When Schools Have Discretion, Do They Overidentify Students as Limited English Proficient (LEP)? An Econometric Analysis of How Incentives and Constraints Affect the Identification of LEP Students

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: Limited English Proficiency (LEP) rates among students in public schools grew by nearly 50% between 1991 and 2005. Much of this increase is driven by a similar increase in the percentage of school-enrolled, school-aged children who spoke a foreign language at home over that time period. However, school districts also receive increased funding when they identify a student as LEP and there is no one definition of what makes a student LEP. Thus, schools may overidentify students to maximize their funding. Since all identification has real consequences for students – often causing them to spend time with specially trained instructors, with different peers, and outside a mainstream classroom – it matters whether schools are identifying students purely to benefit the students or partly because of the fiscal benefits. Previous researchers have found that fiscal incentives lead to higher rates of special education identification, but there is no prior evidence on LEP identification. In this study, to determine if overidentification occurs, I use variation across states and within states over time in the discretion that schools have to identify LEP students. I control for Census-based measures of the percentage of students who speak a foreign language at home, state fixed effects, and time fixed effects. My estimates suggest that schools with discretion overidentify students by as much as 2 percent.

Type of resource	text
Date created	May 2009

Author	Sun, Timothy Tian
Primary advisor	Hoxby, Caroline
Degree granting institution	Stanford University, Department of Economics

Subject	Stanford Department of Economics
Subject	Limited English Proficiency
Subject	LEP
Subject	English as a Second Language
Subject	ESL
Subject	English Language Learners
Subject	ELL
Subject	overidentification
Subject	fiscal incentives
Subject	school funding
Genre	Thesis

Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/rv565hy0609

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Preferred Citation: Sun, Timothy Tian. (2009). When Schools Have Discretion, Do They Overidentify Students as Limited English Proficient (LEP)? An Econometric Analysis of How Incentives and Constraints Affect the Identification of LEP Students. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/rv565hy0609

Stanford University, Department of Economics, Honors Theses

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