English Language Learners

CEEE is especially equipped to address issues related to student populations who come from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

The term English Language Learners (ELLs) refers to students whose first language is not English, and encompasses both students who are just beginning to learn English (often referred to in federal legislation as "limited English proficient" or "LEP") and those who have already developed considerable proficiency. The term underscores the fact that, in addition to meeting all the academic challenges that face their monolingual peers, these students are mastering another language -- something too few monolingual English speakers are currently asked to do in U.S. schools.

The term follows conventional educational usage in that it focuses on what students are accomplishing, rather than on any temporary "limitation" they face prior to having done so, just as we refer to advanced teacher candidates as "student teachers" rather than "limited teaching proficient individuals," and to college students who concentrate their studies in physics as "physics majors" rather than as "students with limited physics proficiency." (The two preceding paragraphs were cited from LaCelle-Peterson & Rivera, 1994, p. 75.

Recommendations for State Assessment Policies

1. Include a definition of ELLs
2. Cite the source of the definition
3. Clearly and accurately identify the ELL population