Vol. 28, Issue 17
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Web Extras
This interactive map offers a quick way to examine State-by-State grades and summary data.
Looking for detailed state data? The State Highlights Reports assemble findings on each of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia and compare individual state data to national data. (Available for $4.95 per report.)
Provides ways to compare multiple states' data in all categories.
Your turn. Manipulate grades for states based on weighting schemes of your choice.
13 demographic portraits, with audio interviews, of English-Language
Learners from schools across the country.
From Print
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Amid national political turnover and financial worries, states remain on the
front line in the push for school improvement.
OVERVIEW
That sweeping shift in demographic patterns has strained the capacity of
school districts, and even state departments of education, to develop and pay for instructional programs to teach children
who are still learning English.
The task of ensuring that millions of children learn English—and succeed
academically—is putting pressure on states and school districts as they push to boost student achievement overall.
Case law and statutes involving the right of English-learners to a public
education—and the responsibilities of state and local governments to provide it—stretch back decades and continue to
evolve.
TEACHING & RESEARCH
Even as new research turns up promising insights on how best to teach English-language learners, the pool of high-quality studies is still shallow, scholars say.
Faced with a shortage of teachers specializing in English as a second
language, states and districts move to grow their own.
TableTeaching ELL Students PDF
Assessment & Accountability
Determining where an English-language learner should be placed at the time
of enrollment—and when the student should be moved—is a key part of assuring student success.
Students who are still working to master the English language are being held to the same reading and math proficiency targets as native English-speakers.
Exit exams that determine whether students graduate from high school can be a brick wall.
TableMoving Toward Language Proficiency PDF
TableTwo Lenses: Academic Achievement PDF
FINANCING
States vary widely in how much of their own money—if any—they allot to
English-language-learner programs to supplement federal funding.
STATE OF THE STATES
With English-language learners as its special theme, Quality Counts
2009 for the first time details state policies to support this diverse group of students
Table
Transitions and Alignment PDF |
Excel
The Quality Counts 2009 State Highlights Reports capture all of the data you need to assess your state’s performance in key areas.
Perspectives on a Population: English-Language Learners in American Schools offers the most comprehensive, data-driven examination to date of ELL students and youths in the United States. Get this special report for only $6.95
