1 GAO-24-107485 Supplemental Materials
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL FOR GAO-24-106360:
Technical Materials for Regression Analyses on
Student, Teacher, and School Characteristics
Associated with English Learners’ Academic
Performance
This product is a supplement to K-12 Education: Student, Teacher, and School Characteristics
Associated with English Learners’ Academic Performance (GAO-24-106360).
Background
This electronic supplement serves as a companion to GAO-24-106360, K-12 Education:
Student, Teacher, and School Characteristics Associated with English Learners’ Academic
Performance. This supplement presents technical information about our regression analyses of
three Department of Education datasets:
• The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2019 data for fourth and eighth
grade reading and math.
• The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS), Kindergarten Class of 2010-11, which
followed a sample of children from kindergarten through the fifth grade.
• EDFacts, which centralizes performance data supplied by state educational agencies,
including performance on state assessments and progress toward English proficiency. We
analyzed data for the 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2021-22 school years.
To explore the relationship between several academic performance outcomes and a variety of
student, teacher, and school characteristics, such as school attendance, we conducted
regression analyses on these data sets. Such models allowed us to test the association
between student performance outcomes and any one specific student, teacher, and school
characteristic, while holding other characteristics (such as school demographics) constant.
Technical details of our analyses are linked below.
The performance outcomes we included were
• English learners’ scores on national reading and math assessments,
• growth in English learners’ reading scores from the longitudinal study, and
• state reports of their students’ progress toward English proficiency and rates of English
proficiency.
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In general, English learners are K-12 students whose native language is not English, and whose difficulties in
speaking, reading, writing, or understanding English may affect their academic success in classrooms where
instruction is in English. For federal reporting purposes, students are considered English learners only while they are
eligible to receive language instruction services. See 20 U.S.C. § 7801(20) for the definition of an English learner
under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended.
