Study Calls for Better Identification of ELLs for Federal Funding - Inside School Research - Education Week: Federal support of programs for English-language learners depends on a formula based on the number of ELL students in each state and district, but a long-awaited national study suggests officials need a more comprehensive way to identify the students who need help.
The final report, developed by Washington-based National Research Council for the U.S. Department of Education, calls for federal policymakers to to change the funding formula for ELL grants to incorporate state-level counts of students with limited English proficiency in addition to the Census Bureau data now used to identify them.
Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act provides grants to states and districts to support programs to help English learners gain proficiency in the language, as well as help immigrant students transition in American schools. Title III, at $750 million in FY 2010, is still a small grant pool compared to Title I, but the program's profile has grown with the skyrocketing increase in ELLs; while the Education Department estimates the school-age population has grown 3 percent in the last decade, ELLs have jumped 60 percent, to nearly 4.5 million students.
