Who are the students included in the limited English proficient group?
About 5 percent of the state’s student population is identified as limited English proficient. In 2002-03, 54,428 of the 69,522 limited English proficient students spoke Spanish. All but three school districts in North Carolina had limited English proficient students that year. In North Carolina, a limited English proficient student is defined as any student whose primary language is not English and who is insufficiently proficient in English to receive instruction exclusively from regular education programs and function on an academic par with his/her peers. In addition, the student must have scored below superior in a least one domain on the state English language proficiency test. The state test assesses three domains – oral, reading and writing.
