On April 8, Partnership researchers Dr. Karen Thompson (Oregon State University), Josh Rew (Oregon Department of Education), and Dr. Ilana Umansky (University of Oregon) presented on the constraints and affordances of an approach Oregon has developed to understand outcomes for the full group of current and former English learners through the use of a category called Ever English Learners. They described the way this category has been implemented by the Oregon Department of Education, the contexts in which it is being used, and the insights it has generated.

Understanding outcomes for English learners (EL) is complicated by the fact that once students develop English proficiency and exit EL services, their outcomes are no longer reported as part of the EL subgroup. Partnership researchers found in their analysis of ODE data, using the Ever English Learners category, that as students exit the EL category, the proportion of former ELs increases at higher grade levels, while the proportion of current ELs decreases. Therefore, outcomes for the full group of Ever ELs at the secondary level are quite different than outcomes for current ELs.