No Child Left Behind Act and Immigrant Children

New research from the Urban Institute explains why No Child Left Behind NCLB) may be one of the most important pieces of immigrant integration legislation in the past decade. The research finds that limited-English proficient (LEP) students are highly concentrated in a small share of America’s public schools. Seventy percent of LEP students in kindergarten through fifth grade are enrolled in only 10 percent of the country’s public elementary schools. The results also show that almost one-third of all LEP children enroll in schools serving low percentages of LEP children, or “Low-LEP” schools. High-LEP schools, where almost a quarter of students are LEP, are more likely than others to have teachers with provisional, emergency, or temporary certification, and their teachers are substantially more likely to be uncertified. On the other hand, Low-LEP schools lag behind High-LEP schools in LEP-focused in-service training for general education teachers, and in offering important services (such as support and enrichment programs). For this report, check out the Urban Institute website at www.urban.org