Charter Schools & ELLs

Tags: Differentiated Instruction; Latino ELL Students; Other ELL Students (Middle Eastern, African, European, etc.); Placement;

Target Population: Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• What can we learn from the the gap in ELL enrollment between charter schools and traditional public schools? What are the trends in this gap in New York City?
• Are students who attend charter schools are qualitatively different from those enrolled in district public schools?
• How does the racial/ethnic makeup of charter schools compares to traditional public schools?

Findings:

• In New York City, as in many other areas serving high numbers of ELLs (with a few exceptions), research focused on ELL student access to charter schools has been limited.
• At the school level, New York City charter schools appear to have a disproportionately low enrollment of ELL/LEP students.
• While findings from previous studies of New York City's charter schools suggest that location is a factor for limited ELL enrollment, many of New York's charter schools are located in neighborhoods with traditionally signficiant Hispanic and ELL populations such as the South Bronx and Harlem.
• Those charter schools that buck this trend actively strive to meet the needs of ELLs through ongoing professional development for teachers across the disciplines and active family engagement efforts led by the principal.

The authors of the report suggest the following possible reasons for limited ELL enrollment in charter schools:

• Parents of ELLs may not have adequate knowledge about charter schools; their reliance on (and deferral to) teachers and administrators to make academic decisions about their children's future contributes to this information gap.
• Charter schools face pressure to maintain high academic standards and may be reluctant to serve students who require additional resources. In fact, some funding mechanisms may create a disincentive to enroll higher number of ELL applicants at particular charter schools.

Policy Recommendations:

• More disaggretation of charter school data is needed that provides detailed information about ELL student enrollment, proficiency level, and performance.
• Researchers and policymakers need to reexamine, and in some cases revise, charter school funding mechanisms to ensure that they are not preventing charter school leaders from actively recruiting "at-risk" populations of students.
• Future research about ELLs in charter schools should include investigation of families' knowledge about charter schools and charter school lotteries, as well as of charter school practices regarding student recruitment and staff training and hiring.

• Read the Full Report

Buckley, J.& Sattin-Bajaj, C. (2010, April, 27). Are ELL Students Underrepresented in Charter Schools? Demographic Trends in New York City, 2006-2008. New York University. Retrieved July 27, 2010 from http://www.ncspe.org/publications_files/OP188.pdf

Tags: Instructional Programs;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: Why does Latino and ELL achievement matter in charter schools? How should charter schools accommodate their large numbers of Latino and ELL students?

Findings:

• With ever-increasing numbers of Latino immigrants and thus ELLs, it is clear that they will play a role in the country's future and economy; therefore schools today need to prepare these students for college and career.
• Many charter schools are excelling at catering to their specific Latino and ELL populations, and their strategies can serve as models for other charter schools as well as traditional public schools.

Policy Recommendations:

• Accelerated curricula, incorporating language learning and a core curriculum simultaneously
• Expanded school schedule (longer school day, week, or year)
• Training all staff in working with ELLs, in both language and cultural competence
• Engaging parents (ie bilingual materials and recruitment efforts, more school-related activities to attend) and collaborating with the community
• For state policy, open-enrollment policies and lottery processes
• Maintain flexibility/freedom of charter schools to cater to their specific student populations

• Read the Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Center for American Progress 1333 H Street NW, 10th Floor Washington DC, 20005

Lazarín, M. & Ortiz-Licon, F. (2010). Next Generation Charter Schools: Meeting the Needs of Latinos and English Language Learners. Washington, DC: Center for American Progress.

Tags: Intervention; Rights, Students;

Target Population: High school

Research Questions the Report Poses: To what extent, if any, have ELLs actually been included in New York City's small high schools reform initiative?

Findings:

• As a result of the new schools program, ELL students are largely sequestered to a few schools with high percentages of ELLs while many other schools offer very little, if any, instruction or resources for ELLs.
• Because new schools are not being built in areas where ELLs are highly concentrated, ELLs are being kept from new schools.
• Most schools classified as small by this report (about 500 students) fail to provide adequate resources for ELL instruction.
• Because small schools are inadequately prepared to instruct ELLs, these students are forced to go to large, failing schools, which are the type of schools that the new schools plan was supposed to cut down on.

Policy Recommendations:

• Increase ELLs' access to small schools by building more small schools in areas where ELLs most commonly reside.
• Improve the high school admissions process so that ELLs are not excluded or kept out of small schools because of their ELL status.

• Link to Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Advocates for Children of New York
151 West 30th Street — 5th Floor
New York, NY 10001
E-Mail: info@advocatesforchildren.org
Phone: (212)-947-9779
Fax: (212)-947-9790

The New York Immigration Coalition and Advocates for Children of New York. (2006, November). So Many Schools, So Few Options: How Mayor Bloomberg's Small High School Reforms Deny Full Access to English Language Learners. New York, NY: The New York Immigration Coalition and Advocates for Children of New York.