Bilingual Education |

The bar graph above presents the number of Limited-English Proficiency (LEP) Students in the country by grade. The graph has a decreasing slope, which indicates that as the grade level increases, the number of Limited-English Proficiency Students decreases. This could be due to the fact that students are truly early English at younger grades, but this could also be due to the drop-out rate. It seems like no coincidence that the number of LEP high school students is the lowest out of all of the other grade levels. Thus this graph of the number of LEP students goes hand in hand with discussing the drop-out rate. The pending future of bilingual education in Texas could potentially increase the already horrific drop-out rate (which is already among the highest in the nation). To illustrate, the national high school drop-out rate is 9.8%, the high school drop-out rate in Texas is 38%-45% for African-American students, 24% for white students, and 50% for Hispanic students. This further illustrates that Spanish-speaking children are at risk. It is likely the achievement gap will increase.

The graph above illustrates that the types of instructional services for English learners after Proposition 227 decreased. For example, before Proposition 227 Bilingual education accounted for 29% of programs implemented in California. However, after Proposition 227, Bilingual education shrank by more than 50% to become 12% of types of instructional services implemented. This figure indicates that Proposition 227 has indeed affected the quality and kinds of education for our nation’s children.