ABSTRACT
The United States is experiencing an immigration wave that has put more EnglishLanguage Learners (ELLs) in U.S. public school classrooms than ever before. In the year 2005, 20% of the U.S. school-age population spoke a language other than English at home (National Center for Education Statistics, 2007). The National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition (NCELA, 2006) reports that more than five million U.S. schoolchildren were considered “limited English proficient” in the 2004-2005 school year, although the number of children actually receiving language services is not clear. While it was reported that 8% of U.S. schoolchildren received English-language services during the 2000-2001 school year (NCES, 2003), that percentage has certainly grown by now. More recent data in California, the state with the highest number of speakers of other languages, show that 25% of its schoolchildren are in need of English-language services (California Department of Education, 2004). These demographic shifts in American schools have not been without their challenges. English-language learners often struggle in their schooling. For example, NCES reports that,
In 2005, the percentage of foreign-born 16-to-24 year-olds who were high school status1 dropouts was twice the percentage of those born in the United States. For Hispanics of the same age group, the percentage of status dropouts among those
who were foreign-born (38%) was more than twice that of their native counterparts (13%).
