California Data About

English Language Proficiency · District

San Diego Unified

This chart follows students who are still learning English. Each dot shows how close the typical English learner was to fluent that year, on the state's English test for English learners.

More about this chart

Who is in it

When a student starts school in California and their family speaks another language at home, the student takes an English screening test. Students who aren't yet fluent are English learners. Every spring, every English learner, kindergarten through grade 12, takes the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (the ELPAC) until they are fluent. Students who are already fluent in English are never on this chart.

What it measures

English itself: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Not math, not science. The test sorts students into four levels:

  1. Level 1: Minimally Developed
  2. Level 2: Somewhat Developed
  3. Level 3: Moderately Developed
  4. Level 4: Well Developed, close to fluent

What a dot means

How far the typical English learner's score was from the Level 4 mark that year. Zero means right at Level 4; below zero means short of it. A dot at −80 means the school's English learners averaged 80 points below Level 4.

The catch

This group keeps changing. When an English learner becomes fluent (reaching Level 4 is a big part of that), they are reclassified as fluent and stop taking the test. Each year the strongest students leave and new beginners arrive. So a school doing a great job can still look flat, because its successes keep leaving the chart.

Two smaller things

  • The small numbers under each year count English learners only, not the whole school.
  • The houses show the free or reduced-price meal share for the whole school. The state doesn't publish it for English learners separately.

What a change would look like

Dots climbing above the upper limit would mean English learners are reaching fluency faster than the current system "wants". Because the students who succeed keep leaving the group, a rise here understates the improvement behind it, which makes this one of the hardest charts to move.

San Diego Unified: English Language Proficiency, distance from Level 4-300-200-1001002000Level 4Upper limit −54.3Lower limit −78.3Average −66.3Tested201819,480201918,0662020No tests (COVID)202117,041202216,310202315,257202415,428202514,147Houses: share of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. Higher house, fewer eligible.2018: 59% of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The higher the house, the fewer eligible.59%2019: 59% of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The higher the house, the fewer eligible.59%2021: 55% of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The higher the house, the fewer eligible.55%2022: 56% of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The higher the house, the fewer eligible.56%2023: 57% of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The higher the house, the fewer eligible.57%2024: 59% of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The higher the house, the fewer eligible.59%2025: 60% of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The higher the house, the fewer eligible.60%−62−68−69−62−62−72−69
The shaded band is this district's normal range. If nothing about how it works changes, nearly every future year should land inside it. Zero means the typical English learner's score is right at Level 4, "Well Developed". The small numbers under the years are how many students were tested.

Schools in San Diego Unified