The problem schools face in accurately identifying English learners

Federal law requires states and school districts to determine whether children need English language learning services and special education services to have equal access to education.

But despite legal requirements and evolving research and supports to help educators conduct better assessments, accurately identifying English learners who also need special education services remains a persistent problem.

A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office released in May highlights this.

The report finds that although most states use federal guidelines on how to identify English learners and most provide assistance to schools and districts to help them complete the assessments, there is little follow up. This means that many states don't actually know whether schools accurately distinguish between students who have language acquisition problems, specific learning disabilities, or speech disorders.

Of the 41 states providing such assistance, only 17 reported taking steps to determine the extent to which schools and districts are able to distinguish between language acquisition needs and learning needs. disability. Sixteen others provide no follow-up.

“This seems to me to be an area where many states have the opportunity to do better,” said Jacqueline Nowicki, director of the GAO’s education, workforce and income security team.

Accurate identification of English language learners and English language learners with disabilities is essential

The GAO investigation was conducted in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Only Utah did not participate. (Participation was not obligatory.)

The agency sought to determine how states and districts identify English learners and how they ensure they accurately identify English learners with disabilities.

One of the biggest challenges related to this identification work is demographic change. of English learners nationwide. While the latest federal data shows that Spanish remains the most common native language among English learners, states and districts must ensure that native language surveys account for the hundreds of languages ​​present in their communities to best meet students' language needs, Nowicki said.

“Given the increasing diversity of the public school population, including home languages, it is not surprising that many states are struggling to have the resources to translate their home language surveys into the languages ​​spoken by so many students,” she said.

Identification of students' language needs, as well as special education services “What they're demanding has to be done in a timely manner,” said Lisa Hsin, a development scientist and senior researcher at the nonprofit American Institutes for Research.

The same goes for deciding when English learners no longer need language acquisition services — known as reclassification — to ensure those students receive appropriate support and access to quality education, Hsin said.

One way to ensure that the identification work is done is to ask states to provide assistance and then monitor how districts are doing. Such monitoring may not ensure that all districts in a state are correctly identifying students, Hsin said, but without such monitoring and without district data, states cannot accurately assess how well their districts are identifying students.

Historically, districts have underserved English learners and students with disabilities, including facing technical issues accessing classes during remote learning at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nowicki said.

That's why she sees an opportunity for more states to ensure their districts are properly identifying and then providing the appropriate services to students.

“We can have all the laws, all the requirements, and all the good intentions that we want. But unless people are diligent about making sure that what they’re doing actually achieves the goal or the intention, we’re not going to get very far in ensuring that all children have equal access to a quality education,” Nowicki said.