University of California Linguistic Minority Research Institute

Despite the best efforts of thousands of dedicated people, California’s secondary schools are failing to adequately educate the majority of the state’s English language learners (ELs). The purpose of this paper is to present a vision for high schools that will promote greater success for these students. This vision is based on Norm Gold’s 30 years of experience in the field with teachers and administrators responsible for educating English learners and immigrant students.1 In his words, “This experience leaves me with a growing sense that the problems in EL education are escalating. High schools do not work well for most of these students, and California must take definitive, comprehensive, and long-term action to change this situation now.”