E.g., 04/17/2024
E.g., 04/17/2024
ELL Information Center

ELL Information Center

The U.S. population has changed dramatically in the past three decades, as nearly 30 million immigrants, both authorized and unauthorized, have settled here seeking a better future for themselves and their children. Much attention has focused on proposed and actual change to immigration laws at the national and state levels.

A less studied, but perhaps vastly more important area of interest, is the effect immigration has on U.S. classrooms—where society’s response will determine the skills of the future U.S. workforce and the nation’s ability to remain competitive in a global economy.

Click on the map to access the interactive data tool.

For that reason, MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy has created the English Language Learner (ELL) Information Center, to provide informative fact sheets, maps, and state-level data resources that chronicle the demography and trends of immigrant families and their children.

Recent Activity

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Fact Sheets
March 2017
By  Julie Sugarman and Kevin Lee
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Articles
HeadStart PascoCountySchools
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Fact Sheets
June 2015
By  Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, Sarah Hooker and Jeanne Batalova
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Fact Sheets
June 2015
By  Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, Sarah Hooker and Jeanne Batalova

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Reports
March 2014
By  Sarah Hooker, Michael Fix and Margie McHugh
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Reports
June 2013
By  Sarah Hooker, Margie McHugh, Michael Fix and Randy Capps
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Reports
March 2012
By  Stella M. Flores , Jeanne Batalova and Michael Fix
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Fact Sheets
December 2010
By  Jeanne Batalova and Margie McHugh
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Fact Sheets
August 2010
By  Jeanne Batalova and Margie McHugh
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Fact Sheets
August 2010
By  Jeanne Batalova and Margie McHugh

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Recent Activity

Policy Briefs
August 2017

This issue brief offers community stakeholders a framework to evaluate state education accountabiilty plans to determine if they meet required English Learner (EL) accountability elements. The information that community stakeholders collect using this framework may be used to monitor implementation and adherence to state plans and to evaluate the efficacy of policies chosen by the state.

Commentaries
March 2017

The selection of Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary and President Trump’s immigration enforcement-focused executive orders have left many parents and educators wondering how the new administration’s policies will affect students from immigrant families and the schools that serve them. The simple answer, as this commentary explores, is: It will depend on the actions of state and local policymakers where those students live.

Fact Sheets
March 2017

These fact sheets provide a sketch of key characteristics of the foreign-born and English Learner (EL) populations in select states. The fact sheets look at the demographics of these states, discuss EL student outcomes as measured by standardized tests, and conclude with an overview of state accountability mechanisms that affect ELs under relevant provisions of the Every Student Succeeds Act and predecessor No Child Left Behind Act.

Articles

Although the number of U.S. residents who speak a language other than English has grown in recent decades, the share of those who are Limited English Proficient (LEP) has fallen: 40 percent in 2015, compared to 44 percent in 1980—even as immigration rose rapidly. This article examines growing linguistic diversity in the country and sketches a profile of the LEP population, including size, location, and socioeconomic characteristics.

Articles

The Head Start program—a model for early childhood education programs nationwide—has served more than 33 million children since its inception half a century ago, many from immigrant families. This article examines the role of Head Start in the education of Dual Language Learners, who now comprise one-third of enrollees, and discusses how recent policy changes may affect this population.

Reports
August 2016

With English Learners (ELs) representing nearly 10 percent of U.S. elementary and secondary students, many school districts are struggling to develop the capacity to meet the needs of children from immigrant and refugee backgrounds. This study provides an overview of supplementary funding mechanisms to improve EL outcomes, examining policies at state and local levels, and making recommendations for improvement.

Fact Sheets
June 2015

While English Language Learner (ELL) students are spread throughout the United States, their density, or the share they represent of total public school enrollment, varies greatly by state. This fact sheet, drawing upon data from the U.S. Department of Education, examines the states and districts with the highest shares and populations of ELL students and offers a detailed breakdown of some key statistics.

Fact Sheets
June 2015

This fact sheet, drawing upon data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2013 American Community Survey and the U.S. Department of Education, describes the home languages spoken by English Language Learner (ELL) students at national and state levels, providing the top five languages by state.

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