Dive Brief:
- English language learning (ELL) advocates have mixed feelings on the new Every Student Succeeds Act, expressing concern over facets of the law that include the abandoning of federal accountability measures specific to English language learners.
- Part of ESSA recategorizes overall accountability for ELL from being included under Title III, which regulated English-language-acquisition programs, to Title I, which regulates overall performance for all student groups — a move that advocates applaud for its mainstreaming of ELL.
- Gabriela Uro, director of ELL policy and research at the Council of the Great City Schools, says that many states don't have the capacity to carry out what ESSA now mandates for ELL, including the development of ELL accountability systems that track progress in tandem with their counts of students newly proficient in English.
Dive Insight:
With the population of U.S. students who don't speak English at home recently estimated to total 4 million, and the total ELL population reported at 5 million by Education Week, the ramifications of ESSA's updates to ELL regulation affect a large population. More importantly, the number of students who need ELL programs continues to rise in the U.S.
In the District of Columbia and six states — Alaska, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas — "10% or more of public school students were English language learners, with ELL students constituting 22.8% of public school enrollment in California," according to the Institute of Education Statistics.
The need is so high that some districts have resorted to importing Puerto Rican teachers to fill the need for bilingual educators. Schools and districts should pay close attention to how ELL programs will be evaluated now since they're likely to continue along a growth trend, especially given that multilingual students are proven to be more competitive in terms of college and career readiness.