National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy
National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy
With high stakes attached to standardized tests in U.S. education, it is critical that these assessments accurately capture what students know and can do in a subject. For English Learners, this may be a challenge if they cannot fully demonstrate in English what they have learned. Native language assessments are one promising tool for overcoming this hurdle, though questions about when and with whom they are most effective remain.
Allison Shelley/Alliance for Excellent Education
States publish a wealth of data about their English Learner students’ academic achievement and other outcomes such as graduation rates. But the answer to the question “Who is an EL?” is not always the same. This brief explains how the EL subgroup varies across states and types of data, and why it is important to understand these differences when making decisions about how ELs and schools are faring.
All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have developed blueprints to meet their commitments under the Every Student Succeeds Act—including requirements that aim to raise the profile of English Learners (EL) in state accountability systems. This report breaks these plans down, comparing the significant diversity of approaches taken on everything from EL identification to tracking academic achievement.
Amber Carter/U.S. Air Force
Home visiting programs for young families are growing in popularity across the United States, and have demonstrated their effectiveness in supporting maternal health and child well-being. At the same time, more infants and toddlers are growing up in immigrant families and households where a language other than English is spoken. Why then are these children under-represented in these programs? This brief explores common barriers, ways to address them, and why it is important to do so.
Allison Shelley/Alliance for Excellent Education
A complicated web of laws, policy guidance, and court rulings affect how English Learner (EL) and immigrant-background students are educated across the United States. This EL Insight sorts through them to highlight seven key ways the U.S. government protects the rights of these students to a K-12 education. It also highlights who can enforce these rules and how they can be seen in action.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) includes a number of new requirements for the education of English Learners (ELs), including standardized criteria for identifying EL students and inclusion of English proficiency as a measurement of school quality. Resources on this page can help inform decisions such as how quickly schools must improve and how states can intervene with struggling districts.
The English Language Learner (ELL) Information Center provides informative fact sheets, maps, and state-level data resources that chronicle the demography and trends of immigrant families and their children.
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By Laureen Laglagaron and Cristina Rodríguez
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By Jeanne Batalova, Michael Fix, and Peter A. Creticos
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By Aaron Terrazas and Michael Fix
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By Michael Fix, Margie McHugh, Aaron Terrazas, and Laureen Laglagaron
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By Cristina Rodríguez , Muzaffar Chishti, and Kimberly Nortman
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By Margie McHugh, Julia Gelatt, and Michael Fix
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By Jeanne Batalova, Michael Fix, and Julie Murray
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Recent Activity
The Migration Policy Institute (MPI), in conjunction with a research team at the New York University (NYU) School of Law, is cataloguing legislation introduced and/or enacted by state legislatures to regulate immigrants and immigration.
This exploratory study provides an unprecedented assessment of the “brain-waste” phenomenon in the United States—a serious waste of human capital resulting from the unemployment or underemployment of highly skilled college-educated immigrants.
This report views Nevada’s significant population growth between 1990 and 2006 through an immigration and immigrant integration lens—it outlines the reasons that make Nevada’s case unique and worthy of study; and analyzes the educational challenges the state will confront as it responds to rapid demographic change.
This report provides an overview of the citizenship test redesign process, reviews limited data on applicant test performance during pilot testing, and provides policy recommendations for moving forward.
This report examines the large presence of unauthorized and mixed-status families, and the growing size of the second generation and its concerns within Los Angeles County and in California, drawing comparisons to broader national demographic trends and rationales for immigrant integration.
This report provides a framework for assessing the legal validity of state legislative measures that address unauthorized immigration. To determine their validity, authors seek to establish whether Congress has preempted the law, and if not, whether these local laws exceed the bounds of constitutional authority by conflicting or interfering with existing federal regulatory regimes.
This report seeks to capture the extent of the existing need for adult English language instruction services by analyzing the number and characteristics of lawful permanent residents and unauthorized immigrants, and translating these numbers into estimates of service hours and financial costs necessary to advance the language and literacy skills of these immigrants.
This brief investigates the relationship between immigration and the decline in both the overall number and share of native-born workers in the low-wage and lower-skilled labor force.
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COVID-19 Spotlights the Inequities Facing English Learner Students, as Nonprofit Organizations Seek to Mitigate Challenges
The transition to remote learning for school districts across the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge for most families, but especially those with English Learner (EL) and immigrant students. This commentary outlines how the pandemic has brought new focus to well-known equity gaps and spotlights ways in which nonprofit organizations can be important partners in mitigating the effects of school closures and anticipated spending cuts.
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