Keeping ELL grad rates a secret

Even though NCLB requires states to report graduation rates of English Language Learners (ELL), many don't or won't, according to EDWEEK's Mary Ann Zehr. She quotes an Arizona bureaucrat for example, who says that the state doesn't consider ELL grad rates important and has no expectations that ELL students will graduate on time, so they don't bother to report them.

One bright spot in Zehr's report is a group of N.Y. small schools that that have a mission to serve English-learners and helping to improve the city’s overall ELL graduation rate.

Among those small schools are 10 that are part of the Internationals Network for Public Schools. They enroll ELLs who have been in the country for less than four years. The average graduation rate for the seven graduating classes from those schools was 73 percent in the 2007-08 school year—higher than the city’s overall rate. And many students stay in school and receive a diploma after an additional year or two.