Background
A lot of students that are in the United States are English Language Learners. Students who are identifies as English Language Learners as needing help to ensure that they maintain their English proficiency and meet the same academic content and achievement that all students are expected to meet. Poverty has an important impact in the life of English Language Learners. Some students do not have the resources to achieve academically and even though it might seem like a little bit of students that are affected by this, in reality it is that a lot of the immigrant children are affected by this. The language barrier can be the only thing that prevents them to achieve academically and something can be done to make it easier for the students.
Figure 1. Percentage of public school students who were English language learners, by state: Fall 2015
NOTE: Categorizations are based on unrounded percentages.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "Local Education Agency Universe Survey," 2015–16. See Digest of Education Statistics 2017, table 204.20.
The percentage of public school students in the United States who were English Language Learners was higher in fall by 9.5 percent or 4.8 billion students than in fall 2000 by 8.1 percent or 3.8 million students. In fall 2015, the percentage of public school students who were ELLs was 10.0 percent or more in eight states. These states, most of which are located in the West, were Alaska, California, Colorado, Kansas, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Washington. California reported the highest percentage of ELLs among its public school students, at 21.0 percent, followed by Texas and Nevada, each at 16.8 percent. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia had percentages of ELL students that were 6.0 percent or higher but less than 10.0 percent, and 14 states had percentages that were 3.0 percent or higher but less than 6.0 percent. The percentage of students who were ELLs was less than 3.0 percent in nine states, with Mississippi (2.0 percent), Vermont (1.6 percent), and West Virginia (1.0 percent) having the lowest percentages.
The percentage of public school students who were ELLs was higher in fall 2015 than in fall 2000 for all but eight states and the District of Columbia, with the largest percentage-point increase occurring in Kansas (7.5 percentage points) and the largest percentage-point decrease occurring in Arizona (9.0 percentage points). More recently, the percentage of public school students who were ELLs was lower in fall 2015 than in fall 2010 in 14 states, with the largest decrease occurring in Nevada (4.1 percentage points). In contrast, the percentage of public school students who were ELLs was higher in fall 2015 than in fall 2010 in 36 states and the District of Columbia, with the largest increase occurring in Massachusetts (3.0 percentage points).
In reading at fourth grade, the proportion of ELL students achieving at the Basic level or above has increased from 18 percent in 2000, to 31 percent in 2013. In math at eighth grade, 20 percent of ELLs were at the Basic level or above in 2000, compared with 30 percent in 2013. In 2013, former ELL students (those who received ELL services within the past two years) were not statistically different from non-ELL students on this reading measure, and, on the math measure, performed significantly better than current ELL students, but less well than non-ELL students. In other words is that the growth has been seen but has not been seen into an extent that exceeds and meets the academic goals for each of them.
1 Detail does not sum to 100 percent because not all categories are reported.
2 Examples of situations in which English might be reported as an ELL student's home language include students who live in multilingual households and students adopted from other countries who speak English at home but also have been raised speaking another language.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, EDFacts file 141, Data Group 678, extracted July 21, 2017; and Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary and Secondary Education," 2015–16. See Digest of Education Statistics 2017, table 204.27.
Spanish was the home language of 3.7 million ELL students in fall 2015, representing 77.1 percent of all ELL students and 7.6 percent of all public K–12 students. Arabic, Chinese, and Vietnamese were the next most common home languages which was spoken by approximately 114,400; 101,300; and 81,200 students, respectively. English was the fifth most commonly reported home language for ELL students of about 80,300 students, which may reflect students who live in multilingual households or students adopted from other countries who were raised speaking another language but currently live in households where English is spoken. Somali of about 36,000 students, Hmong of about 34,800 students, Russian of about 33,100 students, Haitian of about 30,200 students, Tagalog of about 27,300 students, and Korean of about 27,300 students were the next most commonly reported home languages of ELL students in fall 2015. The 30 most commonly reported home languages also include several whose prevalence has increased rapidly in recent years.
The U.S. Department of Education EDFacts data collection also sheds light on the population of ELL students who have disabilities. In fall 2015, some 713,000 ELL students were identified as students with disabilities, representing 14.7 percent of the total ELL population enrolled in U.S. public elementary and secondary schools.
Stakeholders
Several stakeholders (e.g., ESOL teachers, parents/guardians, school counselors, and trained interpreters) are vital to the process for ELs based on their ability to provide fundamental resources, information, and access to activities (Chu & Flores, 2011; Cook, 2015; Lopez, 2000; Steen & Noguera, 2010, TESOL, 2017). ESOL teachers are trained to facilitate the dialogue in relation to possible issues or concerns regarding language or learning challenges (TESOL, 2017). ESOL teachers also understand EL identification procedures and explain language assessment data. Therefore, it is imperative that ESOL teachers attend RTI meetings as school counselors may not be experienced sufficiently to function as the sole advocate for ELs academically during RTI meetings (Cook, 2015). Parents and guardians of ELs provide another valuable voice to the RTI process. Parent knowledge of student background and experiences provide pertinent information during the RTI process (Chu & Flores, 2011). School counselors intervene and advocate by assuring that parents and guardians are present in the meetings and that they have an active role in the decision-making process (ASCA, 2012). To meet parent communication needs, interpreters may be required. Appropriate interpreters are key stakeholders in the RTI process for ELs.(Lopez, 2000; Paone, Malott, & Maddux, 2010). Lopez (2000) found that interpreters helped educators gain background information about EL schooling experiences and provided a line of communication for parents learning during instructional consultation.As advocates, school counselors screen professional interpreters to ensure they have received appropriate training and demonstrate cultural awareness (Paone et al., 2010).
Some people may not see the importance that English Language Learners meet their academic goals and also have that achievement. Teachers, school administration, and the students are affected by this. Teachers have the responsibility to guide the student in the right direction and sometimes because they face a difficulty, like in this case a language barrier it may be harder for the teacher. It might be harder for the teacher because they have to put some extra time so that the student meets their academic needs and is where they need to be academically.
School administration is impacted by this because sometimes it is said that most of their students are English Language Learners and they have to have certain scores to report to the state. Administrators also have to find the resources that they can offer the students. They also have to find the correct teacher that will make that English Language Learner proficient in English and not have any language barrier anymore.
As a student it can be very hard