If you have an uptick of English Learners (ELs) in your classrooms, you’re not alone. As of 2019, one-tenth of America’s student population are ELs and that number continues to grow each year, making it crucial for literacy leaders to understand the diverse needs of EL students.
Here are five things that every literacy leader should know about supporting ELs in their schools and classrooms.
In the last two decades, 1.5 million ELs have been introduced to classrooms around the United States. As you can see on the map below, while ELs made up 8.1% of the school population in 2000, they now comprise 10.4% of the population, representing over 5 million students in today’s classrooms (National Center for Education Statistics, 2022).
That map represents the over 400 languages spoken by students in American public schools! While Spanish remains the most common home language spoken by ELs in U.S. schools at more than 77%, it’s just the tip of the linguistic iceberg! The second most common home language is Arabic, which makes up 2.6%, followed by Chinese, Vietnamese, and Portuguese with less than 2% (NCES, 2022).
In addition, it’s important to note that native language skills among ELs can vary greatly. Some may come to school with only their oral language skills in their native tongue. Others might be proficient in reading and writing in their home language but are newcomers to English (Cárdenas-Hagan, 2020).
Despite the increasing number of ELs in U.S. public schools, only a shocking 3% of teachers possess the necessary qualifications to effectively teach these members of the classroom community. This isn’t just a statistic—it’s an urgent call to action! Teachers need more training and resources to meet the needs of this growing group of students. Assessment and data-based decision making is a key step in ensuring our ELs’ needs are met.
Consider this: students who speak English as a second language face a 13% of not graduating from high school and are twice as likely to drop out of high-school in comparison to their non-Hispanic White peers (Cárdenas-Hagan, 2020; National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2019). Every literacy leader should be aware of these futures at stake and be motivated to make a change!
Recognizing and addressing the unique needs of ELs is the first step to ensuring every student gets the quality education they deserve. The next step is creating an inclusive environment that celebrates their diverse backgrounds, acknowledges their challenges, and uses evidence-based structured literacy strategies. These steps can be achieved with our brand-new literacy training course, created in direct partnership with renowned literacy researcher and EL expert, Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan. Specialized Reading Knowledge Bundle: English Learners helps all members of the classroom community develop the essential knowledge to accelerate language and literacy proficiency for English Learners in any program model with immediate instructional applications.
Interested in learning more about creating supportive structured literacy systems for all learners, including ELS, within your district, school or classroom? Let’s start a conversation.
About AIM Institute: The AIM Institute for Learning & Research® is a non-profit center for educational excellence and professional development, providing educators with the latest research, technology, and best practices in the fields of literacy and language-based learning disabilities.