Curriculum committee reviews CAL findings, staff proposes shift toward two-way immersion and stronger ESOL supports

Portland Public Schools staff told the Curriculum Committee that a recent review by the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) finds committed educators and strong immersion outcomes but wide variation in service delivery for multilingual learners.

Theresa Lee, director of secondary ESL programming, and Carlos Gomez, director of elementary ESL programming, outlined CAL’s methodology — classroom visits at six schools, focus groups with more than 100 community members, and comparative analysis with similar districts — and presented slides showing that multilingual learners represent about 30% of district enrollment. Lee said current multilingual learners lag behind peers on state ELA and math assessments while former multilingual learners who have exited services generally perform at or above expectations, underscoring the multi-year nature of language acquisition.

“The Center for Applied Linguistics put us in a regional and national context,” Lee said, adding that the district is “exceeding” some comparison districts in ELA for former multilingual learners. Carlos Gomez said the CAL observers praised “a very committed group of educators” and strong parent engagement in immersion programs, but also noted “limited consistency in scheduling and collaboration structures” across schools.

The presentation listed short-term priorities: define ESOL teacher roles and decision rules; strengthen master scheduling to enable collaboration between ESOL, general education and special education; expand literacy and language supports for secondary multilingual learners; and use ACCESS and formative data more consistently to guide instruction. Longer-term recommendations included clarifying multilingual instructional pathways, expanding professional learning, and improving districtwide progress monitoring.

On Spanish immersion, Gomez reported about 117 students currently enrolled in the district’s immersion pathway and said roughly 84% identify English as their home language, with under 3% of immersion students classified as current multilingual learners. The CAL report recommended adding a district-level dual-language specialist, expanding family engagement and communications, and considering a transition from the current immersion model to a two‑way Spanish–English immersion model to increase access for multilingual families.

Gomez summarized the recommendation bluntly: CAL “is asking us to consider phasing out the current Spanish immersion program, and transitioning to a Spanish English two-way immersion model.” He said the district will enroll a kindergarten immersion classroom for 2026 with a target maximum of 20 students while it plans community engagement for a possible dual-language rollout in 2027–28.

Committee members pressed staff on data and selection of comparison districts. Lina asked why Portland’s current multilingual learners scored below expectations; staff replied that the comparison districts were chosen for similar language diversity and student counts and reiterated that language proficiency growth commonly takes five to seven years. Staff also said they will provide grade-level and ESOL-classification breakdowns in future data pulls and check whether multi-year ACCESS participation can be reported.

The committee did not take formal votes on any of the CAL recommendations at the meeting. Staff said a full report and an executive summary are forthcoming and that they will bring implementation steps and more detailed data, including ACCESS breakdowns by grade and ESOL level, to future committee meetings.

Portland Public Schools is expected to publish the CAL final report and executive summary this month; staff asked the committee to review the findings and advise on next steps.