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From http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2014/01/states_consider_revising_surve.html

States Weigh How to Revamp Surveys to Identify Potential English-Learners
By Lesli A. Maxwell
January 31, 2014

A fledgling effort to bring more consistency to services for English-language learners is moving ahead with the release of a new set of recommendations on how states and school districts might revise and improve the questions they ask to first identify students who might be in need of English-language instruction.

Home-language surveys—often a series of a few questions about the language(s) a student speaks and understands—have been the primary way educators identify potential ELLs in their schools. But the surveys vary widely from state to state, even school district to school district, and can produce quite different results.

Education officials in some states have been brainstorming together with ELL experts on how to improve the surveys so that they yield the best possible information for educators. A summary of the state officials' ideas was published yesterday by the Council of Chief State School Officers, and provides lots of insight into how state education officials are thinking on this issue.

Learn more about this issue and access the summary at http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2014/01/states_consider_revising_surve.html