ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I discuss some of the major policies and pedagogical issues related to educating ELs, the fastest growing segment of the American school population. One in five school-age children (ages five to 17) in the U.S. (11.2 million) speaks a language other than English at home (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2011). About half of this group, or 5.3 million school-age children, are ELs, students who are not fully proficient in English (U.S. Department of Education, National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction Educational Programs, 2011).
