Local-Control Funding Formula and English Learners: Seizing the Opportunity to Influence the Budgeting Process

• In Event: To Devolve, Democratize, and Redistribute: Investigating Implementation of California's Historic Local-Control Funding Formula

Abstract

California’s new state funding formula (LCFF) provides an unprecedented opportunity to innovate and reshape the way schools address the educational needs of English learners, given that these students will generate their own funding that is specifically targeted to address their learning needs. However there is considerable evidence that many districts do not have a clear plan for how to improve the outcomes for their EL students. Because it is critical that funds be spent carefully on interventions that are supported by solid research, the Civil Rights Project at UCLA undertook to produce a document that would outline the research findings in each of the State Board of Education’s (SBE) eight priority areas that should be addressed in each district’s plan for its use of funds. The California Community Foundation lent financial support to the endeavor and provided a forum for the distribution of the document.

LCFF and English Learners: Seizing the Opportunity to Influence the Budgeting Process was distributed in the fall of 2014 and was immediately picked up by education advocates to create a template for assessing districts’ plans (known as LCAPs) for use of their EL funds. Early reviews suggested that there was little alignment between the recommendations in the research document and the districts’ LCAPs. Thus, in this paper, we examine and try to explain the lack of alignment, as well as the policy process by which districts did or did not adopt these recommendations. We then discuss the mechanisms by which research such as this can be more effectively introduced into the budgeting process at the district level.

This paper draws on an extensive review of the literature and sate documents. As a result of this research, a framework is advanced for considering district, school, and classroom level interventions for EL students that is accessible to the practitioner. This framework and a set of recommendations are organized according to the state of California’s eight LCAP priorities. Thus, the framework and recommendations have broad implications for future research as well as practice.

Author

• Patricia C. Gándara, University of California - Los Angeles