Many districts continue to separate English learners for special instruction, teaching them primarily in English.
Of all the challenges facing minority students and their schools, English learners are arguably the most disadvantaged.
The vast majority of English learners, more than two-thirds at the elementary school level, were born in the United States.
The language barrier does not affect the majority, but for those who enter school as English learners the challenges are even greater.
States such as California, Texas, New Mexico and Nevada have some of the largest proportions of English learners in their school-age populations.
Asian students represent the second largest group of English learners.
On a scale of one to 10, the education of the nation's English learners is "below five, " said Gary Cook, a specialist with the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
Just 7 percent of fourth-grade and 3 percent of eighth-grade English learners scored "proficient" or above in a nationwide reading exam, and thousands languish for years in ineffective English-as-a-second-language programs.
Christine Russell of Boston University reviewed 300 studies and found that 78 percent of them concluded that bilingual education was no better or actually worse for English learners than doing nothing!
Overall, 38 percent of Hispanic fourth-grade students were identified as English learners, as well as 20 percent of Hispanic eighth-grade students, according to the 2011 National Assessment of Education Progress math test.
Schools with few English learners may get no money at all, and federal help is heavily tied to census figures, which are believed to significantly underrepresent the number of students in need of services.
In California, 59 percent of secondary school English learners were found to have been in U.S. schools for more than six years without reaching English proficiency, according to a study by Californians Together, a statewide coalition of parents, teachers and education advocates.
Academics also are hopeful that there soon will be greater national consistency in how English learners are identified and how proficiency is defined through the Common Core standards and assessments, a set of uniform benchmarks adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia.
About half of the students are English language learners in various stages of language acquisition.
They were hardworking, English Language Learners and their children were struggling, just as I had.
Credo finds that students in poverty and English language learners fare better in charters.
However, educational barriers continue to be a huge challenge, particularly for Southeast Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders and English Language Learners.
WHITEHOUSE: Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Blog
Additionally, this is issue is even more dire among populations with higher barriers to employment opportunities, such as the formerly incarcerated, English language learners and aged-out foster youth.
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The challenge, they added, lies not in securing a large research grant designed for a 4-year institution, but finding resources to support English language learners or adult vocational education.
As a result, I have spent the last two years working with Teach for America to increase corps members understanding of our students of color and our English language learners.
WHITEHOUSE: I Love You Too Much to Let You Fail: A Path to Transformational Change | The White House
The city said its evaluation plans included things like the implementation and use of student feedback surveys as well as specific considerations for teachers who are dealing with students who are English language learners and students with disabilities.
It means boosting the number -- the numbers of quality teachers who can help our special education and English language learners meet high standards -- and you've done that here at Wright, so congratulations on that. (Applause.) It means improving instruction in science, technology, reading, math, and ensuring that more women and people of color are doing well in those subjects. (Applause.) So that's the second -- the second factor.
WHITEHOUSE: President Obama Announces $4 Billion Investment in Education | The White House
Poor pupils, those in urban environments and English-language learners fare better in charters (see article).
So where universities are building cultures around completion where first-generation college-goers and English-language learners and Pell grant recipients are graduating, we want to use Race to the Top resources to incentivize that behavior.
"In particular, GCSE qualifications in core subjects such as English language are used by learners as either a passport to employment or to further study, " a spokesperson said.
The learners also have the option to learn English at this level.
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