Kindergarten Student Participation in English Language Skills Programs

About 11 percent of the 2010–11 kindergarten class were participating in English language programs designed to teach English language skills in spring 2011. Sixty percent of kindergartners participating in English language programs received English as a second language instruction as their primary type of English language instruction, followed by bilingual education (27 percent) and dual-language education (8 percent). The National Center for Education Statistics released a new Statistics in Brief report today (July 17, 2018), entitled “English Language Program Participation Among Students in the Kindergarten Class of 2010–11: Spring 2011 to Spring 2012,” that examines differences in the student and school characteristics of kindergartners who participated in instructional programs designed to teach English language skills and students who did not participate in such programs in the kindergarten class of 2010–11. The brief then examines the characteristics of the English language program (e.g., English as a second language, bilingual education, and dual-language education) that participating students were receiving in spring 2011 and changes in participation in these programs between spring 2011 and spring 2012. Data come from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–11 (ECLS-K:2011), a longitudinal study that was designed to follow the same children from kindergarten through fifth grade. Key findings include: Of these kindergartners participating in English language programs designed to teach English language skills, 80 percent were Hispanic, 57 percent lived in households with incomes below the federal poverty level, and 35 percent had parents whose highest level of education was less than a high school credential. The percentage of kindergartners with each of these characteristics was higher among kindergartners participating in English language instruction programs than among those who were not participating in these programs. A higher percentage of kindergartners participating in English language programs (46 percent) than kindergartners not participating in these programs (5 percent) attended schools in which school administrators reported that 50 percent or more of kindergartners in the school were English language learner (ELL) students. Twenty-two percent of kindergartners participating in English language programs were no longer in an English language instruction program in first grade. About 3 percent of kindergartners entered English language programs in first grade after not having been enrolled in them previously. As a net result of this turnover, there was no significant change in the percentage of the 2010–11 kindergarten class participating in English language instruction programs between kindergarten and first grade.