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Vancouver Public Schools reports mixed multilingual learner outcomes; dual‑language students show higher graduation rates
Summary
The district presented data on multilingual learners: staff described exit‑rate monitoring, a seven‑step instructional model, collaboration with special services to reduce over‑identification, and early evidence that dual‑language participants have higher graduation rates than comparable students.
The Vancouver Public Schools Board of Directors received a progress update on multilingual learners and dual‑language programming Tuesday, including exit rates, graduation rates and instructional strategies the district is scaling.
Lucy Estrada Guzman, director of multilingual learners, told the board the department's baseline measures included WIDA ACCESS exit rates and graduation rates and that staff are working to increase exits and graduation while reducing the share of long‑term multilingual learners. "We want to increase exit rates and we want to increase graduation rates," Estrada Guzman said.
Counts and monitoring Estrada Guzman said the district's Oct. 1 count included 3,766 students actively receiving multilingual services and that the department monitors roughly 4,000 students when accounting for two years of post‑exit monitoring required by state guidance.
Exit and graduation figures The presentation included several rate figures the department used for baseline and outcomes. Estrada Guzman said the WIDA ACCESS exit rate baseline in 2023–24 was reported as 4.7 (percent) and that, in other slide references, exit rates showed increases over prior years with figures such as 48.2 reported on a comparative slide. The district reported a graduation baseline near 68.4 percent and said the 2024–25 graduation rate remained roughly the same; staff also reported a 5 percentage‑point decrease in the share of "long‑term learners" (students in the program five years or more).
Instructional strategy: the 7 steps and school alignment Estrada Guzman described a seven‑step framework the district is training teachers on to create language‑rich, interactive classrooms that increase student talk and language production. She said training participation grew from about 200 teachers last year to over 500 staff trained this year and that elementary principals are aligning school improvement plans to the 7‑step strategies.
Collaboration to reduce special‑education over‑identification Staff said they are working with special services through a multi‑year "critical data review" process and MTSS (multi‑tiered system of supports) to distinguish language needs from learning disabilities and reduce disproportionality in special‑education identification.
Dual‑language program outcomes Estrada Guzman presented three years of graduation data disaggregated for Spanish‑speaking students and showed higher graduation rates for students who participated in dual‑language programs compared with Spanish‑speaking students who were not in dual‑language programs. She said native English‑speaking students in dual‑language classrooms also had graduation rates at or above 90 percent, consistent with research showing dual‑language programs can yield strong academic outcomes.
Board questions and next steps Board members asked for additional breakdowns, including cohort exit‑rate comparisons for younger learners in dual‑language programs; staff said they can return with more disaggregated data. Estrada Guzman also asked the board to note that many of the same Tier 1 language strategies benefit all students, not only multilingual learners.
Ending Estrada Guzman concluded the update and the study session moved into executive session. No formal board action on multilingual programming was taken during the study session.
