Full Report - Center for Collaborative Education

This chapter presents the enrollment and individual
characteristics of Boston Public Schools’ student
populations defined by English proficiency. In
doing so, we focus on the comparison between
English proficient students and students of limited
English proficiency. In the case of enrollment we
also provide information on the enrollment trends
of sub-groups of English proficient students. We
repeat the chart below to highlight the populations
focused upon in this chapter.
A What Is the Enrollment of
BPS Populations Defined
by English Proficiency, and
How Has This Enrollment
Changed through Time?
Between SY2006 and SY2009, overall BPS enrollment
decreased from 61,374 to 58,957 students.
A similar trend, albeit more pronounced, was
observed among all English proficient students,
most particularly native English speakers (NES) and
English proficient students who are native speakers
of a language other than English (NSOL-EP), among
whom enrollment fell by 6.1% and 23.1% respectively
in this period (Figure 1). 1
During this period, the only sub-populations defined
by language that experienced growth were
students of limited English proficiency and students
who were formerly classified as of limited English
proficiency but who had become proficient in English.
These students are commonly labeled FLEPs,
or former LEP students. 2 This group experienced a
growth of 39.0%, largely due to re-classification. 3
The number of students of limited English proficiency
has also increased since SY2006, albeit
Total All BPS
Native
Language
Native English Speaker (NES)
Native Speaker of Other Languages
(NSOL)
English Proficient (EP)
Limited
Language
Proficiency NES
NSOL-
EP
FLEP
English
Proficient
(LEP)
Program
Participation
Not in ELL Prog
Not in
ELL
Prog
In
ELL
Prog
at a somewhat less dramatic pace: from 10,405
to 11,690 students or 12.3%. By SY2009, LEP
students accounted for almost 1 out of every 5
students in BPS, a proportion that increased steadily
through the period of observation. But the high
LEP student enrollment in SY2009 is still 20.5%
below the enrollment in Transitional Bilingual Education
(TBE) programs in SY2003, before the steep
decline between SY2003 and SY2005 that followed
the early implementation of Referendum Question 2
(Tung, et al., 2009). At the start of SY2004, 43.0%
of all LEP students were de-designated as students
of limited English proficiency (referred to usually as
“FLEPed”) and removed from TBE programs (Tung
et al., 2009).
Table 3. Enrollment of Student Populations Defined by English Language Proficiency, Pre-K to 12. BPS, SY2006-SY2009
SY2006 SY2007 SY2008 SY2009
N % N % N % N %
All BPS 61,374 100% 59,896 100% 59,321 100% 58,957 100%
All English Proficient 50,969 83.0% 39,382 82.4% 48,394 81.6% 47,267 80.2%
NES 38,504 62.7% 37,419 62.5% 36,651 61.8% 36,168 61.3%
NSOL-EP 10,030 16.3% 9,126 15.2% 8,442 14.2% 7,715 13.1%
FLEP 2,435 4.0% 2,837 4.7% 3,301 5.6% 3,384 5.7%
LEP 10,405 17.0% 10,514 17.6% 10,927 18.4% 11,690 19.8%
12 Improving Educational Outcomes of English Language Learners in Schools and Programs in Boston Public Schools