ELL Student Analysis

During the 2012 - 2013 school year, an estimated 9.2 percent of students enrolled in the United States were in ELL programs (NCES, 2015). During the same school year, there were over 19,000 English-Language learning students in the state of Hawaii’s school system, a 50% increase from a decade prior (Colorin Colorado 2015). Hawaii, a member of WIDA (World Class Instructional Design And Assessment) along with several others states with large ELL populations, possesses a variety of ways to assess the English language development of ELL students. Despite this, ELL students often fail to perform at grade level along with their peers. In order to assess the needs of ELL students in schools, there must be a school-level test in, conjunction with the statewide exams, that teachers can use to diagnose the problems faced by ELL students in modern schools. According to my own experience as a tutor for ELL students at a variety of grade levels as well as through commentary from teachers in the field. There might not enough assessment or research afforded to ELL students in the K - 12 system in America. …show more content…
For example, a National Assessment of Educational Progress administered in 2005 showed that only 29 percent of ELL students scored at the basic level in reading, compared to 75 percent of English speaking students (Roekel 2008). No Child Left Behind has a great amount of influence on policies pertaining to ELL students (Robertson, 2001). Each district and school must show that the student body as a whole, including ELLs meets the same academic standards in reading and math. That is, in addition to meeting certain English proficiency benchmarks, ELL students must also master other content in math and reading (Roekel,