Indicator: English learner progress

Definition

Emerging multilingual students achieve English proficiency within five years of being classified as English learners.

Recommended Metric(s)

Percentage of English learner students who are reclassified in five years or less, based on local reclassification criteria

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Percentage of English learner students who are reclassified in five years or less, based on local reclassification criteria

CEDS Connections offer guidance, including data elements and step-by-step analysis recommendations, for how to calculate select metrics.

Type(s) of Data Needed

Administrative data

Why it matters

More than 10 percent of public school students in the United States are English learners.1 As the English learner population grows, states and districts vary in their capacity to effectively support English learners in achieving English proficiency.2 There are widely documented disparities in the outcomes of English learner students and non-English learner students, which are especially pronounced for students who do not achieve English proficiency within five years. Long-term English learners tend to have a grade point average (GPA) below a 2.0 and to be two to three years below grade level in English language arts and math.3  The longer a student remains classified as an English learner, their risk of dropping out of school4 and having other adverse academic outcomes increases.5  In Arizona, for example, only 49 percent of long-term English learners graduated high school on time, compared to 81 percent of long-term proficient former English learners and 85 percent of never English learners.6 Long-term placement in English learner education can limit students’ opportunity to take college preparatory and early college courses.7, 8

Rates of economic disadvantage or disability status are generally higher for long-term English learners than English learner students reclassified earlier. For example, more than 50 percent of long-term English learner students in secondary grades in Arizona were eligible to receive individualized education program (IEP) services, compared to less than 15 percent of former English learners who had been reclassified as English proficient.9

Note: English learners may also be referred to as dual language learners, multilingual learners, and emergent bilingual learners. We have opted to use the term English learner for consistency with federal definitions, but we acknowledge that alternative terms are often perceived as more asset-oriented, as they honor students’ native languages and multicompetence.

What to know about measurement

Data on English learner students’ reclassification status is widely collected because the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires districts to track students’ English language proficiency annually.10 States and districts vary in the assessments and criteria they use to test and reclassify English learner students.11 Although not perfectly comparable, this metric conveys a similar meaning across most contexts. In addition to tracking reclassification rates, which can be impacted by multiple criteria, systems should also monitor student performance on the required assessments of English proficiency.

We also note evidence that bilingual education is associated with stronger academic outcomes than English language education alone. Multiple studies offer evidence of students in bilingual education programs outperforming students in English-only programs across subjects.12, 13 However, the field lacks a common way to identify and classify bilingual education programs, which poses challenges to measuring access and enrollment in bilingual education feasibly across states and localities.14  Users interested in measuring multilingual proficiency could also consider measuring the extent to which students achieve the Seal of Biliteracy in their state or district. As of January 2024, all states have now adopted a statewide Seal of Biliteracy, though requirements for the award vary across states, and processes to administer the award at the district and school levels vary widely.15, 16 Research also shows that requirements for demonstrating biliteracy often advantage native English-speaking students studying a world language and that higher-income schools are more likely to participate in the program, so users should take care to ensure equitable access for all students if using the Seal to measure biliteracy rates.17   

Source frameworks

Four source frameworks reviewed for this report include a measure of English language learner progress or reclassification. Our proposed definition and measure draw on work by the CORE Districts.

References