When public school teachers return to classrooms this month, they know one of the biggest challenges they'll face is the growing number of students who will speak little or no English.
The proportion of students who need extra attention because of their limited language skills has been growing for years. That adds to the workload of teachers who have seen per student spending by the state slide over the past five years.
The percentage of what educators call English language learners has grown from 13 percent in 2001 to 16.2 percent in 2012. But researchers have discovered another worrying trend: these children attend the state's most segregated schools, where the vast most of their classmates are minorities and their districts among the most impoverished.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.