The graduation rate for the nation’s English-language learners in the class of 2014 rose to 62.6 percent, a slight increase over the previous year, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Education.
The nation’s four-year graduation rate for ELLs has improved nearly 6 percentage points in the past three years, though they still trail other subgroups, including students with disabilities and those who come from low-income families.
West Virginia, where about 1 percent of students are English-learners, had the largest percentage graduate, 89 percent. But in Arizona, just 18 percent graduated within four years. Nevada was the only other state that had less than a third of its ELL students graduate on time. Both states have sizable ELL populations. In California and Texas, which have the largest ELL enrollments, 65 percent and 71 percent of those students, respectively, graduated on time.
