The Price of English Language Education

Following up yesterday's news about the price of "adequate" education for Special Education students, today we learn that in Arizona, the Flores v. Arizona case has been resurrected. The legal battle, which first began 15 years ago, has had an immense impact on the way that English Language Learners are educated in the state.

In this appeal, the court will decide how much money is necessary to educate an ELL student and what, if any restrictions, can legally be placed on their English Language Education.

CEP on ELLs in AZ (abbreviation fun!)

The Center for Education Policy released a report today on how Arizona's high school exit exams are affecting ELLs in that state.

CEP took a look at five AZ high schools to determine the challenges that ELLs face with the exit exams (lack of information, limited English proficiency, lack of resources, etc.) and includes a number of recommendations that AZ can use to improve ELLs' achievement on this test.

Unfortunately, the study presents no conclusions on how the exit exams affect graduation rates or post-secondary opportunities for ELL students. This is due, CEP states, to a lack of accurate data, as the exit exam was first administered in 1999 and the first diplomas were withheld only in 2006. So that's something to keep an eye on for the future - I'd like to see some follow up on how these exams affect ELLs future career and educational options.