1

August 2004

In the United States, many languages other than English have

always been spoken, and in recent years this is increasingly

the case. In 1990, 32 million people over the age of five in the

United States spoke a language other than English in their

home, comprising 14 percent of the total U.S. population. By

2000, that number had risen by 47 percent to nearly 47 million, comprising nearly 18 percent of the total U.S. population (U.S. Census Bureau 2002). This growth is reflected in

the elementary and secondary school population in the form

of growth in the population of students defined as English

Language Learners (ELL).1

 This is affecting geographic regions differently in terms of the relative size of their ELL student populations. In particular, previous research found that

elementary and secondary school-aged ELL students were

especially prevalent in the West and Northeast (McCandless,

Rossi, and Daugherty 1997). However, that research did not

look at how concentrations of ELL students in schools differed within the geographic regions.

This Issue Brief uses data from the 1993–94 and 1999–2000

Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) to examine recent growth

in the population of ELL students in public schools in the

United States. In addition to an estimate of the national growth

in the ELL population between the 1993–94 and 1999–2000

school years, the Issue Brief reports growth at the regional

level.2 Moreover, the Issue Brief describes regional differences

in the concentration of ELL students within schools, reporting the percentage of schools within regions with varying distributions of ELL students.

English Language Learner Students in U.S. Public

Schools: 1994 and 2000

U.S. Department of Education

Institute of Education Sciences

NCES 2004–035

IssueBrief

Population Trends in ELL Students

Nationally, the number of ELL students in public schools increased from approximately two million students in 1993–

94 to three million students in 1999–2000 (table 1). ELL students represented approximately 7 percent of the national

public school population in 1999–2000, up from 5 percent in

1993–94.

This growth in the ELL student population was not evenly

distributed across geographic regions. The West had the largest number of ELL students in public schools in 1993–94 and

1999–2000. Schools in the West identified 1.7 million of their

students as ELL in 1999–2000, compared with 1.1 million

students in 1993–94. In 1999–2000, 16 percent of public

school students (or one in every six) in the West were identified as ELL, compared to 12 percent in 1993–94. The West’s

public school population also includes over half of the national total of ELL students.

The Northeast experienced a reduction in its share of all U.S.

ELL students—from 15 percent of all ELL students in 1993–

94 to 10 percent in 1999–2000. The number of ELL students

in public schools in the Midwest and South increased between

1993–94 and 1999–2000. In the Midwest and South this translated into an increase in percentage of the public school population who were ELL, from 1.4 to 2.6 percent in the Midwest

and from 3.5 to 4.5 percent in the South. In 1999–2000, the

Midwest still had the lowest percentage of its public school

population designated ELL of any region. As of 1999–2000

the South had a higher percentage of students who were ELL

than did the Northeast.

Table 1. Number and percentage of public school students in the United States who were identified as English Language Learners (ELL),

by region: 1993–94 and 1999–2000

NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. Not all apparent differences in this table are statistically significant. Standard errors are available at

http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubinfo_asp?pubid=2004035

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), 1993–94 and 1999–2000 “Public School

Questionnaire” and 1999–2000 “Charter School Questionnaire.”

Percent of Percent of

Number Percent of all ELL Number Percent of all ELL

ELL all students students ELL all students students

 United States 2,121,000 5.1 100.0 3,042,000 6.7 100.0

Northeast 323,000 4.4 15.2 304,000 3.8 10.0

Midwest 136,000 1.4 6.4 276,000 2.6 9.1

South 521,000 3.5 24.6 723,000 4.5 23.8

West 1,142,000 12.3 53.8 1,738,000 16.3 57.2

Region

1993–94 1999–2000
2

Table 2. Percentage distribution of public schools in the United States by concentration of English Language Learners (ELL) students, by

region: 1999–2000

NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. Not all apparent differences in this table are statistically significant. Standard errors are available at

http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubinfo_asp?pubid=2004035

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), 1993–94 and 1999–2000 “Public School

Questionnaire” and 1999–2000 “Charter School Questionnaire.”

Concentrations of ELL Students

The national or regionwide prevalence of ELL students does

not provide a complete picture of the distribution of ELL students. For example, knowing that 16 percent of public school

students in the West were ELL students does not tell us whether

all schools in the region had ELL populations of 16 percent or

whether the ELL students were concentrated more in some

schools than others. The 1999–2000 SASS data allow examination of the distribution of ELL students at the school level.

Nation-wide, over one-half of ELL students in public schools

were in schools with less than 1 percent of their students designated ELL; this pattern was repeated in the Northeast, Midwest, and South (table 2). At the other end of the distribution,

7 percent of public schools had at least one-quarter of their

students designated ELL; this percent was lower in the Northeast, Midwest, and South. In contrast, in the West, 37 percent

of public schools reported ELL populations under 1 percent

and 19 percent reported ELL populations of at least 25 percent.

Conclusion

The number of ELL students in the United States grew by about

900,000 students between 1993–94 and 1999–2000, but

growth was not equal across regions. The Midwest, South,

and West all showed an increase in the size of the ELL student

population both in total and as a percentage of the total public school population. At the same time, the West had the largest population of public school students designated ELL, with

more than half of the national total of ELL students in the

1999–2000 school year. Regional differences were apparent,

as well, in terms of the concentration of ELL students in public schools, with ELL concentration most prevalent in the West.

This Issue Brief provides a profile of the location and concentration of public school ELL students. The Schools and Staffing Survey can be used to address other questions regarding

the education of ELL students, including the characteristics of

the schools with high concentrations of ELL students. The SASS

also contains information on techniques used to teach ELL

students, as well as the programs schools offer to ELL students. A closer examination of this topic could reveal whether

regional differences in the concentration of ELL students in

public schools translate into differences in educational services

provided for ELL students.

Footnotes

1

The SASS school questionnaires use the term “Limited-English

proficient (LEP)” to describe students whose native or dominant

language is other than English and whose difficulties in speaking,

reading, writing, or understanding the English language are sufficient

to deny them the opportunity to learn successfully in an Englishspeaking-only classroom. The U.S. Department of Education is

currently using the term “English Language Learners” (ELL). This

Issue Brief uses ELL to be consistent with current usage.

2

The regions used in the Issue Brief are those used by the U.S. Census

Bureau: West (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho,

Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and

Wyoming); Northeast (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New

Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and

Vermont); Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan,

Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota,

and Wisconsin); and South (Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District

of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland,

Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee,

Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia).

References

McCandless, E., Rossi, R., and Daugherty, S. (1997). Are Limited

English Proficiency (LEP) Students Being Taught by Teachers

with LEP Training? (NCES 97–907). U.S. Department of

Education, National Center for Education Statistics.

Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2002). American Fact Finder. Available at http:/

/factfinder.census.gov/servlet/BasicFactsServlet?_lang=en

Less than 1–5 percent 5–15 percent 15–25 percent 25–50 percent 50 percent

1 percent ELL ELL ELL ELL ELL or more ELL

 United States 61.7 17.0 10.4 4.1 4.3 2.4

Northeast 66.0 16.3 11.8 3.6 1.5 0.7

Midwest 78.5 11.6 5.7 1.3 1.6 1.3

South 62.0 19.9 10.2 4.1 2.8 1.0

West 36.5 20.3 15.8 8.0 12.0 7.0

Region
3

The Issue Brief series presents information on education topics of current interest. All estimates shown are based on samples and are subject to sampling

variability. All differences are statistically significant at the 0.05 level. In the design, conduct, and data processing of National Center for Education Statistics

(NCES) surveys, efforts are made to minimize the effects of nonsampling errors, such as item nonresponse, measurement error, data processing error, or other

systematic error. For more information on the Schools and Staffing Survey, visit http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/sass.

This Issue Brief was prepared by David Meyer, David Madden, and Daniel J. McGrath of the Education Statistics Services Institute (ESSI). This Issue Brief was

desktopped by Carol Rohr of Pinkerton Computer Consultants, Inc. For further information, contact Edith McArthur, NCES, at 202–502–7393 or

Edith.McArthur@ed.gov. To order additional copies of this Issue Brief or other NCES publications, call 1–877–4ED–Pubs or visit http://www.edpubs.org/. NCES

publications are also available on the Internet at http://nces.ed.gov/.
English Language Learner Students in U.S. Public Schools:

1994 and 2000 NCES 2004–035

The Issue Brief series presents information on education topics of current interest.

Brief Issue

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