Percent of the last 100 million people who were added to the US population since 1966-67, by race/ethnicity and nativity. (Pew Hispanic Center)

    The Latino population is exploding and will make up 29% of the US population in 2050 compared to 14% in 2005. (Pew Hispanic Center) In 2005, there were approximately 2.7 million ELL students in the US. (Pew Hispanic Center).  Approximately three-quarters of English Language Learners speak Spanish at home. (Urban Institute)

 From 1990-2005, ELL enrollment grew 7 times higher than total student enrollment and ELL's are migrating quickly and unevenly to new areas in the US. Traditional high immigrant population states such as California, Texas, Florida, New York and Illinois are not growing as quickly as states in the Midwest and South East. (Urban Institute)

 Over 50% of ELL Latinos now live in rural areas and congregate in poor localities that lack resources and teachers prepared to support them. (Why Rural matters, 2007) Currently there is an alarming academic achievement gap where 71% of 8th grade ELL students scored below basic in Math and Reading in 2005 compared to only 21% of Whites.

Why is this?

First, many ELL students are instructed using an Early-Exit transitional model which focuses on the “speed at which students are mainstreamed (to the English-speaking classroom rather) than content-area learning.” (Brisk 1998) In addition once they are “mainstreamed”, Latinos are least likely to have access to good teachers and small classes which various studies show raise the quality of education. Latinos are nearly 3 times more likely to be in classrooms with a teacher/student ratio over 22 to 1. (Pew Hispanic Center) There are also not enough qualified Hispanic K-12 teachers to meet demand. (National Education Association “NEA”, 2006) Latinos often end up with teachers who lack credentials, teach outside their area of expertise, or have a “lack of understanding of cultural backgrounds and the inability to speak Spanish”. (NEA 2006) As a consequence, many Latino ELL students are taught by low quality teachers who rely on whole class, teacher led instruction where students take a “passive role...with low engagement in tasks or activities”. (Haberman, 1991)

By providing a qualified tutoring resource delivered via the internet, our goal is to address these specific weaknesses by working through existing organizations and providing supplemental individualized, interactive, content-based tutoring in Spanish to ELL Latinos with the goal of reducing the academic achievement gap.

Resources:
US Population Projections 2005-2050, Pew Hispanic Center

The New Demography of America's Schools
Immigration and the No Child Left Behind Act
Author(s): Randolph Capps, Michael E. Fix, Julie Murray, Jason Ost, Jeffrey S. Passel, Shinta Herwantoro Hernandez , Urban Institute: Nonpartisan Economic and Social Policy Research,

How far behind in Math and Reading are English Language Learners?, Rick Fry, Pew Hispanic Center

The High Schools Hispanics Attend, Size and Other Key Characteristics, Rick Fry, Pew Hispanic Center

Fostering Academic Success for English Language Learners: What Do We Know? by Robert Linquanti

Why Rural Matters 2007, the realities ofr rural education growth,By Jerry Johnson, Policy Research and Analysis Manager and Marty Strange, Policy Director, The Rural School and Community Trust

A Report on the Status of Hispanics in Education: Overcoming a History of Neglect, By Richard Verdugo, The National Education Association