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Illinois: classified-EL share over time
Annual share of public-school students classified as English Learners.
Methodology note
- Illinois State Board of Education, October fall snapshot (332,936 EL students of approximately 1,800,000 enrolled). Identification via home language survey plus WIDA screening within 30 days. The ISBE figure runs approximately 3.6 percentage points above NCES's fall 2021 value (12.8%); part of the divergence reflects documented enrollment growth (ISBE attributes recent growth to families escaping global conflicts), and part may reflect that the ISBE count includes students in the post-reclassification monitoring period whereas NCES does not.
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About this figure
Each point is the fall-enrollment share of students classified as English Learners in Illinois's public schools. Observations through fall 2021 are drawn from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Digest of Education Statistics, Table 204.20, the canonical national series; NCES has not yet republished this table for school years after 2021-22. For fall 2023, the catalog falls back to figures published directly by the Illinois state education agency. State-agency methodology may differ from NCES — the methodology note above the data table records the difference, and the dashed line and hollow markers in the chart mark the boundary.
Sources: NCES Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.20 (opens in a new tab) ; Illinois State Board of Education, 2024 Illinois Report Card (English Learner data) (opens in a new tab) .