SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today announced the availability of the Comprehensive Needs Assessment (CNA) report of the Migrant Education Program in California.  

"This report is designed to help migrant students who often lag behind in their studies through no fault of their own, but rather because of the itinerant nature of their lives," said O'Connell. "We have a moral and economic imperative to help these children become productive, educated adults so they can compete in a challenging global economy. The Comprehensive Needs Assessment will help us identify the needs of these students, analyze that information, then help to develop a plan to deliver services to meet those needs."

California's public schools have currently enrolled more than 240,000 migrant students, the most of any state in the nation. They are identified as having parents involved in agricultural or related work, and the family has moved within the last three years from one school district to another for work. The assessment shows most migrant students have historically underachieved academically, tend to suffer from poverty, and many are limited in their English proficiency. Also:

• Fewer migrant students participate in preschool than students from the general population, and about 23 percent of migrant students in kindergarten tend to be overage.
  
• Migrant pupils who come from a non-English speaking background are acquiring English academic skills at a slower rate than other English learners.
  
• Most migrant students are unable to meet high school graduation standards in mathematics and English-language arts, and very few migrant students enroll in and complete college preparatory classes.
  
• Many migrant students drop out of high school and a significant proportion of high school-aged immigrants never enroll in school when they arrive in the United States. These out-of-school youth represent the fastest growing segment of migrant students.

Title I, Part C, of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, program regulations, and policy guidance issued by the Office of Migrant Education at the U.S. Department of Education require state educational agencies to conduct a Comprehensive Needs Assessment of their own Migrant Education Program. The Migrant Education Program is a federal program administered by state education agencies.

The CNA examines the most pressing academic needs of migrant students in several critical areas, including school readiness, reading, mathematics, high school graduation, and out-of-school youth. The academic performance of migrant students is then analyzed in relationship to programs and services provided to them and their families by the Migrant Education Program, local schools, and other educational and social service agencies. Finally, the CNA report will be used to develop a state migrant education plan for service delivery. The plan will include academic performance targets, measurable objectives, strategies, and interventions to improve the school performance of migrant students. The state plan will be available for dissemination early this fall.

For a copy of the CNA report, please visit the California Needs Assessment (PDF; 1.06MB; 142 pp.).