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Lawndale parents hear summer ELD gains, dual‑immersion pilot and new outreach for Vietnamese families
Summary
At a Lawndale ELD parent leadership meeting, teachers and staff reported strong short‑term gains from a four‑week summer program, described a third‑grade dual‑immersion pilot and outlined new outreach for Vietnamese families after conference learning and community interviews.
At a Lawndale ELD parent leadership meeting, teachers and ELD staff presented results from summer programs and plans to scale supports for English learners, dual‑immersion students and families who speak Vietnamese.
Teachers Andrea Carr and Marilyn Gill summarized a student work analysis protocol used in summer programs and said it produced measurable short‑term gains. According to Marilyn, dual‑immersion students showed roughly 17% growth in encoding and 20% growth in decoding over a four‑week cycle; a long‑term English‑learner group improved from 44% proficiency on a preassessment to 83% after instruction. "We looked at patterns," Andrea said, describing how teachers used assessment data to design instruction and refine practice.
Rosie (who identified herself as the ELL lead at Will Rogers Middle School) and other presenters described a "bridge day" in which fifth‑grade dual‑immersion cohorts visited Rogers for art and journal activities meant to help students transition between elementary and middle school. Rosie said the event built community and will be repeated, and she urged staff and parents to promote academic discourse at home and in class.
Presenters credited the summer model’s iterative coaching cycle—daily professional development, coaches co‑teaching and next‑day reflection—for enabling rapid refinements. The program also paired academic instruction with enrichment (a program described as "BAM/Brains in Motion") so students received both targeted English development and creative activities.
Staff also described outreach steps for Vietnamese families after attending a Vietnamese American experience conference. Maria (community liaison at Rogers) said the conference highlighted cultural commonalities with Latino families and recommended using Vietnamese site support assistants as family liaisons, offering Lunar New Year events and culturally relevant food and music to increase engagement. Marilyn reported the district has about "almost 60" students who identify as Vietnamese and said staff will begin "empathy interviews" with families to better understand needs.
Organizers noted that during a period of ICE enforcement the district offered an online option for students who did not feel safe attending in person and added social‑work supports and community liaisons to help families access services. The presenters said these supports helped maintain learning continuity for students under stress.
What’s next: presenters said they will share workshop materials with parents, add parent workshops to the district’s family‑university catalog, continue the third‑grade dual‑immersion pilot and roll out the practices more broadly across sites that serve dual‑language students.
Clarifying details: numerical gains cited were presented by teachers during the meeting; the district characterized growth as short‑term results from a four‑week intervention and attributed gains to coaching cycles and focused student work analysis. The meeting included offers to make curriculum materials and resources available for parent review after the session.
