The impact of early education experiences on the nation's growing number of language-minority children -- from parental involvement in schooling to ability grouping in the classroom -- will be explored at a daylong conference in Sacramento on Friday, Jan. 27.

In more than a dozen sessions, presenters from across the country will explore key factors affecting the academic achievement of language-minority children from pre-kindergarten through the third grade.

Conference chair Jamal Abedi of the UC Davis School of Education said the number of English learner students is increasing rapidly, especially in California. One-third, or 1.5 million, of the nation's English learner children are in the state's K-12 school system.

"There are major factors affecting the fairness of both instruction and assessment of language-minority children," said the professor, who himself studies the validity and reliability of performance-based tests of English learners. "This conference will help us understand the issues and look for remedies."

More than 135 education professors, teachers, researchers, policymakers and representatives of the U.S. and California departments of education are expected to attend the conference.

Sessions will cover such topics as the effects of:

• preschool on cognitive and social development;
• after-school care arrangements and activities;
• parent involvement in schooling;
• ability grouping in kindergarten and first grade;
• social background and academic engagement;
• literacy at home; and
• language use by childcare providers.

The conferees are also expected to discuss the identification of language-minority children for special education and English learners' use of technology at home and in school.

Sponsors of the conference are the UC Davis School of Education; the UC Linguistic Minority Research Institute at UC Santa Barbara; the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing at UCLA; and the National Center for Education Statistics of the U.S. Department of Education.

The conference, which requires advance registration, will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento, 1230 J St., in downtown Sacramento. Sessions will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For program details, please visit http://www.cse.ucla.edu/lmc/index.htm#1.