Classifying Language-Minority Students: A Closer Look at Individual Student Data

Abstract

This article presents an exploratory case study of site-level classification practices for language-minority students. The study examines individual classification data of 439 language-minority student cases from one California urban school district and two of its schools. The review process involved a thorough examination of data integrity, sources of inconsistencies, and implications. The aim of this work was to deconstruct and decode the unknowns associated with school and district site-level student classification practices to inform language-minority student policy and practice. Results of this study show that classifying language-minority students is particularly problematic, in part due to individual student data management systems at the school site level. This metrical work highlights the effects of how local sites classify their language-minority students and how critical this is for the students subjected to classification as well as policy and practice.