Accountability Lessons for Indiana Schools Serving English Learners

Abstract

Indiana English learners (ELs) are low-performers on the annual standardized test and they constitute a rapidly growing segment of the school-aged population. Authors of this exploratory study implement descriptive statistics to compare demographic and accountability data of schools serving large EL populations to those of schools serving smaller EL populations and schools not serving ELs. Analyses of performance and adequate yearly progress (AYP) reports on schools and school corporations between 2002 and 2011 show that schools serving large EL populations are less likely to make AYP, are held accountable for more subgroups, and serve larger percentages of low-income students.  These findings provide evidence that Indiana’s accountability system put schools with large EL populations at an unfair disadvantage. Starting in the 2010-11 school year, Indiana began using an A-F grading system to evaluate its schools. While the stated intention of the new, stricter accountability system is to raise the performance of all students, it may result in serious consequences for schools which were already struggling to make AYP under the previous system. Based on their findings, the authors discuss the implications and offer recommendations for teachers, administrators, and policymakers to increase the general understanding of how policies impact schools serving ELs.