47.2.1 Mobility of Populations
Recently, a leading article in theEconomistnoted,“The rise of Latinos is a huge
opportunity. The United States must not squander it”(The Economist 2015 , March.
p. 15). In the context of a“graying population,”a phenomenon also found across
many European countries and Japan, the article argued that the U.S. is advantaged
by the influx of young, energetic, language-minority adults. This perspective
reorients much of the current, frequently negative, perceptions of language-minority
groups in America.
While concerns about an influx of language-minority adults and children have
been expressed in many quarters, as Europe faces the greatest resettlement of refu-
gees since World War II, a counter argument to their arrival has also been mounted:
these new arrivals will add energy and commitment to Europe’s increasingly aging
population.
This mobility of populations, which has characterized the last four decades in
many countries, is likely to increase, particularly as developed countries continue to
draw on a workforce from less-developed countries, for example, Turkish guest
workers in Germany and the Netherlands, Filipino and Indonesian workers in Hong
Kong, China, and South-East Asian workers in the Arabian Peninsula.
Consequently, teacher education programs across many parts of the world will need
to ensure that their graduates are fully equipped with the knowledge and skills
required to meet the needs of students who are new to their countries.
47.2.2 Linguistic and Academic Achievements of English
Language Learners
Close to 4.5 million school-age children in the U.S. are formally tested for English
proficiency and found eligible for English language support services to access the
curriculum. These students are designated English language learners in the U.S. and
are the fastest growing segment of the nation’s school-age population (Flores et al.
2012 ). Between the years 1980 and 2009, the percentage of U.S. school-age chil-
dren who spoke a language other than English at home increased from 4.7 to 11.2
million, or from 10 to 21% of the school-age population [National Center for
Education Statistics (NCES 2015 )] and the number is expected to continue to rise.
As measured by standardized assessment, educational outcomes for ELL stu-
dents are persistently poor. For example, the most recently available National
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) statistics for the U.S. show 33% of all
fourth-grade students performing below the“basic” designation on the 2013
reading assessment. In other words, students did not reach“partial mastery of
fundamental skills.”Worse, 69% of ELL students performed below the basic level.
Similarly, poor results are found in the NAEP mathematics results, which indi-
cate that 17% of fourth-grade students overall performed below the basic level
698 A.L. Bailey and M. Heritage