1993-94 Schools and Staffing Survey: A Profile of Policies and Practices for Limited English Proficient Students: Screening Methods, Program Support, and Teacher Training

February 1997

(NCES 97-472) Ordering information

Highlights

• According to the 1993-94 Schools and Staffing Survey, over 2.1 million public school students in the United States are identified as limited English proficient (LEP) students. They account for 5 percent of all public school students and 31 percent of all American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Hispanic students enrolled in public schools.
• LEP students are concentrated in the West, in urban areas, and in large schools with 750 or more students. Schools with 20 percent or more minority students and 20 percent or more students receiving "free or reduced-price lunches" are also more likely to enroll LEP students.
• Schools can use a combination of methods to identify LEP students. The most frequently reported methods are teacher observation or referral, home language survey or assessment, and previous student record.
• Seventy-six percent of public schools with LEP student enrollments provide English as a second language (ESL) programs, and 36 percent have bilingual education programs. Bilingual education programs are generally implemented in schools with higher concentrations of LEP students than in schools with smaller numbers of LEP students.
• About one-third of public schools with LEP student enrollments provide both ESL and bilingual education programs, and 71 percent of all LEP students attend these schools. Thirteen percent of schools (4,832) enrolling LEP students have neither ESL nor bilingual programs, and 3 percent of all LEP students (59,373) attend these schools.
• Forty-two percent of all public school teachers have at least one LEP student in their classes. Only 7 percent of these teachers have classes in which over 50 percent of their students are identified as LEP.
• Thirty percent of public school teachers instructing LEP students have received training for teaching LEP students, and fewer than 3 percent of teachers with LEP students have earned a degree in ESL or bilingual education.

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