English Language Learners in America’s Great City Schools

In 2013, the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS) published the first-ever report on English language learners (ELLs) enrolled in member districts, reporting on a range of indicators in addition to ELL enrollment and languages spoken by such students.  

This report updates most of the data presented in the 2013 Council ELL report, shedding light once again on ELL enrollment, student performance, staffing and professional development, along with Title III allocations. 

Consistent with our findings in the 2013 Council ELL report, English language learners continue to be the fastest-growing demographic group in U.S. public schools. Among an increasing number of organizations that are turning their attention to this population, there seems to be a relative consensus that the total number of ELLs has been approaching five million in recent years—

•Updated figures reported in the most recent Title III Implementation Biennial Report to Congress for School Years 2012-14(September 2018) show that in SY 2013-14 there were 4,931,996 ELLs enrolled in K-12 U.S. public schools. 

•The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports the following ELL enrollment figures in K-12 public schools—4,803,578 in SY 2014-15 and 4,843,963 in SY 2015-16.3

The ELLs attending schools in the member districts of the Council of the Great City Schools account for nearly one-quarter of all ELLs in the nation. Specifically, in SY 2015-16, Council-member districts enrolled about 1.2 million ELLs in Grades K-12—or 25.0 percent of the 4.9 million estimated ELLs in the nation’s K-12 public schools (using the 2012-14 U.S. Biennial Report on ELLs4)

This new report by the Council presents the results of a yearlong effort to compile data on ELL enrollment and programs in our Great City school districts. Much of the data were collected from the membership via survey in 2017. Over 85 percent of the membership responded (61 of 70 districts that were members at the time the survey was conducted), but not every district responded to every question. In Appendix K of this report, we list the specific districts responding to each question when such details could be disclosed without compromising the integrity of district KPI codes used in some portions of the report. The responses provide a picture of ELL enrollment across the 61 responding districts, including total numbers, percentages, enrollment by school level, languages spoken, and ELLs receiving special education services.

Highlights

The enrollment of ELLs in the 74 districts5constituting the Council of the Great City Schools at present, excluding Puerto Rico, has remained relatively stable over the last several school years (SY 2013–14 through SY 2015–16) at about 16 percent of total urban school enrollment. 
Total ELL enrollment in these districts was about 1.3 million students in SY 2013–14 and 1.2 million in SY 2015–16, representing over one-quarter of all ELLs enrolled in the nation’s public K-12 schools. 

Between SY 2007-08 and SY 2016-17, the number of Council-member districts with ELL enrollments between 5,000 and 10,000 almost doubled—from nine to 18 districts. Seven additional districts (from 19 to 26) appeared in the category with ELL enrollments between 10,000 and 50,000. The number and percentage of member districts with ELL enrollments between 20 percent and 30 percent more than doubled in this same period, from eight to 18 districts. In 56 member districts, ELL enrollment either remained stable or outpaced the district’s respective non-ELL enrollment. 

Finally, in 17 states, Council-member districts educated one-quarter or more of the ELLs in their respective states. In addition, the survey asked for information on the top five languages spoken by children in each district and the number of ELLs speaking each of these languages. The language diversity in the Council’s membership increased from 38 languages in 2013 to 50 languages in 2016 collectively appearing among the top five languages. Member districts enroll a surprising percentage of speakers of particular languages; for example, three member districts in SY 2014-15 and four member districts in SY 2015-16 enrolled 60 percent of all ELLs in the nation who spoke Haitian Creole.

Districts also provided information on their respective share of ELLs who were in ELL programs six or more years (termed Long-Term ELLs). The majority of responding districts had more than 10 percent of their ELLs classified as Long-Term ELLs; only 14 of 49 districts had fewer than 10 percent of their ELLs classified as Long-Term ELLs.Moreover, the survey asked for information about ELLs receiving special education services. The results showed the growth in the numbers of ELLs and non-ELLs receiving special education. 

We calculated the disproportionality risk ratios for reporting districts, finding a threefold increase in the number of districts that approximated a ratio of 1.0, compared to the figures reported in 2013. In other words, ELLs in these districts were equally likely to receive special education as non-ELLs.The report also examines achievement data for ELLs in three distinct sections. 
First, we look at the English proficiency composition for each reporting district, showing variance in the distribution of ELLs across various proficiency scales used by districts. Second, we look at NAEP achievement data for ELLs spanning a 12-year period from 2005 to 2017. Drilling down deeper than we did in the 2013 Council ELL report, we examined data by free- and reduced-price lunch (FRPL) eligibility for all ELL-status groups. 

Across all seven testing years in both reading and math, ELLs who were FRPL-eligible showed the lowest levels of achievement, followed by ELLs ineligible for FRPL. Former ELLs who were FRPL-ineligible showed parity with performance levels of non-ELL, FRPL-ineligible students. Finally, we include member district data collected through the Council’s Academic KPI project. 

We examined comparison data for ELLs and non-ELLs on selected indicators—absentee rates, course failure in Grade 9, and Algebra I completion by Grade 9. While ELLs were as likely or more likely to be in school than non-ELLs, they were more likely to have failed one or more courses in Grade 9 and less likely to complete Algebra I by Grade 8. ELLs had comparable rates of Algebra I completion by Grade 9 as their non-ELL peers. Survey responses also showed that districts continue to operate under an array of state staffing requirements, including mandates governing the qualification of teachers of ELLs. The most common state requirements for bilingual and ESL teachers involved their needing to have an ESL/ELD endorsement or credential. Fewer districts reported having ELL-related requirements for special education teachers of ELL students.