Courtesy of Nestor Henrriquez
Nestor Henrriquez, third from left, poses with students graduating from Merced High School this past June. The students all began attending school in the U.S. during high school. Each of them graduated with various pathways to community colleges or vocational training schools, thanks in to support from Henrriquez’s project for Teach Plus called English Learner Graduation Pathways.
Courtesy of Nestor Henrriquez
Nestor Henrriquez, third from left, poses with students graduating from Merced High School this past June. The students all began attending school in the U.S. during high school. Each of them graduated with various pathways to community colleges or vocational training schools, thanks in to support from Henrriquez’s project for Teach Plus called English Learner Graduation Pathways.
The Sacramento-based James B. McClatchy Foundation decided to spend all its funds by 2030, a process known as “sunsetting” in the nonprofit sector. A major beneficiary of this strategy, already in motion, are advocacy efforts that support the education of the many Central Valley students who speak a language other than English at home.
The foundation, named after the late Valley newspaperman and publisher who established it in 1994, recently laid out its spend-down strategy in a report that casts its effort as a “sunrise” for the Central Valley.
Students whose home language isn’t English — referred to as multilingual learners — are sometimes viewed as being a problem that schools need to solve rather than a source of strength in California schools, said Priscilla Enriquez, CEO of the James B. McClatchy Foundation. That has begun to change with the release of the state’s 2017 English Learner Roadmap, but the foundation’s board wants to see dramatic improvement for these multilingual communities.
“So how do we flip that so that children and their families who speak a different language and enter the school system are seen as assets?” Enriquez said.
The Central Valley — with a diverse population that speaks languages including Spanish, Punjabi, Hmong, Arabic, Filipino and Mixteco — is a crucial place to do the work of centering multilingual learners, advocates say.
“There is such rich potential in the Valley, because people have come in with this other language,” said Xilonin Cruz-Gonzalez, deputy director of Californians Together, an organization that advocates for English learners and is a strategic partner for the James B. McClatchy Foundation. “It’s the right place for us to show the value of that and honor it through our education system.”
The Central Valley has a higher proportion of English learners than the rest of the state, notes a policy brief from Californians Together last year. In Stanislaus, Merced and Madera counties, English learners account for every 1 in 4 students, compared to 1 in 5 in the state. But there are fewer programs in the Valley to support multilingual learners through bilingual education and dual immersion, Cruz-Gonzalez said.
English learners need extra support, advocates say. English learners are more likely to be socioeconomically disadvantaged (89%) than non-English learners in the Valley (67%) or students statewide (58%). When they graduate from high school, English learners are also less likely to meet A-G course requirements that put them on track for success in college. Only 19% of English learners in the Valley meet these requirements compared to 41% of other Valley students and 52% statewide.
Supporting the potential of multilingual learners is a part of the James B. McClatchy Foundation board’s broader vision of investing in those in the Central Valley who are trying to improve the region’s fortunes. Ultimately, the foundation’s board wants to help build an infrastructure that will last beyond its existence. Besides supporting multilingual education, the board’s other goals involve promoting community journalism and the next generation of “inclusive leadership.”
“The needs of the Central Valley are so great and the solutions to address them should come from the people who live there,” said Susan McClatchy, the foundation board’s vice chair and the late James B. McClatchy’s wife, in a statement. “[The foundation’s] sunrise plan is but the grease to facilitate what already exists in diverse communities.”
Central Valley lacks investment
The Central Valley is an economic powerhouse whose land and workers provide a quarter of the food on America’s tables. Yet, the region is often regarded as little more than drive-through territory between the Bay Area and Southern California. It’s not just motorists passing the region by. Philanthropists as well as the state have also given the region short…
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