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Digest of Education Statistics
2017 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest


Table 204.27. English language learner (ELL) students enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools, by grade, home language, and selected student characteristics: Selected years, 2008-09 through fall 2015
Grade, home language, and selected student characteristic Number of ELL students Percentage distribution of ELL students Number of ELL students as a percent of total enrollment
2008-091 2009-101 2011-121 2012-13 2013-14 Fall 2014 Fall 2015 2008-091 2009-101 2011-121 2012-13 2013-14 Fall 2014 Fall 2015 2008-091 2009-101 2011-121 2012-13 2013-14 Fall 2014 Fall 2015
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
Total 4,685,746 4,647,016 4,635,185 4,850,293 4,929,989 4,813,693 4,854,285 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 9.7 9.7 9.6 10.0 10.1 9.8 9.9
Grade                                          
Kindergarten 629,195 615,615 657,391 667,835 667,665 629,013 606,398 13.4 13.2 14.2 13.8 13.5 13.1 12.5 17.3 16.7 17.5 17.4 17.4 16.7 16.3
Grade 1 621,541 617,599 646,362 665,327 665,612 640,017 621,106 13.3 13.3 13.9 13.7 13.5 13.3 12.8 16.8 16.6 17.1 17.4 17.1 16.6 16.5
Grade 2 583,025 576,336 585,702 609,804 630,475 614,681 614,809 12.4 12.4 12.6 12.6 12.8 12.8 12.7 15.8 15.7 15.8 16.4 16.6 15.9 16.0
Grade 3 495,814 511,545 500,032 540,396 558,925 567,131 564,811 10.6 11.0 10.8 11.1 11.3 11.8 11.6 13.4 13.8 13.5 14.5 15.0 14.9 14.6
Grade 4 406,966 420,145 417,616 428,119 439,529 436,554 461,022 8.7 9.0 9.0 8.8 8.9 9.1 9.5 11.2 11.4 11.4 11.6 11.9 11.7 12.2
Grade 5 333,975 336,194 338,174 367,088 361,651 364,178 372,817 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.6 7.3 7.6 7.7 9.2 9.2 9.1 10.0 9.8 9.8 10.0
Grade 6 288,784 277,971 273,457 288,085 293,778 287,798 305,530 6.2 6.0 5.9 5.9 6.0 6.0 6.3 8.0 7.6 7.3 7.7 8.0 7.8 8.2
Grade 7 263,483 254,830 239,156 255,395 267,416 260,507 267,094 5.6 5.5 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.4 5.5 7.2 7.0 6.5 6.8 7.1 7.0 7.2
Grade 8 237,269 233,332 214,896 227,844 239,817 242,540 245,574 5.1 5.0 4.6 4.7 4.9 5.0 5.1 6.4 6.4 5.8 6.2 6.4 6.5 6.6
Grade 9 268,927 258,728 244,266 255,008 261,564 263,081 269,704 5.7 5.6 5.3 5.3 5.3 5.5 5.6 6.5 6.3 6.2 6.4 6.6 6.5 6.7
Grade 10 218,235 211,691 201,724 202,774 202,377 197,494 214,015 4.7 4.6 4.4 4.2 4.1 4.1 4.4 5.7 5.6 5.4 5.4 5.4 5.2 5.6
Grade 11 172,084 175,544 162,804 170,847 168,437 157,395 162,269 3.7 3.8 3.5 3.5 3.4 3.3 3.3 4.9 5.0 4.6 4.8 4.8 4.4 4.5
Grade 12 142,406 148,173 145,444 159,410 161,227 143,189 138,814 3.0 3.2 3.1 3.3 3.3 3.0 2.9 4.2 4.3 4.2 4.6 4.6 4.1 3.9
Ungraded 23,489 8,672 8,118 11,783 11,422 10,114 10,217 0.5 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 11.5 4.2 6.8 10.0 8.3 7.3 7.5
                                           
30 most commonly reported
      home languages of ELL
      students2
                                         
Spanish, Castilian 3,617,597 3,577,649 3,562,860 3,718,047 3,770,816 3,709,828 3,741,066 77.2 77.0 76.9 76.7 76.5 77.1 77.1 7.5 7.4 7.4 7.7 7.7 7.6 7.6
Arabic 65,278 71,228 86,162 97,971 109,170 109,165 114,371 1.4 1.5 1.9 2.0 2.2 2.3 2.4 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2
Chinese 77,240 80,124 96,509 104,799 107,825 104,279 101,347 1.6 1.7 2.1 2.2 2.2 2.2 2.1 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2
Vietnamese 91,607 93,204 89,536 92,560 89,705 85,289 81,157 2.0 2.0 1.9 1.9 1.8 1.8 1.7 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2
English3 86,390 77,872 85,246 90,703 91,669 83,230 80,333 1.8 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.9 1.7 1.7 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2
Somali 26,264 27,771 27,861 30,959 34,472 33,712 36,028 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
Hmong 52,990 49,697 43,845 41,368 39,860 37,412 34,813 1.1 1.1 0.9 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.7 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
Russian 34,085 33,349 32,225 33,678 33,821 32,493 33,057 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
Haitian, Haitian Creole 37,074 39,736 39,883 38,768 37,371 31,428 30,231 0.8 0.9 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
Tagalog 38,849 37,038 32,766 35,395 32,141 28,547 27,277 0.8 0.8 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.6 0.6 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
Korean 43,169 39,739 33,704 34,874 32,445 28,530 27,268 0.9 0.9 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.6 0.6 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
Portuguese 18,055 15,229 15,725 17,085 19,142 19,839 23,673 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.5 # # # # # # #
Urdu 20,705 21,213 22,219 22,590 22,499 22,294 22,879 0.4 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 # # # # # # #
French 16,525 18,504 18,849 20,018 20,799 20,275 20,664 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 # # # # # # #
Japanese 16,212 14,582 15,011 16,727 16,591 16,403 16,512 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 # # # # # # #
Panjabi, Punjabi 14,262 14,331 14,055 15,622 15,842 15,207 15,630 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 # # # # # # #
Burmese 7,258 9,888 12,321 12,640 13,756 14,382 15,183 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 # # # # # # #
Hindi 11,112 11,176 11,625 13,042 13,667 13,586 14,750 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 # # # # # # #
Bengali 10,700 11,913 14,151 15,294 15,681 14,704 14,435 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 # # # # # # #
Nepali 3,205 6,283 12,200 14,254 15,331 14,446 14,125 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 # # # # # # #
Karen languages 3,021 4,478 9,576 11,370 12,607 12,585 12,805 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.3 # # # # # # #
Central Khmer 14,443 13,465 11,613 11,530 12,584 11,027 10,819 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.2 0.2 # # # # # # #
Gujarati 9,153 9,491 10,152 10,328 10,463 10,385 10,474 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 # # # # # # #
Persian 8,784 8,593 8,396 9,666 9,978 9,642 10,345 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 # # # # # # #
Polish 11,126 9,061 8,981 9,001 9,203 9,968 9,659 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 # # # # # # #
Amharic 5,838 6,950 7,902 9,147 9,400 9,337 9,609 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 # # # # # # #
German 9,605 9,898 9,274 9,190 9,642 9,241 8,742 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 # # # # # # #
Swahili 3,498 4,439 6,011 6,391 7,093 7,065 8,480 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2 # # # # # # #
Telugu 3,486 3,868 5,013 5,716 6,441 7,241 8,466 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.2 # # # # # # #
Filipino, Pilipino 5,511 5,801 4,463 6,158 6,701 8,684 8,448 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.2 # # # # # # #
                                           
Race/ethnicity                                          
White 283,253 294,763 5.9 6.1 0.6 0.6
Black 172,250 178,141 3.6 3.7 0.4 0.4
Hispanic 3,745,646 3,772,633 77.8 77.7 7.7 7.7
Asian 516,586 511,703 10.7 10.5 1.1 1.0
Pacific Islander 26,614 26,992 0.6 0.6 0.1 0.1
American Indian/Alaska
      Native
38,081 38,792 0.8 0.8 0.1 0.1
Two or more races 29,527 31,136 0.6 0.6 0.1 0.1
                                           
Students with
      disabilities4
665,427 713,383 13.8 14.7 1.4 1.5
—Not available.
#Rounds to zero.
1 Includes data for California that reflect ELL students enrolled on a single date, rather than a cumulative count of all ELL students enrolled at any time during the school year.
2 Ranking of the 30 most commonly reported home languages is based on fall 2015 data. In each year shown, home language data were unavailable for approximately 87,000 to 133,000 students identified as English language learners. Enrollments of children speaking less common languages are not separately listed.
3 Examples of situations in which English might be reported as an English learner's home language include students who live in multilingual households and students adopted from other countries who speak English at home but also have been raised speaking another language.
4 Includes only students with disabilities who were served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
NOTE: Includes all students identified as English language learners--both those participating in ELL programs and those not participating in ELL programs. Except where otherwise noted, data for 2013-14 and earlier years include all ELL students enrolled at any time during the school year. Starting with fall 2014, data include only ELL students enrolled on October 1. Data exclude Puerto Rico and the Bureau of Indian Education. Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity. Detail may not sum to totals because grade levels were not reported for some students and because of rounding. 2010-11 not shown due to missing data.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, EDFacts file 141, Data Group 678, extracted July 21, 2017, from the EDFacts Data Warehouse (internal U.S. Department of Education source); Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary and Secondary Education," 2008-09 through 2015-16. (This table was prepared August 2017.)

2017 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest