The U.S. Department of Education is beginning to track more data on how English Language Learners do compared to students who have English as their first language, said Libia Gil, director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition.
Gil, who is also assistant deputy secretary in the U.S. Department of Education, was the keynote speaker for the opening of the annual conference for Colorado’s Association for Bilingual Education Thursday morning in Westminster.
Data that she presented during her speech showed gaps indicating that English Language Learners — now 10 percent of all students in the country — lag behind in graduation rates when compared to the national average and to students with disabilities, and economically disadvantaged students.
Students who are learning English as a second language are also less likely to pass an Algebra 1 class in their junior or senior years of high school, she said.
Gil, who was once an immigrant student herself, said the Education department considers biliingualism an asset, a point that conference members cheered on.
“English learners in this county is an asset, a national asset,” Gil said. “We need a lot of strategies to support that.”
Among the stats that Gil presented, she noted that 38 states including Colorado have dual language programs, but only eight states in the country provide a “biliteracy seal” that recognizes graduates who demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English.
To shape policies and strategies, Gil said the department is drilling down on data.
“This is the most comprehensive universal data collection at the school level,” Gil said. “The reason we have invested in this heavily is… for us to really raise questions, do inferring and probe deeply into issues of equity and opportunities for English learners.”
