expertise. Financing, we covered this area. Does it cost more to deal with someone who doesn't speak English? Yes, it does. It costs more. And what is it cost? We've detailed some of that, but you have to understand the resources that are necessary essentially to deal with this population. Lastly, I talk about assets and risk factors. There are risk factors. The research literature discusses those. There are kids that are in poverty. Kids who have parents who may not be fully educated. We may have children who just recently arrived in the United States. Refugee circumstances can be a very essentially risk factor for children. On the other hand, they have assets. Immigrant populations have a ton of assets that they bring to the enterprise. They're much more inclined to participate in educational activities. They're much more inclined essentially to be in a two-parent or family situation. They're going to be a set of assets. Again, a decade ago, we were identifying only the risk factors for this population. They're poor. They don't speak English. They're immigrants. These same populations have assets that we need to build on. The idea is that the positive educational status must incorporate conceptually these elements. How about zero to five? That's it. Many of you are early child educators. Support language activities in L1, such as reading, inviting guests, singing. You all do it when singing in preschools. You do play acting. You have play. Anything that supports that primary language is critical and important. Create and provide access to books in L1, really in the preschool books, particularly, that are wordless, that you could create activities around either language. You don't have to read one language or another. You can support those. What we also argue in the science that very language rich environments don't dumb down the language in those particular situations. Children learn, essentially, by being challenged in very rich language environments. So they don't need to use low vocabulary to someone who's learning English. Higher vocabulary, conversational interaction at the highest level is critical and important. Informing families about classroom topics that build conceptual knowledge in L1 is very critical and very important to essentially deal with the family situations. I don't need to tell early childhood educators that, that the early education is not about the child, it's about the family. It's about a partnership. This is critical for dual language learners. Yeah. Yes, it's the language of the home. Right. Language of the home and the community, in many cases. Highlight connections between all, even in young children, highlight connections between the first language and second language. These kids are smart. They understand that they're dealing with dual languages. The connections between the two are certainly critical in their development. Family engagement is very positive aspects. This is something really important for all children, but particularly for dual language learners, young children, is they are clear benefits with regard to language proficiency, skill skills, test scores. Any of you really worry about test scores? I hope you don't, but if you worry about them, actually working with families increases accountability measures, tests that we give to young children and children in the K-Dwell sector. Even higher education enrollments, we're actually able to trace kids who are dual language learners access to their language, their home language, actually more likely to enroll in higher education and an interesting scientific finding. Therefore, outreach on the part of ECE programs and schools and staff is critical, moving out into those communities. We conclude essentially that English only is obsolete. Bilingual is preferred. Now you can't always do bilingual because you may have, in many cases, seven or eight languages in a situation in which you're in, whether it be early care situation or whether you might be in a preschool or in the K-12 sector. But bilingual, working with the native language, the L1, is critical. There was essentially theoretical and conceptual notions that just English only would force children to learn English and they would do it faster. That theory, the conceptualization is false. So bilingualism is essentially preferred in all aspects where it can, in fact, occur. Promising practices for dual language learners, again, we elaborate this in the book. There are practices that essentially that we would recommend that are scientifically based. That is that we've actually done experimentation on, have followed teachers, done classroom observations, et cetera. And you can see these kinds of things that are important. I want to just turn to what I think are the critical elements from the research, just to summarize, set high expectations for all EL students that adopted standards and guidelines. You've got to have those high expectations. Everyone understands that. Provide systematic exposure to English and ongoing support for the home language. First in teacher collaboration and professional development. One thing we've learned, I'll tell you a little later, teachers need, those individuals who are touching children who are essentially architects of programs, of instruction, need to have the support, the understanding, the knowledge base, as well as the practice base to essentially implement this. Investing in collaboration and professional development pays off for dual language learners. Like the languages environments in those classrooms. Engage students, families, and communities as partners. It's important to understand that many of our families may send their kids to you to essentially become learned, to become educated. It's important for families to understand, for communities to understand that they're partners in the process. You as an educator are not totally responsible for the learning and educational and development of their children. It is a partnership. Attend to struggling, meeting great expectations. This starts early on. This we call long term ELs. We have to be careful about children who continue to be in programs but never achieve or reach the kinds of levels of education in English that we are expecting. This is an area where we need lots more research but is it a concern of this report? The highlighting connections between L1 in English and integrating oral and written language instruction, even at the early childhood level, when children are beginning to write letters and so forth, numbers understand that the language is connected essentially to those processes that essentially are visible on paper and on computers now and on iPads. I want to talk a little bit about disabilities, DLLs and ELs with disabilities. ELs and dual language learners are disproportionately referred to and placed in special education. In some cases, these children are overrepresented in areas of disability, attention to disabilities and in some places underrepresented. It is important to pay attention to how one identifies disabilities in these children. We have done a state-by-state analysis and we find in some states overrepresentation and in other states underrepresentation is critical. Patterns of overrepresentation are observed in those states and even in district levels in very diverse disability categories. I think the thing we want to point out, the research is pretty clear, the science is very clear, children do not get confused overwhelmed by learning two languages. Co-switching is an example of some identified disability, particularly in the language area. Language disability, speech therapist might say, well, these children are developing a mixed language in some way. Co-switching is very systematic, research is very clear. We all co-switch and we co-switch to generate meaning and dual language learners and ELs are no different. Co-switching is a normal developmental element of developing two languages. Learning two languages doesn't worsen or cause language learning problems. Learning two languages doesn't cause children generally to feel overwhelmed or overloaded and it doesn't reduce the chances of learning English. And parents should not be speaking in the home language, should not be stopped speaking the home language to their children. This is one of the major recommendations of committee, I'll point that out in a minute, but that in fact many parents are concerned that because they do not know English that their children will face the same negative circumstances and so they want their kids to learn English as fast as possible. It turns out that having those parents develop that native language actually helps those children acquire English in a much better manner. Assessment, clearly assessment is important throughout all aspects for this population. In many cases it determines whether someone gets a special program, so assessment is critical. It is very useful, this committee says it can be a very positive aspect. It can also have detrimental effects and so it is appropriate to follow the very best practices when it comes to assessment. There are well professional standards in AYC, AERA, APA, HAAS standards for assessing children who essentially come from languages other than English. There are also very important collaborations going on throughout the United States that essentially attempt to provide better assessment quality for these children at all levels, young children and those in the K-12 sector. Practices for success, collaboration is one that I just pointed out with stakeholders working with parents that anytime you assess a child in the early years you must in fact consult with the family and the circumstances that those children are living in. You can't assess a young child essentially without understanding the circumstances in which they're essentially developing and so it's very important that they have important stakeholders in this process. Assessment of home language and English proficiency, many cases you just want to know how much English the kids have, you need to know how much language other than English the kids have. So I think it's critical, this is a new development in the field and then now assessments in at least six or seven different languages that are appropriate, we touch on some of those in the report. From zero to five developmental screening, observation and ongoing assessment with families is critical and important and essentially gives you some idea of what kinds of situations might in fact enhance the early learning experiences of those children. At workforce preparation, one of the things we found which is a little bit for me as a Dean of the School of Education at UC Berkeley is essentially find that the workforce is inadequately prepared to deal with this at the early childhood level as well as the K-12 sector level so that we need to have evaluation of preparation models. We really need, given the science, given what we know, we really need to understand what kind of workforce is necessary to implement this. This is teachers, this is leaders, these are individuals who touch and develop programs for these children. Clearly the racial, ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity to workforce for DLs and ELLs is critical. Most of our workforce is still white and middle class and female so we understand that at least diversifying that workforce is critical for serving this population of students. Policies matter, I'll end very quickly with this, dual language learners, English learners are essentially, I won't say a target, but they are in certainly the milieu of educational policies. They are one of the in the highest levels of education policy. The past 50 years there have been federal policies, certainly those who us working even in early childhood, working with private and or associations, have generated essentially attention to this population and articulated policies. Starting in 1968 here in San Francisco with Lau along through 2015 with the Every Student Succeeds Act is critical. So those of you working with even in early childhood understand that this population is affected by policies. Assessments of their language, different kinds of programs for them, exiting of those programs, etc. Financing, etc. So policies do impact this population more than most other students. Presently ESSA provides essentially important resources for you and the report points us out. Presently there is resources for aligning pre-K and early elementary. For those of you who are early childhood educators, these are state competitive grants, $250 million. They say well what do we do about this? Well there are resources that will help us do that. ESSA provides some of those. Teacher and principal training at the state level, including those areas of those schools that include pre-K in California, transitional K. So training funds are available. Literacy education for all includes now pre-K. So you can essentially see some funding and some opportunities available to make a difference for these kids. State and district formula Title III, again if a school has pre-K or California transitional K, they can use Title III resources for training and support of children in those pre-K and transitional K activities. States and district can utilize Title I, Title II, and Title III to fund pre-K programs. We already said this report said pre-K is critical for early dual language learners. Funding that is now possible through those titles of federal funding in ESSA. Also ESSA requires family engagement under those titles. So if you're receiving resources in a sector funded through ESSA, you must in fact engage families. We already learned through the earlier commentary in this report that family engagement is critical for this population of students. What are our recommendations? A one I would say for everyone, federal, state, and all Intermediary A organizations, provide information to all sectors, including families, that learning two languages is not bad. We still have that prevailing attitude. We've learned of surveys of individuals throughout the United States. Over 50% of people survey think learning two languages is problematic. It's hard. And in early childhood and young children it is not hard. It is doable and therefore getting that information out to parents, to educators, to policymakers is actually critical. This is one of the recommendations. Another recommendation is to define very clear evidence effective practices under ESSA and so forth. So I think that in California you, to be congratulated, your first five has launched a very major effort to identify effective programs for dual language learners. So you are doing essentially what the committee has recommended. Lastly, formative assessment, continuous improvement in accountability, those things are important. We can't have these children, as Michelle has pointed out, we can't have these children just to do this. There has to be essentially effective, innovative programs that essentially deal with equity, not just equality. I want to just tell you that there were several people who supported this effort, including the federal government, offices in the federal government and foundations. This year, individuals who were on the committee, two of your Californians were on it, Kenji Hakuta, Lily Wong-Filmore, but is a very distinguished group of researchers. How can you get this information? We've got some handouts in the back that summarize the report in Spanish as well as English, but you can get it at these websites. There's also a toolkit specifically for practitioners identified, practitioner meaning leaders, directors, principals and teachers. Is it also available on a website? And you can always reach out to me. We have information in seven languages, which is available around dual language learning in early childhood, particularly for parents and teachers. So it is important to get the information out. Let me stop there.