Researchers studying English-learner reclassification rates in Michigan found that under such a manual procedure, students meeting state criteria weren’t always exiting, said Caroline Bartlett, an assistant professor of education policy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the lead author of the study published in the Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis journal earlier this year.
After the change in Michigan, students who met the criteria were 35 percentage points more likely to reclassify, Bartlett found.