2024 is ending with lots of questions for the nation’s growing English-learner population.
It’s been one year since the U.S. Department of Education’s office of English language acquisition took back oversight of Title III—the primary federal funding stream for supplemental services for English learners. Over the past few years, the office has worked on highlighting best practices for districts in welcoming newly arrived students, awarding grants to help states grow their limited pools of bilingual educators, and sharing tactics to grow dual-language immersion programs.
This was also the first year in which high school graduates in all 50 states and the District of Columbia could earn a seal of biliteracy—a designation on their high school diplomas indicating their mastery of English and at least one other language.
But English learners’ language proficiency scores continued to trend lower than in pre-pandemic years, and anti-immigrant rhetoric from President-elect Donald Trump and his promise of mass deportations have left many communities questioning what policy changes lie in store in January and how these could affect schools.
Those are all developments Education Week will track in the coming year.
