Many states’ plans for educating English-language learners under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act fall short of equity and send clear signals on how they value the educational progress of the students, an analysis by Achieve and UnidosUS finds.
A pair of policy briefs prepared by the organizations reveal that more than half of states’ ESSA plans intentionally set lower academic goals for English-learners, at least seven states have plans that flout key provisions of the federal education law, and nearly 20 percent of state plans allow schools to earn high ratings even if ELLs are struggling.
A coalition of civil rights groups have already accused U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos of approving plans that violate the law and don’t account for the needs of vulnerable student groups such as English-learners.
