State Policy and the Educational Outcomes of English Learner and Immigrant Students: Three Administrative Data Stories

Abstract

Recent years have seen a shift to individual states as the battlegrounds for ensuring the educational rights of the rapidly growing populations of immigrant and English-learning students enrolled at all stages in the educational pipeline. It is, therefore, essential that state policy makers understand how the educational trajectories of immigrant and English learner students can be dramatically influenced by decisions that are made by state legislatures. In this article, we highlight how state and district longitudinal administrative data sets could be leveraged to provide valuable insight in this policy arena. We make use of descriptive portraits of the data systems in Florida, Texas, and New York City, noting both the strengths of each and how all could stand to benefit by incorporating elements of the others. We conclude by offering recommendations for both researchers and policy makers in the use of state data systems to help inform policy affecting the future of immigrant and English-learning students.