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Interactive Maps: ELL Enrollment and ENL Services (2022-S-30)

Objective

To determine whether the State Education Department is adequately overseeing whether school districts are providing services to English Language Learners as required. The audit covered the period from July 2019 through November 2023.

About the Program

According to the U.S. Department of Education, there is a well-documented achievement gap between students learning the English language and their English-proficient peers, as demonstrated through lower test scores and lower graduation rates.¹ Ensuring that English Language Learners (ELLs)—students who, by reason of foreign birth or ancestry, speak or understand a language other than English, speak or understand little or no English, and require support to become proficient in English—receive appropriate support to improve English proficiency can result in better academic outcomes and engagement in their communities.

State Education Department (SED) data shows that ELL enrollments are on the rise in New York, with the number of ELL students outside of New York City increasing 8% from 2019-20 to 2022-23. Part 154 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education (Part 154) specifies standards for identifying and providing educational services to ELLs in New York State. Under Part 154, students are generally entitled to receive an education in the school district where they live, regardless of the language they speak. This includes the right to receive all core content instruction and to learn English and other subjects at the same academic level as all other children.

Within SED, the Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages (OBEWL) enforces Part 154 and provides ongoing guidance, professional development, resources, and assistance to school districts on issues related to the education of ELLs.

School districts identify ELLs and the services to which they are entitled through questionnaires, individual interviews, and tests. Districts are required to provide English as a New Language (ENL) services to all eligible ELLs and are required to make Bilingual Education (BE) programs available in all home languages spoken by 20 or more ELLs of the same grade and home language districtwide. Use the maps link above to explore interactive maps and information on ELL enrollment and ENL services in New York State, including school districts.

Key Findings

SED needs to improve its oversight and work to remove barriers to ensure school districts are providing the services to which ELLs are entitled. According to SED data, ELL enrollments have risen, putting some students at risk of not receiving instruction at the same academic level as their English-proficient peers and underperforming academically or not graduating from high school. For example:

• Seven of the nine (78%) school districts we visited that required BE programs did not have a program or an exemption from BE requirements for all required languages and grade levels. These nine school districts enrolled 7,317 ELLs entitled to bilingual education; however, 5,632 (77%) students did not have programs available in their home languages and/or grade levels. Further, 23 of 70 (33%) school districts that we visited or that responded to our survey about BE programs did not offer the required programs at any grade level. Eighteen of the 47 that did offer BE programs (38%) did not offer them at the high school level.
• School districts lack certified BE teachers for languages commonly spoken by ELLs, and certification exams are not specifically available in all languages, including Burmese, Karen, Kinyarwanda, Nepali, Somali, and Swahili—languages commonly spoken by ELLs in certain school districts. Further, for districts that reported between one and five ELLs enrolled during the 2021-22 school year, of the 76 that responded that they currently have an ELL student, 21 (28%) indicated that they are relying on teachers who are not certified, citing difficulty attracting staff with the appropriate certification.
• School districts could not provide sufficient documentation to support that 38% of the sampled students received all required ENL services. In addition, districts did not consistently document or retain ELL identification process information, and we found at least one required document missing from 52% of the sampled student cumulative files that we reviewed. District documentation issues extended to data reported to SED, limiting SED’s ability to ensure that students are appropriately identified or receiving all required services.
• School districts without required BE programs are not obtaining a Bilingual Education Program Waiver (waiver) from SED. While two districts obtained waivers, an additional seven were eligible for a waiver and did not obtain one as required.
• OBEWL did not conduct any Building Reviews designed to monitor compliance with Part 154 at individual schools during our audit scope. Building Reviews were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic and had not resumed as of the end of our audit fieldwork in November 2023.
• School districts did not always submit accurate or consistent data, affecting OBEWL’s ability to effectively monitor school districts' compliance with Part 154 requirements and depriving OBEWL of meaningful information to guide decisions that could improve student performance and professional development and provide needed resources.
• School districts did not always promptly share, or appropriately document and retain, information regarding transfer students. Delayed or missing information regarding ELL transfer students inhibits continuity of services for students adjusting to a new school environment.

Key Recommendations

• Enhance monitoring activities and guidance to ensure school districts:
  • Comply with Part 154
  • Provide required services
  • Retain necessary documentation
• Continue to work with the Board of Regents to increase the number of certified instructors.
• Reinforce waiver requirements for schools not offering BE programs for all applicable home languages and grade levels.
• Work with school districts to help them to obtain and retain required documentation regarding ELL identification and provision of services.
• Resume Building Reviews at school districts in order to monitor compliance with Part 154 in a way that doesn’t rely on self-reported information.
• Work with school districts to improve the reliability of program and participation data.
• Provide guidance to school districts to enable efficient sharing of information.

1. U.S. Department of Education: Educational Experiences of English Learners: Access to and Enrollment in Early Learning Programs, Advanced Coursework, and Dual Credit Programs. Accessed April 2024. https://www2.ed.gov/datastory/el-experiences