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Federal, State, and District Level English Language Learner Program Entry and Exit Requirements: Effects on the Education of Language Minority Learners Alex Ragan, Ed.M. Course Crafters, Inc. Nonie Lesaux, Ph.D. Harvard Graduate School of Education Citation: Ragan, A., & Lesaux, N. (2006). Federal, state, and district level English language learner program entry and exit requirements: Effects on the education of language minority learners. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 14(20). Retrieved [date] from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v14n20/. Abstract Identification of a language minority learner for placement in a program for English Language Learners (ELLs), and the length of the support program, may have a significant effect on the student’s academic achievement. Widespread anecdotal evidence suggests that criteria used to make placement decisions vary widely across the U.S. This study systematically examines related federal laws and guidance, as well as published entry and exit criteria for ELL programs for the 10 states and 10 districts in the U.S. with the largest enrollment of ELLs. For the majority of placement decisions, a measure of English language proficiency is used. Very few states and districts rely on multiple sources of information for these decisions. The ramifications of these findings are discussed in light of the language and content demands of the mainstream classroom. Keywords: language minority learners; English language learners; classification; educational programs. Requisitos de entrada y de salida a nivel federal, estatal y distrital para estudiantes de inglés: Efectos sobre la educación de los estudiantes de minorías lingüísticas. Resumen La identificación de estudiantes de minorías lingüísticas para ser incorporados a programas para ayudar a estudiantes que precisan aprender inglés (identificados aquí con la sigla ELL) y la duración de los programas de ayuda, podría tener un efecto significativo en el logro académico de esos estudiantes. La extensa evidencia anecdótica, sugiere que los criterios utilizados para asignar estudiantes en estas situaciones varíe extensamente a través de los EE.UU.. Este estudio examina sistemáticamente leyes y las orientaciones federales relacionados, así como los requisitos de entrada y de salida para estos programas en los 10 estados y 10 distritos escolares con mayor cantidad de ELL. La mayoría de las decisiones de asignación a estos programas utiliza algún tipo de medición de conocimiento de idioma inglés. Son pocos los estados y distritos que utilizan múltiples fuentes de información para tomar este tipo de decisiones. Las ramificaciones de estos resultados se discuten tomando en cuenta las demandas lingüísticas y de contenido que habitualmente se encuentran en este tipo de clases. Access this article in PDF format.   Readers are free to copy, display, and distribute this abstract and the associated article, as long as the work is attributed to the author(s) and Education Policy Analysis Archives, it is distributed for non-commercial purposes only, and no alteration or transformation is made in the work. All other uses must be approved by the author(s) or EPAA. EPAA is published jointly by the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education at Arizona State University and the College of Education at the University of South Florida. Articles are indexed by H.W. Wilson & Co. Please contribute commentary at http://epaa.info/wordpress/ and send errata notes to Sherman Dorn (epaa-editor@shermandorn.com).