Return to the main story,
The federal Department of Education released its first state-by-state findings last week on outcomes for English-language learners under the No Child Left Behind Act for the 2002-03 and 2003-04 school years. Highlights of the 503-page report include:
Student Progress in Learning English
• Of the 39 states that reported all required data for this category, 22 met their “annual measurable achievement objectives’’ for all of their student cohorts for the percentage of English-language learners making progress in English in 2003-04.
Student Progress in Attaining Fluency in English
• Of the 39 states that reported all of the required data for this category, 22 met their targets for all of their student cohorts for the percentage of students with limited proficiency in English to become fluent in the language during 2003-04.
Achievement in Mathematics and Reading/Language Arts
• Of the 36 states that reported all required data for this category, only five—Alabama, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, and Virginia—met their targets for English-language learners’ scores on standardized state math tests during 2003-04. California, Louisiana, and Mississippi also met their targets in math for 2002-03.
• Of the 36 states that reported all required data for this category, two states—Alabama and Michigan—met their targets for English-language learners’ scores on standardized state tests in reading/language arts during 2003-04. Only California met its target for 2002-03.
• According to the report, states found math and reading/language arts data difficult to report for several reasons: They were still setting up databases to follow students over time; they were in the process of changing assessments, or had recently done so; they did not have enough data to project targets; and testing cycles did not provide results within the data-collection time frame for the report.
• Only Alabama and Michigan met their “adequate yearly progress” goals last year for English-language learners in reading and math. No state met all its targets both for English-proficiency and academic content for such students.
Source: U.S. Department of Education
