<story><title>Less than half of California students read or do math at grade level</title><url>https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&amp;lstTestYear=2022&amp;lstTestType=B&amp;lstGroup=1&amp;lstSubGroup=1&amp;lstSchoolType=A&amp;lstGrade=13&amp;lstCounty=00&amp;lstDistrict=00000&amp;lstSchool=0000000</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jmathai</author><text>As a California resident, I&amp;#x27;m surprised there&amp;#x27;s no mention of % of ESL (english as a second language) students. There&amp;#x27;s a very large population of ESL students in California that drag down these statistics as the students catch up.&lt;p&gt;If english isn&amp;#x27;t your primary language, learning math that is taught in english will also be more difficult.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jimt1234</author><text>This is BS. My good friend moved to California from Taiwan during high school. She struggled in all her classes (because she barely spoke english (&amp;quot;struggle&amp;quot; means she actually had to put in effort to get an &amp;quot;A&amp;quot;)), but she excelled in math. She told me that she was an average student in Taiwan, but when she moved to the US, she suddenly became a math genius. She was in the highest level math class the school offered, and it was a breeze for her. So, nope, she didn&amp;#x27;t &amp;quot;drag down&amp;quot; the statistics - in fact, just the opposite.</text></comment>
<story><title>Less than half of California students read or do math at grade level</title><url>https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&amp;lstTestYear=2022&amp;lstTestType=B&amp;lstGroup=1&amp;lstSubGroup=1&amp;lstSchoolType=A&amp;lstGrade=13&amp;lstCounty=00&amp;lstDistrict=00000&amp;lstSchool=0000000</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jmathai</author><text>As a California resident, I&amp;#x27;m surprised there&amp;#x27;s no mention of % of ESL (english as a second language) students. There&amp;#x27;s a very large population of ESL students in California that drag down these statistics as the students catch up.&lt;p&gt;If english isn&amp;#x27;t your primary language, learning math that is taught in english will also be more difficult.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>WalterBright</author><text>&amp;gt; If english isn&amp;#x27;t your primary language, learning math that is taught in english will also be more difficult.&lt;p&gt;Having been in a German school for several months where I did not know German, the only subject I did well in was math. I&amp;#x27;m not so sure your assertion is correct.</text></comment>