New Guide To Help States Commonly Define English-Learners

From http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2013/08/new_guide_for_states_on_how_to.html

New Guide To Help States Commonly Define English-Learners
By Lesli A. Maxwell
August 30, 2013

With a just-released set of recommendations from the Council of Chief State School Officers to help guide them, most states are now set to embark on an effort to bring much more uniformity to identifying who English-learners are and when those students are no longer in need of language instruction. The goal is to move all states to a more consistent playing field over the next two years.

Doing so would upend current practice, which for decades has had states and local school districts using very different approaches to identifying ELLs and reclassifying them as fluent. It would also lead, experts say, to much more comparability among states and districts for how well they are serving this growing population of students.

"If we can move states toward more coherence around English-learners, that is only going to improve services for these students," said Robert Linquanti, a senior research associate at WestEd, a San Francisco-based research organization, and a co-author of the CCSSO policy recommendations.

Read the full article at http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2013/08/new_guide_for_states_on_how_to.html