Dive Brief:
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Certain student, teacher and school characteristics are associated with English learners' academic performance and progress toward English proficiency, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Monday.
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English learner students who are economically disadvantaged, have certain disabilities, live with a guardian or foster parent, and are frequently absent from school are associated with worse academic performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress' reading and math sections. Teacher absences and classroom overcrowding were also associated with lower NAEP performance.
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Students in schools that had a dual-language immersion model of English instruction showed more growth over time in reading. Schools that lack such a program, do not offer English learner families opportunities to connect, and are overcrowded were associated with worse performance on the growth measure.
Dive Insight:
In the decade between 2010 and 2020, the English learner population grew by half a million, from 4.5 to about 5 million students, according to the report. While most English learners are born in the U.S., there has also since been an influx of refugee and asylum-seeking families.
Meanwhile, dual language immersion programs — found to significantly raise student achievement in core subjects for English learners — continue to grow in popularity nationwide.
Last year, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona pushed for dual language education and called for more investments in multilingualism in schools.
According to the American Councils for International Education, dual language immersion programs "are rapidly becoming prominent across the country in cities and rural communities alike."
In 2021, 44 states reported having dual language immersion programs, according to the American Councils. At the time, there were more than 3,600 DLI programs across the nation. California, Texas, New York, Utah and North Carolina accounted for more than half of all programs.
However, while there were about 5 million English Learner students served by Title III language instruction programs in 2019-20, only 8.2% of those students were enrolled in dual language and immersion programs, according to the Education Department's Office of English Language Acquisition.
And traditionally, schools tend to exclude non-English-speaking students from dual language or language immersion classes until they master English.
Other equity issues English learners run into include policies that prevent them from enrolling in English language arts classes and a lack of accessible instruction overall. In order to better support English learners, there has been a push to prioritize bilingual teacher recruitment.
Last year, the Education Department planned to focus a federal grant program meant to improve English learner instruction toward decreasing multilingual educator shortages. In fiscal year 2022, that program was allocated $52 million.
“Specifically, we are proposing priorities designed to help eliminate the educator shortage, increase services for our students who are English learners, and expand pathways to multilingualism for all students,” the department notice said.
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