The LTEL Designation and the English Learner Figure: A Critical Study of Language in Education

• In Event: Critical Approaches to Studying Language Ideologies: Race, Power, and Resistance

Abstract

California’s Long-term English Learner (LTEL) designation is an add-on definition to existing English learner classification which describes students who have not reclassified after six years. Initially an effort to increase progress monitoring and rates of reclassification, this designation has been widely critiqued for oversimplifying and inaccurately representing students' academic and linguistic profiles. This work examined the “English learner figure” and the racialization of English proficiency as understood in state and federal law in relation to the experiences of young adults. Employing ethnographic methods, I examined LTEL students' academic trajectories in IB courses and the aspirations for education and career opportunities of LTEL graduates. Findings demonstrate challenges LTEL and former LTEL graduates face in pursuit of post-secondary education and economic stability.

Author

• Victoria Melgarejo, Stanford University