Delhi Unified’s Academic Gains Show What’s Possible When Multilingual Learners Are Centered

Delhi Unified’s Academic Gains Show What’s Possible When Multilingual Learners Are Centered

On November 19, 2025, Delhi Unified School District shared news that felt years in the making. 

The latest California School Dashboard showed that Delhi students made academic gains far exceeding the statewide average, nearly quadrupling state growth in English Language Arts and nearly tripling it in Math. Even more striking, 57.2% of English Learners in Delhi are now making progress toward English proficiency, an increase of almost 12 percentage points in a single year.

For a small, rural district in Merced County, the results were more than a data release. They were confirmation that a focused, intentional approach to instruction, especially for multilingual learners, works.

Behind those numbers is a story of leadership, alignment, and partnership. That story came to life in a recent conversation I had with Dr. Jennifer Yacoub, Senior Director of Educational Services & Chief Academic Official at Delhi Unified, and Francisco Romo, Deputy Superintendent at Merced City School District, who previously served alongside Dr. Yacoub in Delhi.

A journey, not a single moment

While statewide, student performance improved modestly over the past year. Delhi’s improvement was something different altogether.

• +19.9 points in English Language Arts, nearly quadruple the statewide growth
• +14.3 points in Math, nearly triple the statewide growth
• English Learner progress exceeding the state average by more than 10 percentage points

As Superintendent Eric Griffin shared with the community, these gains reflected the collective effort of district and site leaders, teachers, and classified staff - working with a clear emphasis on language instruction.

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“These improvements are a direct reflection of the hard work and tireless commitment of the Delhi Unified staff. Our entire team –District and site leadership, teachers, and classified staff – worked hard last year to improve outcomes for students, with a special emphasis on language instruction, and those efforts are clearly reflected in this year’s Dashboard indicators.”

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Dr. Yacoub didn’t describe the Dashboard results as a sudden leap or a quick fix. She called it what it really was: a journey.

“It is a journey of improvement, and it’s a journey of improvement through a great deal of commitment to what is effective change in research,” she shared. And she was clear that success at scale is never about one person. “This wouldn’t happen if we didn’t have committed people - committed leadership, committed support staff, committed partners, collaborative partners.”

In her view, the results reflect the behind-the-scenes work that districts don’t always get credit for - coaching, professional learning that continues beyond a single session, and the consistency to stay the course even when it’s hard.

“It’s through that consistency and really building the capacity of people through the research-based practices… through professional development that’s impactful not just one day, ‘Here you go, now go implement,’” Dr. Yacoub said. “Impactful through coaching… that really makes the difference. Makes and breaks it.”

Romo echoed that theme and named what many districts feel but don’t always say out loud: the work is happening inside real constraints.

“The Delhi of today… is not the same Delhi that it was three and a half years ago,” he said. 

Instruction looks different. Assessments look different. Leadership looks different. And all of it happened while navigating real-world pressures. Romo feels Delhi surely is in a better place. 

‍So how do you still end up with results like these?

For Romo, it came back to one core idea: “How do you stay patient when there is a sense of urgency that kids can’t wait till tomorrow?”

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The district chose a system, not a shortcut

Delhi’s growth didn’t come from focusing on one isolated problem. It came from choosing a systemic approach and making improvement a district habit.

Dr. Yacoub and Romo reflected on the moment when the district recognized that supporting multilingual learners could not live on the margins of instruction. Language development needed to be woven into the core of teaching and learning, in ways that felt practical and meaningful for educators.

Dr. Yacoub described the rationale in a clear progression: “If we implement something systemically, then we create alignment. From alignment, we create calibration. From calibration, we create implementation, from implementation, we create effective results.”

That doesn’t mean Delhi tried to do everything at once. In fact, the opposite: the district moved systemically and incrementally.

 “We came at it systemically and incrementally. We can’t start with everybody. I started with day one. Then we moved… now it’s day four.” And yes, she added, there was resistance. “Absolutely… because they’re not used to this.”

But Dr. Yacoub pointed to the cost of not having shared systems: “When there are no systemic processes, procedures and norms, then everyone’s doing their own thing. And so what kind of results can we get, right?”

This is where SEAL entered the story in a way that’s deeply tied to the outcomes: not as an add-on program, but as part of Delhi’s broader decision to build coherence across classrooms, leaders, and supports for multilingual learners.

SEAL became a key instructional partner in that work..

When Romo spoke about SEAL, he didn’t hedge. 

“SEAL is the most rigorous, best instructional model out there.”

But he was quick to emphasize that rigor alone isn’t enough. The real work, he said, is helping adults navigate uncertainty while keeping students at the center.

"The goal is to cultivate the internal agency required for individuals to find their own path through uncertain environments."

For him, SEAL implementation is inseparable from system readiness - across education services, HR, fiscal, superintendent leadership, and site leadership - so that when challenges surface, the district is ready to respond with support rather than blame.

One concrete example he shared:  “SEAL did something that had never been done. They came and co-facilitated a board meeting, that was a game changer, it demonstrated a true partnership.” 

He described the moment as critical - not about politics, but about visibility and shared understanding at a time when pressure and misinformation threatened to derail the work.

What kept the implementation moving wasn’t perfection; it was adaptability and a committed team.

“The work does look like this,” Romo said, describing a messy improvement path rather than a straight line. 

And when teachers needed more time or support, he described how the district responded through an improvement lens by adjusting and investing where it mattered.

"Jen’s integration of additional planning days, a core component of the SEAL model is a practical application of improvement science. It moves beyond the dismissive grit-only approach that simply tells people to endure the pressure. That mentality isn't just and lacks empathy; it’s counter-productive to growth. By providing the space for reflection and preparation, we aren't just being supportive; we are cultivating the internal agency required for individuals to autonomously navigate uncertainty and find their own path forward."

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Building systems that support educators

One theme that surfaced repeatedly in their conversation was the importance of supporting educators without overwhelming them.

Instead of layering disconnected initiatives, Delhi focused on shared instructional routines and clear expectations. Professional learning was grounded in classrooms, connected to student work, and aligned across roles from site leaders to coaches to teachers.

That coherence mattered. It helped educators feel supported rather than evaluated, and it ensured that multilingual learners experienced consistent opportunities to develop language, literacy, and content knowledge across classrooms and grade levels.

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A milestone and momentum for what’s next

This year’s Dashboard results marked a significant milestone for Delhi Unified. After previously being eligible for Differentiated Assistance, the district no longer meets the criteria - an accomplishment achieved in a single school year.

For Dr. Yacoub and Romo, however, the real success lies in what these results represent: students growing, educators gaining confidence, and a district community seeing evidence that their collective effort is making a difference.

As Romo carries these lessons into his work at Merced City School District, Delhi’s story continues to ripple outward. Even as leaders move into new roles, the strongest systems travel with them - not as a program but a mindset: coherent instruction, strong adult learning, and a deepened respect for multilingualism as an asset. 

Their shared story is a reminder that strengthening multilingual learner support is not a one-year project or a single initiative. It is a long-term investment in people, practice and partnership. 

Delhi Unified’s story continues to unfold, but the throughline is clear: when districts pair courageous leadership with coherent supports, multilingual learners thrive and educators feel equipped to make that happen.

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Written by Patricia E Chavez
‍Patty Chavez is Head of External Relations at SEAL (Sobrato Early Academic Language).

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