Educational Rights of English-Language Learners and Costs of Failing Them

In a kindergarten classroom of 16 children, four will stand out due to their English language deficits. For most of these children, Spanish will be the only language in which they can effectively learn and socialize. Even though they arrived at their kindergarten classroom excited about learning, not before long, they will realize that they’re different. While their peers follow their teacher’s instructions, these other children will remain bemused and silent, unable to even communicate their lack of understanding. As the years progress, one of them will become fluent in English, through hard work and perhaps by luck, drawing one of the 3 percent of teachers with a degree in “English as a second language.” One will be placed in special education due to her teachers’ inability to understand her lack of progress. The other two, still unable to learn in English, will be enrolled in regular English-only classes due to a lack of resources. Many of these children will grow bored and some will start to act out their frustration. If they happen to live in one of the worst educational states, three of them will drop out of school before earning their diploma.

Each year, millions of children whose native language is not English begin a new school year without the language skills they need to learn. These children are commonly referred to as English-language learners, or ELLs. More than 4.85 million of our K-12 children, or approximately 8.5 percent, have been identified as ELLs. For many of these young learners, the ELL label will stick with them for much of, if not all, their K-12 education. In fact, it is estimated that between one-third and one-half of all ELLs who enter primary grades become so-called “long-term English language learners,” which the National Education Association defines as students “who have been enrolled in U.S. schools for six years or more, are stalled in progressing towards English proficiency … and are struggling academically.”