One-third of the state’s public elementary school students — that’s more than 1.5 million children — are classified as English learners.

Currently, the schools face conflicting incentives over how to deal with these students.

On the one hand, NCLB [No Child Left Behind] requires California schools to increase the number of students they reclassify from English learner to English proficient. On the other hand, the act requires all groups — including English learners — to show improvement in academic achievement. By themselves both requirements are reasonable.

Schools should strive for improvement in English proficiency as well as academic achievement among their English learners. But if students haven’t reached a certain threshold of English proficiency, they simply cannot demonstrate their full academic ability on tests that are given in English.

Under the current law, increases in reclassification are likely to cause decreases in academic test scores for English learners because the most proficient — and consequently highest scoring — students are no longer part of that group. So, with improvement required in both areas … where does the incentive lie?

And then there’s the financial lure: Schools now receive additional funding from NCLB for each English learner student they have, but once they reclassify a student from English learner to English proficient, they lose that money. So again, where does the incentive lie?

–Christopher Jepsen, ‘No Child Left Behind’ leaving English-learners behind?

Read more in English Learners in California Schools, by Christopher Jepsen and Shelley de Alth.