Insights and Analyses

• Encouraging multilingualism across California’s schools through the Seal of Biliteracy is important in leveraging students’ language assets to meet the rising demand for a multilingual workforce. To enhance this program, in October 2023, Governor Newsom signed into law the Biliteracy Advancement Act (AB 370) that makes the Seal of Biliteracy requirements more equitable and offers additional opportunities for students to earn the Seal. The law went into effect on January 1, 2024.

• Data from the California Department of Education for the 2022-2023 school year showed that 356 of the 421 school districts in California offered the State Seal of Biliteracy.

• According to public data from the California Department of Education, 45% of the students who earned the Seal of Biliteracy in 2022-23 were current or former English learners.

• During Fall of 2022, the California Department of Education collected English learner data for 108 language groups. About 93% of English learners spoke Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese, Russian, Farsi, Tagalog, Punjabi, or Korean.

• In 2021, 16% of English fluent high school graduates and 9% of English learner high school graduates across California earned a biliteracy seal.

• In 2021, Mono County ranked #1 among all counties in biliteracy seal attainment among all high school graduates, with 39% of high school graduates obtaining a biliteracy seal.

• In Fall 2022, over 2.3 million (about 40%) of students enrolled in California’s public schools spoke a language other than English at home. Rather than expending this as a challenge, the state has an opportunity to leverage languages other than English spoken at home as a valuable asset by helping students become literate in their home language.

• Since 2013, the number of biliteracy seals that have been issued has increased. To date, 521,649 seals of biliteracy have been awarded. Data over time from the California Department of Education shows an increase in the number of biliteracy seals awarded. In the 2012-2013 school year, 10,685 biliteracy seals were awarded and in the 2017-2018 school year, 55,214 biliteracy seals were awarded. In the 2022-2023 school year, that number had decreased to 59,782; however, during the 2024-2025 school year it is projected that 125,000 biliteracy seals will be awarded. Although the program continues to expand, 65 districts with high schools had yet to offer the biliteracy seal by the 2022-2023 school year.

• One barrier to supporting students to obtain the biliteracy seal is a shortage of bilingual teachers in the state. Data from the California Department of Education and the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing showed a gap in the number of students living in a home where one of the top 10 languages spoken in California was spoken and teachers accredited to teach in those languages. The student-to-bilingual authorization (for authorizations issued from 2012-2013 through 2021-2022) ratio was highest for Punjabi, Farsi, Tagalog, Russian, and Arabic.

Global California 2030 is an initiative that aims to prepare students with the language skills to participate in the global economy and create a multilingual California.

Research suggests that bilingualism is an asset, pointing to benefits like meeting the demand for a multilingual workforce, economic benefits, and cognitive development. In 2016, Proposition 58 was approved by voters, removing barriers to implementing dual-language programs. Interest from California voters in these programs continued to grow since Proposition 58, which led to the creation of the Global California 2030 initiative. This initiative sets forth two overarching goals to achieve a path to a multilingual state–enrolling 50% of all K-12 students in programs that prepare them to be proficient in at least two languages by 2030, and striving for 75% of graduating students to obtain a State Seal of Biliteracy (SSB) by 2040. To meet these goals, the initiative also aims to significantly increase the number of bilingual instructors to 2,000 by 2030 and increase access to bilingual education options like dual-immersion language programs that teach both English first-language and English Learner students in both English and another language. Additionally, there have been positive gains throughout the state such as legislation funding bilingual teacher development programs; the funding of dual language immersion programs in the San Joaquin Valley, Inland Empire, and Sierra Nevadas; and the expansion of Hmong language programs in Fresno schools.

Yet, obstacles to achieving the goals of the initiative persist–most notably, teacher shortages caused by the long ban on bilingual education that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and a lack of investment in bilingual education. For example, the San Francisco Unified School District had to halt some offerings, like a Tagalog/English dual-language immersion program due to funding gaps. Moreover, only about 60,000 graduating students obtained the State Seal of Biliteracy in 2022-23, making the Global California Initiative’s interim projection of 125,000 by 2024-2025 increasingly difficult to achieve. The state is also behind in providing the funding necessary to fund bilingual education to the levels needed to reach the Initiative’s goals – especially on the teacher training side.

Experts and advocates like Californians Together and the Bilingüismo y Justicia program at San José State University are calling for more investments to grow the bilingual teacher pipeline and address teacher shortages to ensure that funding and resource obstacles can be overcome, that teachers are prepared and confident in teaching bilingually, and that the goals of Global California can be met. In addition, through a survey conducted by the California Department of Education in 2020, educators provided feedback on supporting, promoting, and expanding the participation in the Global California 2030 initiative through local action. The specific feedback that was submitted ranged from recommendations on planning, discussions, language program integration, communication, and teacher professional development.  

To learn more about Global California 2030, read the California Department of Education’s report here. Read a fact sheet by the California Budget and Policy Center (CBPC) on the importance of supporting bilingualism here, and another on the shortage of bilingual teachers in California here.

Photo Credit: California Department of Education