Thank you for visiting the Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students homepage. 

The mission of the Office of English Language Acquisition is to:

• Provide national leadership to help ensure that English language learners and immigrant students attain English proficiency and achieve academically and,
• Assist in building the nation's capacity in critical foreign languages.

The Office identifies major issues affecting the education of English language learners, assists and supports state and local systemic reform efforts that emphasize high academic standards, school accountability, professional development and parent involvement.

Under Title III of the ESEA the office is responsible for: (a) administering discretionary grant programs that help children develop proficiency in English and achieve high content standards,(b)recommending policies and promoting best practices for meeting the needs of English language learners, (c) strengthening collaboration and coordination among federal, state and local programs serving English language learners, and (d) monitoring funded programs and providing technical assistance that focuses on outcomes and accountability.

Under Title V, the office is responsible for: (a) administering the Foreign Language Assistance program, (b) recommending policies and promoting best practices in foreign language teaching and learning, (c) monitoring funded programs and providing technical assistance that focuses on outcomes and accountability, and (d) disseminating information on foreign language instructional practices. The office directs, coordinates and recommends policy for programs that are designed to:

• Support systemic reform efforts carried out by SEAs and LEAs.
• Build and maintain capacity of SEAs to access Department of Education resources in order to effectively serve English Learners (ELs).
• Build and/or enhance local education agency (LEA) capacity to provide an education of high quality to English Learners.
• Build and enhance LEA and SEA capacity to provide quality foreign language programs for elementary and secondary students.
• Support and assist institutions of higher education (IHEs) to develop professional development programs for teachers, principals and other school-based educators that serve English Learners.
• Provide programmatic leadership to enhance and share the knowledge base of issues related to English Learners with other offices within the Department as well as other Federal agencies and the education community in general.