Labor force: Individuals employed as civilians, unemployed, or in the armed services during the survey week. The “civilian labor force” is composed of all civilians classified as employed or unemployed.

Language minority students: Children in households who speak a language other than English at home.

Life sciences: Life sciences are instructional programs that describe the systematic study of living organisms. Life sciences include biology, biochemistry, biophysics, and zoology.

Limited-English-proficient: The term “limited English proficient,” when used with respect to an individual, means an individual who is enrolled or preparing to enroll in an elementary school or secondary school, who was not born in the United States or whose native language is a language other than English or who comes from an environment where a language other than English has had a significant impact on the individual’s level of English language proficiency; or who is migratory, whose native language is a language other than English, and who comes from an environment where a language other than English is dominant, and whose difficulties in speaking, reading, writing, or understanding the English language may be sufficient to deny the individual the ability to meet the state’s proficient level of achievement on state assessments as specified under the No Child Left Behind Act, the ability to successfully achieve in classrooms where the language of instruction is English, or the opportunity to participate fully in society.

Literal inference: A reading skill measured in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998 (ECLS–K). An example of this reading skill is recognizing the comparison being made in a simile.

Loan: Borrowed money that must be repaid.

Local education agency (LEA): (See School district.)

Locus of control:

• Student controlled: Tasks where students had control over the procedures used to solve a problem.

• Task controlled: Tasks where students were asked only to follow the procedures demonstrated by their teacher.

Longitudinal dropout rate: The longitudinal dropout rate is the percentage of students in a nationally representative cohort of students selected at some grade level in school at a certain point in the school year who have left school and not graduated with a diploma or certificate of graduation as of a certain later time. One example of a longitudinal dropout rate is the percentage of high school freshmen enrolled in spring 2002 who dropped out 2 years later as of spring 2004. (See also Dropout and Status dropout rate.)