School expenditures and academic achievement differences between high-ELL-performing and low-ELL-performing high schools

English Language Learners (ELLs) are one of the fastest-growing K–12 populations across the nation. Educating secondary ELLs poses a unique challenge to U.S. schools. For instance, ELLs tend to experience high rates of poverty and attend segregated, underfunded, and unsafe schools. With the League of United Latin American Citizens vs. Texas case that focuses on the appropriateness and effectiveness of secondary ELL programs as a backdrop, this study explores differences in academic achievement and expenditures between Texas secondary schools with the highest levels of ELL academic achievement and schools with the lowest ELL levels of academic achievement. More specifically, this study examines the following primary questions: (a) What are the achievement results and demographic characteristics of Texas’s top- and bottom-performing schools categorized by the academic performance of ELL students? (b) To what extent do Texas’s top- and bottom-performing schools differ with respect to per-pupil school expenditure by funding category? The study finds that schools with the highest ELL achievement expend much more than schools with the lowest ELL achievement, particularly in regular base programs that are directed toward the basic education/instruction services for all students, not just ELLs.