Lawndale Unified School District staff said the district will begin state ELPAC testing in the first week of February under an internal calendar that aims to complete testing by spring break, while the state testing window runs Feb. 1–May 31.

Melianna Cruz, ELAR at Billy Mitchell Elementary, told parents that English Learner progress monitoring at their schools works by selecting a focused domain (listening, speaking, reading or writing) for each grade, giving students pre- and post-tests, and using different assessments by level: Benchmark Express at the elementary grades and an ELPAC interim assessment block at middle school. Cruz said, “Our students … will be taking the ELPAC, which is the language assessment that measures their academic English. We’re beginning in the 1st week of February.”

Why it matters: these assessments feed school and district reviews used to identify strategies and resource needs. District staff encouraged ELAC members to raise specific questions at their School Site Councils and to ask teachers how English learners are performing in reading, writing and math and how progress toward English proficiency is being monitored.

Supporting details: staff said i-Ready and other practice tools can help parents and teachers track growth. The district noted that i-Ready progress reports were collected at the start of the year and again in December, with a mid‑March administration planned. Cruz explained that dual‑immersion students also take a Spanish-language proficiency measure (referred to in the meeting as an assessment that measures academic Spanish).

On dually identified students and IEPs: Dr. Julie Kane (attending remotely), identified as the district director, said the special education team has been working on guidance for students who are both English learners and have individualized education programs. Kane said the state has provided new toolkits and direction and that “we will be sharing a lot more of that information with you going forward.” She also told a parent who asked for data that staff would follow up and provide more information on IEP-specific outcomes.

Data points cited at the meeting included the English Learners Progress Indicator showing 46.3% of English learners making adequate progress in 2023 at the district level and a cited chronic absenteeism figure that 38% of long‑term English learners had been absent for a month or more (chronic absenteeism was described in the meeting as missing more than 10% of the school year, roughly 18 days).

What’s next: staff asked ELAC members to bring assessment questions to site SSC meetings and said the district will share more guidance and toolkits—particularly for dually identified students and on how accommodations should be applied during assessments.

Ending: Parents seeking individual student reports were told to contact their site staff (Eugenia at Mark Twain, Cruz at Billy Mitchell, Rosie Seto at Rogers) for help interpreting results and to check PowerSchool for report access once the state releases them after the testing window.