Ever English Learner 4-Year Graduation: Toward an Intersectional Approach

Abstract

This brief analyzes 4-year graduation rates among students ever classified as English learners (ever-ELs) and those never classified as English learners (never-ELs) at the intersections of gender, race/ethnicity, and neighborhood income. We follow two cohorts of New York City students who entered ninth grade in 2013–2014 and 2014–2015 ( N = 127,931). We find substantial variations in 4-year graduation among these subgroups, with differential predicted probabilities depending on the student’s ever-EL status, race/ethnicity, and neighborhood income. These findings reveal important intersectional disparities in this diverse group of ELs—nuances that are lost when analyzing across a single social dimension and that push us to adopt an intersectional lens in quantitative research on ELs.