Links

• California Data Post 187
• Enrollment Table
• Cost Table
• State Requirements for bilingual/ESL programs
• Teacher Shortage Data (# of certified teachers; link to cert page)
• Projections
• http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=96
• Crawford's Census Data
• National Assessment of Educational Progress

* Redesignation rates are calculated by dividing the number of LEP students who are reassessed as FEP each year by the total LEP enrollment in the previous year.

LEP Enrollment in Texas
For the 2001-2002 school year, the Texas Education Agency identified over 600, 000 LEP students in the state system (see figure below). These numbers reflect a concentrated use of bilingual education in elementary grades where provision of bilingual education is mandated when 20 or more students in the same grade level are identified as LEP. ESL is the program in place for middle and high-school grades and may substitute bilingual education in lower grades if there are too few students for such a program.

     LEP Enrollment for Fall 2001-2002 in Texas Schools

Programs	Early Education-6th grade	7th -12th grade	Total
LEPS Identified	477,179	124,612	601,791
LEPS in Bilingual Education	303,701	375	304,076
LEPS in ESL	134,031	102,656	236,687
LEPS in Special Education	38,085	22,858	60,943
Parent Denials	28,659	13,456	42,115;

     Source: Texas Education Agency, PEIMS Enrollment Data

Teacher Shortage data
Currently, Texas has a significant shortage of certified teachers with one-quarter of its estimated 39,000 new teachers for the 2001-2002 school year not fully certified. Of those shortages, studies show that the most difficult areas to fill are secondary bilingual education and English as a Second Language and secondary foreign language. ESL positions have been especially difficult to fill with 26 percent of the 3, 522 anticipated positions not occupied. This reflects a slight decrease of 6 percent from the previous year's data for less-than fully certified teachers occupying positions in secondary bilingual/ESL classrooms. Numerous reasons have been cited for the teacher shortage, including a rise in school enrollments; changing student demographics; a high demand for minority teachers; and low salaries.

     Comparative Findings Between 2000-01 and 2001-02 School Year

Area	2000-01 School Year	2001-02 School Year
Elementary Bilingual/ESL	48 percent	40 percent
Secondary Bilingual/ESL	41 percent	35 percent
Secondary Foreign Language	36 percent	35 percent
Secondary Special Education	33 percent	21 percent

     *Percentage of less-than-fully certified teachers: Teacher Demand Study 2001-2002, The Institute for School-University      Partnerships, http://partnerhips.tamu.edu

State Requirements
Testing and classification of students for identifying limited English proficiency shall be determined by administering an oral language proficiency test in the home language of the students who are eligible for being served in the bilingual program. Professionals or paraprofessionals who are proficient in the language of the test should administer testing. The scores on each test, which shall identify a student as limited English proficient, shall be established by TEA. (This is from www.tcbee.org)

Cost Table

• The cost of bilingual education is approximately 25 to 34 percent above the cost of regular classroom instruction. In 1996, Texas spent $3,510 per child for basic education and an additional $230 for each child in a bilingual program. (The additional cost was less than one percent of the State's education budget.)
• "Texas only spends one-third of what is needed for an effective bilingual program. Investing $230 in a bilingual program can successful prevent the retention of a child in a grade at the cost of $3,510 to the State.

Crawford's Census Data
James Crawford has compiled several tables using the latest census data to show the changing demographics in this country. It is clear that the change that is occurring is rapid and widespread increasing the need for bilingual and dual language programs in order to insure a successful future for this population and the nation. Follow this link to see the census information Crawford has complied.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JWCRAWFORD/census02.htm

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
The NAEP, among other assessments, includes a reading assessment given to a nation wide sample of fourth graders every four years. The link below leads to the latest reports of this data. Here you can see the gap that exists between groups of students and how it has existed with little improvement for several years. According to research one of the factors in this gap is that English language learners are being forced to learn skills like reading in their second language before they have fully developed their first language which leads to low performance in both languages.

NAEP Reading -- Reading 2000 Major Results

Questions? Alma Perez asperez@mail.utexas.edu, Stacey Crawford staceycrawford@mail.utexas.edu , and Jessica Mejia jmejia@mail.utexas.edu