A Descriptive Analysis of Enrollment and Achievement among Limited English Proficient Students in New Jersey. Issues & Answers. REL 2012-No. 108

This study describes enrollment and achievement trends of limited English proficient (LEP) students in New Jersey public schools between 2002/03 and 2008/09. It documents achievement gaps between LEP and general education students in language arts literacy and math. The study's main findings include: (1) From 2002/03 to 2008/09, LEP student enrollment in New Jersey public schools increased 6.6 percent, whereas total student enrollment increased less than 1 percent. During that period, LEP student enrollment increased from 4.5 percent of total student enrollment in 2002/03 to 4.7 percent in 2008/09; (2) LEP students in New Jersey spoke 187 languages in 2008/09, up from 151 in 2002/03. In 2008/09, Spanish (spoken by 66.8 percent of LEP students in the state) had the most speakers, followed by Arabic (2.6 percent), Korean (2.5 percent), and Portuguese (2.0 percent); (3) From 2002/03 to 2008/09, LEP students' performance in language arts literacy increased in all grades studied (grades 3, 4, 8, and 11). The increase was higher for grades 3 (10.9 percentage points) and 4 (21.1 percentage points) than for grades 8 (4.4 percentage points) and 11 (6.2 percentage points); (4) From 2002/03 to 2008/09, LEP students' performance in math increased in all grades studied (grades 3, 4, 8, and 11). The increase was higher for grades 3 (10.5 percentage points) and 4 (22.7 percentage points) than for grades 8 (6.9 percentage points) and 11 (3.9 percentage points); (5) General education students' performance in both language arts literacy and math was higher than LEP students' performance every year from 2002/03 to 2008/09; (6) From 2002/03 to 2008/09, the achievement gap between LEP students and general education students in grades 3 and 4 narrowed in both language arts literacy and math. The achievement gap in grades 8 and 11 narrowed in language arts literacy but widened in math; and (7) In all grades and years studied, FLEP students' performance in language arts literacy and math was higher than that of LEP students but lower than that of general education students. Appended are: (1) Data and methodology; (2) Performance level descriptions for the New Jersey assessments; (3) Percentage of students scoring at the proficient or advanced proficient levels in New Jersey's assessment program; and (4) Annual and average differences among LEP, FLEP, and general education students in New Jersey's testing program. (Contains 3 boxes, 9 figures, 12 tables and 8 notes.) [For "A Descriptive Analysis of Enrollment and Achievement among Limited English Proficient Students in New Jersey. Summary. Issues & Answers. REL 2012-No. 108" see ED531433.]