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Original URL:
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/election/article/0,1299,DRMN_36_1472388,00.html
Colorado's English-language learners
Rocky Mountain News
October 11, 2002
• 70,000 students in grades K-12, or 10 percent of total
enrollment, are learning English.
• Those students speak 140 languages, but Spanish dominates
as the native language of 82 percent.
• About a third of English learners are in English-acquisition
programs that use a child's native language.
• Students exit English-acquisition programs at varying rates. A
University of Colorado study indicated 46 percent of native
Spanish fourth-graders exit services after three years, while 58
percent of speakers of other languages do so.
English-language learners in Colorado's largest school districts
• Jefferson County: 5,349 or 6 percent
• Denver: 18,336 or 25 percent
• Cherry Creek: 4,522 or 10 percent
• Douglas County: 418 or 1 percent
• Colorado Springs: 1,138 or 3 percent
• Northglenn-Thornton: 1,241 or 4 percent
• Aurora: 7,721 or 24 percent
• Boulder: 2,569 or 9 percent
• Fort Collins: 2,880 or 12 percent
• St. Vrain Valley: 3,007 or 15 percent
English-language learners by grade and program outside Denver
Public Schools:
Native No
language native
Grade No. used language
K 6,780 43% 54%
1 7,606 36% 59%
2 6,483 40% 56%
3 5,796 37% 58%
4 5,231 35% 61%
5 4,788 30% 65%
6 4,178 18% 76%
7 3,430 19% 74%
8 3,214 19% 74%
9 3,622 17% 77%
10 2,395 14% 80%
11 1,794 10% 85%
12 1,272 6% 87%
Total 59,018 17,510 38,629
* Percentages May Not Add To 100 Because Not All School
Districts Reported Details About Instructional Programs.
Sources: Colorado Department of Education; research study by
University of Colorado professor Kathy Escamilla.
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