How Have States Set Goals for English Learners in ESSA Plans?

Wednesday, May 30, 2018Printer-friendly version

Download a PDF of the brief here

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to outline their academic and English language proficiency goals and provide a detailed proposal for the statewide accountability system in a state ESSA plan. This brief, a collaboration between Achieve and UnidosUS, provides a two-part analysis of states' goals for English learners (ELs) in ESSA plans. First, it examines states' academic achievement goals for English language arts (ELA) and mathematics for ELs, and how those relate to the rigor of targets states are setting for other student groups. Next, it presents an analysis of the EL proficiency goals proposed in ESSA plans, and provides a closer look at how states are proposing to assess strides in English language proficiency for ELs.