English Language Program Participation among Students in the Kindergarten Class of 2010-11: Spring 2011 to Spring 2012. Stats in Brief. NCES 2018-086

Abstract

Providing English language instruction has important implications for millions of children nationwide. This Statistics in Brief first discusses differences in the student and school characteristics of kindergartners who participated in instructional programs designed to teach English language skills and students who did not participate in such programs in the kindergarten class of 2010-11. The brief then examines the characteristics of the English language program (e.g., English as a Second Language, bilingual education, and dual-language education) that participating students were receiving in spring 2011 and changes in participation in these programs between spring 2011 and spring 2012. Differences reported in this brief are statistically significant at the p < 0.05 level to ensure that they are larger than might be expected due to sampling variation. Consistent with this type of report produced by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), no adjustments were made for multiple comparisons. Study questions included: (1) How did kindergartners who participated in English language instruction programs compare with kindergartners who did not participate in English language programs in terms of student and school characteristics?; (2) What were the characteristics of the English language instruction that kindergartners with limited English proficiency received in the spring of kindergarten?; and (3) Did participation in English language instruction programs change between kindergarten and first grade? Key findings include: (1) About 11 percent of the 2010-11 kindergarten class were participating in English language programs designed to teach English language skills in spring 2011; (2) A higher percentage of kindergartners participating in English language programs (46 percent) than kindergartners not participating in these programs (5 percent) attended schools in which school administrators reported that 50 percent or more of kindergartners in the school were English-Language Learner (ELL) students; (3) In spring 2011, some 60 percent of kindergartners participating in English language programs received English as a Second Language instruction as their primary type of English language instruction, followed by bilingual education (27 percent) and dual-language education (8 percent); (4) In spring 2011, some 57 percent of kindergartners participating in English language programs received academic instruction in their native language "none of the time," whereas 12 percent received this instruction "almost all the time"; and (5) Twenty-two percent of kindergartners participating in English language programs were no longer in an English language instruction program in first grade.