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Education > Limited English Proficiency

LIMITED ENGLISH PROFICIENCY, ALLEN COUNTY, INDIANA

Number of Language Minority Students
 
SACS
NACS
FWCS
EACS
TOTAL
NOT
FLUENT
TOTAL
FLUENT
TOTAL
LANGUAGE
MINORITY
STUDENTS
 
Not Fluent
Fluent
Not Fluent
Fluent
Not Fluent
Fluent
Not Fluent
Fluent
99-00
21
212
9
19
601
702
39
194
670
1,127
1,797
00-01
28
164
11
20
821
1,097
134
132
994
1,413
2,407
01-02
29
222
18
28
929
1,213
179
109
1,155
1,572
2,727
02-03
30
251
14
41
1,022
1,474
201
127
1,267
1,893
3,160
03-04
45
284
17
72
1,244
1,520
174
367
1,480
2,243
3,723
04-05
31
300
49
46
1,365
1,752
221
169
1,666
2,267
3,933
05-06
50
270 
83
56 
1,224
2,096
228
170
1,585
2,592
4,177
06-07
93
221
97
85
1,695
1,870
287
134
2,172
2,310
4,482

Approximately 80% of the English language learners, or Language Minority Students, are in the FW Community School Corporation. All but two (Arcola and Monroeville) public schools in Allen County had at least one Language Minority Student in 2006/07. Only 5 public schools in Allen County did not have any students classified as Limited English Not Fluent in 2006/07.

The schools with the highest number of students in Allen County who are NOT FLUENT have been from FWCS.

  06-07   04-05   03-04
Fairfield Elementary School
170
 Fairfield Elementary School
148
 Fairfield Elementary School
176
Northcrest Elementary School
161
 Northcrest Elementary School
127
 Northcrest Elementary School
140
South Side High School
130
 North Side High School
148
 South Side High School
126
North Side High School
127
 South Side High School
148
 Ben F Geyer Middle School
92
Northwood Middle School
121
 Ben F Geyer Middle School
148
 Franke Park Elementary School
92
Miami Middle School
103
  
 
 Northwood Middle School
90
 
 
  
 
 North Side High School
76

A language minority student is any child whose home environment, native language, and/or background are other than English. An assessment is made of a student’s listening, speaking, reading, writing, and comprehension and then these students are determined to be either "Limited English Proficient" (LEP) or "Fluent English Proficient" (FEP). The LEP students move along a continuum until they reach fluent English proficiency, to be achieved through programs implemented by the school that the LEP student attends. Expectations are that students should be able to converse with teachers, peers, and others within three years. Beyond that, Indiana English Language Proficiency Standards advocate that all students must have standards that are intellectually rigorous, attainable, and equitable.

The No Child Left Behind Act specifies that limited English proficiency students must be assessed in English after three consecutive years of study in the U.S., and limited English proficiency students are one of the subgroups identified that have to meet Adequate Yearly Progress under the Act. Allen County schools are making adequate yearly progress (AYP) with this subgroup (note: only FWCS had a sufficient population within a certain grade within a school to be evaluated on this.)

Indiana Department of Education reported that there were 91 different languages (other than English) spoken by students enrolled in the Allen County Public Schools.The “Top 10” are listed below.

The Top Ten Languages in Allen County, as reported by IDE, are

“Minor” Language

Limited English Proficiency

Spanish

1,343

Burmese

199

Vietnamese

79

Arabic

49

Mon

44

Serbo-Croatian

40

Karen

37

Bosnian

36

German (Amish)

28

Russian

26

“Minor” Language

Fluent English Proficiency

Spanish

1,435

Vietnamese

107

Serbo-Croatian

98

Burmese

69

Bosnian

46

Lao (Laotian)

46

Punjabi

38

Arabic

32

German (Amish)

30

Mandarin (Sichuanese)

28

Source: IN Department of Education

The number of students indicating Spanish as their minor language has increased by over 200percent since 1999, when there were 903 Spanish speaking students-531 with limited proficiency and 372 with fluent English proficiency.

Fort Wayne Community School Corporation was the third highest corporation in the state with total language minority students in 2006-07. Allen County ranked fourth in all Indiana counties in the number of Language Minority Students in 2006-07.

Source for this section: IN Department of Education