One of the reasons for the high retention rate among high school LEP students is the practice of holding students back in ninth grade, in some cases for more than one year. We examined the proportion of ninth graders enrolled in BPS all of the previous three years who had been retained in ninth grade. Of these 311 ELL ninth graders in SY2009: 38.2% had been retained at least once and 26% had been retained only once; 7.1% had been retained twice; and, 5.1% had been retained three times.
Among LEP students from different language groups, native speakers of Spanish, Haitian Creole and Somali experienced the highest rates of out- of school suspension: 4.8%, 3.9%, and 3.4%, respectively. Other substantive but not statistically significant differences along demographic variables were those found between low/higher income and mobile/stable LEP students.
Among all LEP students, out-of school suspensions were found to be highest among middle school students. This pattern was repeated among LEP students at all English proficiency levels. The differ- ences in the patterns of out-of-school suspension rates across LEP students at different levels of pro- ficiency were not found to be significant. The data and analysis of out-of-school suspension rates by grade and language proficiency appear in Table 29.
Retention Rate. The grade retention rates of differ- ent populations of BPS students in Grades K-12 are found in Table 28. The retention rate was higher among LEP students regardless of the demographic variable considered. In some cases, the differences between LEP and EP students were substantive as is the case of the retention rates of higher-income stu- dents, and of native Cape Verdean Creole, Haitian Creole, and Somali speakers.
Table 26. Median Attendance Rates of Students of Different Characteristics, K-12. BPS, SY2009
All BPS EP LEP
Median Attendance Rates4
All 94.4% 94.4% 95.5%
Male 94.4% 94.4% 95.0%
Female 94.7% 94.4% 95.6%
Low Income1 94.4% 93.9% 95.5%
Not Low Income 95.6% 95.6% 95.0%
Native Language2
Spanish 93.9% 93.9% 94.1%
Cape Verdean Creole 96.1% 95.0% 96.7%
Chinese languages 98.9% 98.9% 98.3% Haitian Creole 96.7% 96.6% 97.2% Portuguese 94.4% 93.9% 94.4% Somali 95.6% 95.8% 95.2% Vietnamese 96.7% 96.7% 96.6% Other languages 96.1% 96.6% 95.6%
English Proficiency Level
MEPA Levels 1 and 2 94.4%
MEPA Level 3 NA NA 95.4%
MEPA Levels 4 and 5 96.7%
Mobile 90.2% 88.3% 93.8%
Stable 94.9% 94.4% 95.6%
SWD3 92.8% 92.8% 93.9%
Not SWD 95.0% 94.8% 95.6%
Notes: 1 Eligible for free/reduced lunch; 2 Does not include English for either EP or LEP students. 3 Includes students ages 6+ in
K-12. 4 The difference in attendance rates between EP and LEP students is significant (p=.000). Among LEP students, the
differences in the attendance rates between males and females, low and not low income, mobile and stable and SWD and not SWD are all significant (p=000 for all). Differences in attendance rates among LEP students at different MEPA performance levels were also found to be significant (MEPA L1&2 vs. other, p=.000; MEPA L3 vs. other, p=.011; MEPA L4&5 vs. other, p=.000).
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Table 28. Retention Rates of Students of Different Characteristics, K-12. BPS, SY2009
All BPS EP LEP
Retention Rates (SY2008-SY2009)4
All 7.0% 6.5% 9.5%
Male 8.2% 7.7% 10.5%
Female 5.8% 5.2% 8.3%
Low Income1 6.9% 6.5% 8.6%
Not Low Income 7.3% 6.4% 16.7%
Native Language2
Spanish 8.3% 7.3% 9.3%
Cape Verdean Creole 12.8% 7.7% 16.6%
Chinese languages 2.5% 0.9% 5.2% Haitian Creole 7.9% 4.4% 11.6% Portuguese 7.6% 5.5% 9.7% Somali 11.5% 3.3% 17.9% Vietnamese 4.0% 3.7% 4.7% Other languages 5.3% 3.6% 7.2%
English Proficiency Level
MEPA Levels 1 and 2 18.5%
MEPA Level 3 9.1%
MEPA Levels 4 and 5
NA NA 3.5% Mobile 17.4% 17.2% 18.2% Stable 6.6% 6.0% 9.1% SWD3 10.4% 10.2% 11.2% Not SWD 6.1% 5.5% 9.0%
Notes: 1 Eligible for free/reduced lunch; 2 Does not include English for either EP or LEP students. 3 Includes students ages 6+ in
K-12. 4 The difference in the retention rate between EP and LEP students is significant (p=.000, minimal effect size). Among LEP
students, the differences in the retention rates between males and females (p=.000), low and not low income (p=.000), mobile
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Table 27. Out-of-School Suspension Rates of Students of Different Characteristics, K-12. BPS, SY2009
All BPS EP LEP
Out-of-School Suspension Rates4
All 5.8% 6.3% 3.8%
Male 7.9% 8.6% 5.0%
Female 3.6% 3.9% 2.3%
Low Income1 6.3% 7.0% 3.8%
Not Low Income 4.4% 4.5% 3.5%
Native Language2
Spanish 4.9% 4.9% 4.8%
Cape Verdean Creole 3.5% 5.8% 2.2%
Chinese languages 1.1% 1.5% 0.6% Haitian Creole 3.8% 3.7% 3.9% Portuguese 4.2% 6.8% 1.7% Somali 3.2% 2.8% 3.4% Vietnamese 2.3% 2.8% 1.5% Other languages 3.2% 3.2% 3.2%
English Proficiency Level
MEPA Levels 1 and 2 3.9%
MEPA Level 3 3.8%
MEPA Levels 4 and 5
NA NA 3.7% Mobile 9.0% 11.4% 3.5% Stable 5.5% 5.9% 3.8% SWD3 11.3% 12.1% 8.0% Not SWD 4.5% 4.9% 2.8%
Notes: 1 Eligible for free/reduced lunch; 2 Does not include English for either EP or LEP students. 3 Includes students ages 6+ in
K-12. 4 The difference in the out-of-school suspension rate between EP and LEP students is significant (p=.000, minimal effect
size). The differences in the rates of out-of-school suspensions between males and females and SWD and not SWD are all statistically significant (p=.000 for both, with minimal and small effect size respectively). The differences in suspension rates among students at different levels of English proficiency were not significant.
Comparisons of the retention rate of LEP students along demographic variables show that the differ- ences in the retention rates between males and females, low and not low income, mobile and stable, and SWD and not SWD are all significant but with minimal effect size. Males had a higher rate of retention than did females, and higher-income students had almost twice the retention rate of lower-income students. Similarly large and signifi- cant differences can be found among mobile and stable LEP students and among students at different levels of English proficiency, as measured by MEPA performance levels. Among the latter, LEP students at MEPA Levels 1 and 2 were retained in grade three times more frequently than students at MEPA Levels 4 and 5 and twice as frequently as students at MEPA Level 3. The highest rates of retention among LEP students can be found among Somali, Haitian Creole, and Cape Verdean Creole speakers.
Among all LEP students, the highest rates of reten- tion took place among high school students, where at 20.9%, their rates were three times those of elementary school students and four times those of LEP students in middle school. The same pattern is observable among English proficient students but with much less intensity. It is also observable across all levels of English proficiency among LEP students but at an extreme particularly among LEP high school students in scoring at Levels 1 and 2 of MEPA: among them the rate of retention is 43.8%. The data and analysis of retention rates by grade and language proficiency appear in Table 29.
Table 29. Attendance, Out-of-School Suspension and Retention Rates of LEP Students of Different English Proficiency Levels and Different Grade Levels. BPS, SY2009.
LEP MEPA Test Takers
EP LEP
Levels 1 & 2 Level 3 Levels 4 & 5 Median Attendance5, 6 All1 94.4% 95.5% 94.4% 95.5% 96.7% Elementary School2 95.0% 96.1% 94.4% 95.6% 96.7% Middle School3 95.4% 95.0% 95.0% 95.6% 96.1% High School4 92.5% 92.8% 92.7% 94.4% 95.0% Out-of-School Suspension7, 8 All1 6.3% 3.8% 3.9% 3.8% 3.7% Elementary School2 3.3% 2.0% 1.7% 2.0% 2.3% Middle School3 12.0% 10.6% 11.6% 11.2% 10.1% High School4 6.4% 2.9% 3.4% 2.6% 2.0% Retention (SY2008-SY2009)9,10 All1 6.5% 9.5% 18.5% 9.1% 3.5% Elementary School2 4.1% 6.0% 11.3% 7.4% 3.1% Middle School3 4.5% 5.0% 7.6% 4.2% 3.0% High School4 10.3% 20.9% 43.8% 16.2% 5.5%
Note: 1 Includes K-12; 2 Includes grades K-5. 3 Includes grades 6, 7 and 8. 4 Includes grades 9-12. 5 The statistics for the
differences in the median attendance rate among all students and students scoring at different MEPA levels appear in Table 26. 6
Difference in median attendance rates between EP and LEP students are only significant at the elementary school level (p=.000). Differences in median attendance rates across students at different levels of English proficiency were found to be significant at elementary (MEPA L1&2 vs. other, p=.000; MEPA L3 vs. other, p=.001; and MEPA L4&5 vs. other, p=.000); middle (MEPA L1&2 vs. other, p=.007; MEPA L3 vs. other, p=.027; and MEPA L4&5 vs. other, p=.000); and high school grade levels ( MEPA L1&2 vs. other, p=.000; MEPA L3 vs. other, p=.002; and MEPA L4&5 vs. other, p=.000). 7 The statistics for the differences in out-of-
school suspension rates among all students and students scoring at different English proficiency levels appear in Table 27. 8
Difference in out-of school-suspensions between EP and LEP students at different grade levels are significant at the elementary and high school levels (p=.000, minimal effect size). Differences in out-of school-suspensions across LEPs scoring at different English proficiency levels were not found to be significant at any grade level. 9 The statistics for the differences in retention rates
among all students and LEP students scoring at different English proficiency levels appear in Table 28. 10 Difference in retention
between EP and LEP students at different grade levels are significant at the elementary and high school levels (p=.000, minimal and small effect size, respectively). Differences in retention across English proficiency groups at different grade levels were among elementary school students (MEPA L1&2 vs. other, p=.000, small effect size; MEPA L3 vs. other, p=.000, minimal effect size; and MEPA L4&5 vs. other, p=.000, small effect size); among middle (MEPA L1&2 vs. other, p=.005, minimal effect size; MEPA L4&5 vs. other, p=.033, minimal effect size); and high school students (MEPA L1&2 vs. other, p=.000, medium effect size; MEPA L4&5 vs. other, p=.000, small effect size),