Policy & Legislation

Tags: Curriculum; Fluency; Instructional Programs; Intervention; Language Proficiency; Struggling Readers;

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Short, D., & Fitzsimmons, S. (2007). Double the Work: Challenges and solutions to acquiring language and academic literacy for adolescent English language learners– A report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.

Tags: Intervention;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

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American Federation of Teachers. (2007). English Language Learners and NCLB Testing Requirements. Washington, DC.

Tags: Bilingual Instruction; Language Proficiency; Rights, Students;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: What are the current state policies and practices related to ELLs with disabilities?

Findings:

State-level personnel report a:

• Lack of qualified personnel trained in ELL or bilingual education to manage state-wide ELL needs;
• Lack of appropriate assessment instruments in languages other than English;
• Cultural barriers in communicating with ELL parents; and
• Need for sustained collaboration between bilingual education and special education personnel.

Policy Recommendations:

The authors offer a number of recommendations that include improved:

• Local accountability
• Statewide policies and guidance
• Teacher training and licensure
• Coordination between special education and ELL professionals

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NASDSE 1800 Diagonal Road, Suite 320 Alexandria, VA 22314

Keller-Allen, C. (2006). English Language Learners with Disabilities: Identification and Other State Policies and Issues. Project Forum, National Association of State Directors of Special Education: Alexandria, VA.

Tags: Content Areas: Math; Intervention; Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students; Rights, Students;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: How Far Behind in Math and Reading are English Language Learners?

Findings:

• The ELL achievement gap widens at higher grades.
• Nationally, ELL students tend to trail further behind their peers in reading than in math.

Policy Recommendations:
None given

• Link to Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
n/a

Fry, R. (2007). How Far Behind in Math and Reading are English Language Learners? Pew Hispanic Center: Washington, D.C.

Tags: Instructional Programs; Intervention; Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students; Parent Involvement and Outreach / PTA; Placement; Rights, Students;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: This issue brief is designed to help inform future dialogue on assessment and accountability. The brief examines the progress and manner in which states have implemented the federal law's accountability and testing provisions with respect to ELLs.

Findings:
NCLB implementation with respect to ELLs has failed to live up to the law's promise. State and district accountability systems not only must include ELLs, they must be implemented in a way that effectively closes the existing academic achievement gap for ELLs.

Policy Recommendations:

• The U.S. Department of Education should increase research and investment in the development of a range of appropriate assessments and testing accommodations, including native-language and simplified English tests for ELLs.
• The U.S. Department of Education should provide firm guidance to states regarding the law's directive to assess ELLs "to the extent practicable, in the language and form most likely to yield accurate data."
• With enforcement by the U.S. Department of Education, states and districts must continue to assess ELLs and include them in AYP determinations.
• The Administration and Congress should fine-tune the definition of AYP for ELLs.
• The U.S. Department of Education and Congress should enhance accountability measures for secondary ELLs, particularly late-entrant ELLs. The U.S. Department of Education, states, and districts should improve reporting of assessment data and other AYP indicators to parents of ELLs.
• The U.S. Department of Education and Congress should ensure equitable access to supplemental services for ELLs.
• The President and Congress must increase the federal investment in English language learner programs (Title III).
• The U.S. Department of Education should increase its investment in the development of assessments for ELLs The President and Congress should increase federal support for Parent Assistance Programs.
• States should ensure fiscal equity in their education finance systems, with adequate inclusion of resources for ELLs.

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To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
The National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
Attention: Office of Publications
Raul Yzaguirre Building
1126 16th Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
Tel: 202.785.1670
Fax: 202.776.1794

Lazarín, M. (2006). Improving Assessment and Accountability for English Language Learners in the No Child Left Behind Act. National Council of La Raza: Washington, DC.

Tags: Bilingual Instruction; Bilingualism / Biliteracy; Comprehension; Content Areas: Math; Content Areas: Science; Content Areas: Social Studies; Content Areas: The Arts; Curriculum; Instructional Programs; Intervention; Language of Instruction; Language Proficiency;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: The report uses the example of Coachella school district's legal battle to examine whether state assessments are appropriate accountability measures for English language learners.

Findings:
N/A

Policy Recommendations:
N/A

• Purchase Report

Dillon, N. (2005). Language Test. American School Board Journal, 192(8). National School Boards Association.

Tags: Asian ELL Students; Bilingual Instruction; Language Proficiency;

Target Population: All

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• What are the statistics regarding Asian American students/ELLs?
• How do schools neglect Asian American students?
• What can be changed to close the achievement gap of Asian American students and provide them sufficient resources for success?

Findings:

• 24% of Asian American students are ELLs.
• Asian Americans comprise 12% of all ELLs, though they are only 5% of the total population.
• The four largest Asian ethnic ELL populations nationwide are: Chinese (115,000), Vietnamese (95,000), Korean (51,000), and Asian Indian (47,000).
• Improved and increased ELL services are clearly a dire need for Asian American students and must not be overlooked due to the "model minority myth" which postures Asian Americans as automatically higher-achieving.

Policy Recommendations:

• Devalue high-stakes testing: Resources should be devoted to language acquisition and learning experience rather than testing. Furthermore standardized testing should not be used to penalize schools by denying them funding or to penalize students by denying grade promotion or graduation.
• Create more native-language assessments based on demographics of cities or districts, not whole states, or using a statewide absolute numerical threshold (as opposed to the current 10% rule.)
• Create more bilingual education programs (as opposed to English-only instruction).
• Address high pushout/dropout rates: Schools should provide truancy intervention, ELL programs, high quality ELL teachers, and native language materials.
• Use multiple forms of assessment: ELLs should be assessed according to individual growth, using classroom-based results, and with appropriate accommodations. Assessments should be aligned to the instruction they receive (ie language acquisition, not traditional literacy development.)
• Increase professional development, providing ELL-teaching-specific training, and increase hiring of ELL teachers.
• Enable parental involvement: Provide native-language materials about the public education system and specific schools, translators for parent-teacher communication, community outreach, and Adult Literacy/ESL classes for parents.
• Disaggregate data to get a clearer picture of Asian American students' demographics and performance.

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Redondo, B., Aung, K.M., Fung, M., & Yu, N.W. Left in the Margins: Asian American Students & the No Child Left Behind Act. (2008). New York: Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Tags: Intervention; Libraries; Rights, Students;

Target Population: All

Research Questions the Report Poses: Are provided resources to migrant children equal to those provided to non-migrant children?

Findings:

• Migrant children consistently achieve at lower levels than their counterparts.
• Professional staffing levels are generally higher at schools with large numbers of migrant children, and there are lower student-teacher ratios.
• Schools with large numbers of migrant children engaged in a number of special schooling initiatives.
• Regarding library books and computer technology, there was no consistent pattern that favored either group of children.
• There were no reports from the principals of schools that children at schools with no migrant children were being afforded disproportionate resources by the district at the expense of migrant children.

Policy Recommendations:
It is time to consider other and different institutional and structural changes apart from what has been offered in the past in order to truly provide migrant children true equal education opportunity in our public schools.

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Migrant Students: Resources for Migrant Children Similar to Other Students but Achievement Still Lags. (2007). Florida State Advisory Committee.

Tags: Intervention; Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students; Placement;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: Do "excellence gaps" exist? (differences in achievement between subgroups of students performing at the highest levels)

Findings:

• There are in fact notable and statistically significant excellence gaps between student subgroups, the largest being between native English speakers and English language learners; the smallest being between male and female.
• Proficiency scores indicate the gap is worse in math, while percentile comparisons suggest reading. National data is more reliable and standardized, though state data also suggests the presence of excellence gaps.
• While test scores are increasing overall, high-performance students fall, in disproportionate numbers, into the "overrepresented" categories (i.e., white, affluent, English-proficient.)
• The results suggest that focus on minimum competency gaps (i.e., No Child Left Behind Act) put high-performing students at a disadvantage, and further increases the excellence gap.

Policy Recommendations:

• Make closing the excellence gap and promoting advanced academic programs a priority at the national and state levels (not just local, where they are pushed aside.)
• Consider performance of advanced students in common standards, rather than focusing on minimum competency.
• Conduct more research on talent development; specifically U.S. Department of Education and National Science Foundation could allot preexisting money for it.

• Read the Full Report

Plucker, Burroughs, Song (2010). Mind the (Other) Gap! The Growing Excellence Gap in K-12 Education. Center for Evaluation & Education Policy: Bloomington, Indiana.

Tags: Instructional Programs; Intervention; Rights, Students;

Target Population: All

Research Questions the Report Poses: What are the individual states' policies on English language learners and how are they impacting ELLs' achievement?

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Education Week. (2009). Portrait of a Population: How English Language Learners are Putting Schools to the Test. Bethesda, Maryland.

Tags: American Indian ELL Students; Asian ELL Students; Bilingual Instruction; Bilingualism / Biliteracy; Curriculum; Latino ELL Students; Other ELL Students (Middle Eastern, African, European, etc.); Parent Involvement and Outreach / PTA; Placement; Rights, Parents; Rights, Students;

Target Population:

• All students in preschool, elementary, middle or high school in the Latino community.
• Parents of students attending preschool, elementary, middle or high school in the Latino community.

Research Questions the Report Poses: This article raises the question of the importance of the No Child Left Behind Act to improve the education for limited English proficient students in the Latino community.

Findings:

• Limited English Proficiency students are the fastest growing population in elementary schools in the US.
• Limited English proficient students are concentrated in a few states but are spreading rapidly throughout the nation.
• While five states—California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois—are home to almost 70 percent of all LEP students in elementary school, growth in this student population has been more rapid in other destinations.
• The majority of LEP elementary school students are concentrated in a small number of schools: nearly 70 percent of the nation’s LEP students enroll in only 10 percent of elementary schools.
• The incidence of poverty and health problems is significantly higher in high-LEP than in other schools.
• Instructional contexts vary significantly across schools: high-LEP schools are more likely to offer support and remedial programs (pre-K, enrichment, after-school, summer school).
• Native language instruction is more prevalent in high- than low-LEP schools. The difference in use of other LEP-targeted instructional techniques, though significant, is less marked.
• High-LEP schools face more difficulties filling teaching vacancies and are more likely to rely on unqualified and substitute teachers than schools with few or no LEP children.
• High-LEP schools are more likely to be involved in parental outreach and support activities than schools with lower concentrations of LEP students.
• Teachers in high-LEP schools are more likely to hold ESL/bilingual certification in addition to their main certification.
• Teachers in high-LEP schools are more likely to have provisional, emergency, or temporary certification than are those in other schools.
• High-LEP schools have more new teachers than schools with fewer or no LEP students, and these teachers are substantially more likely to be uncertified than those at other schools.
• Teachers in high-LEP schools tend to report receiving more professional development than do teachers in other types of schools.
• There was a great deal of variation in the way districts with high-LEP schools implemented NCLB testing requirements in both subject areas and ELP (English Language Proficiency).
• Parents of ELL students in high-LEP enrollment schools professed to have very little knowledge of the requirements of NCLB.

Policy Recommendations:

• The U.S. Department of Education should make the development of an appropriate English language proficiency test a national priority and require its use by all states and districts.
• States should ensure that (a) policies are in place to conduct subject matter testing of ELL students using appropriate tests and accommodations and (b) reasonable exemptions are granted.
• The inclusion of pre-K education should be considered in the reauthorization of NCLB. While it is evident from our study that NCLB is changing pre-K education in high-LEP schools, including this component of the educational system in the law would enforce and standardize these changes across all districts and states.
• The NCLB provisions for school choice and Supplemental Educational Services (SES) should be reexamined. These provisions do not seem to be having the intended effect and their feasibility and effectiveness should be studied.
• Teacher Quality
• Districts should assume responsibility for the training and professional development of teachers—including bilingual/ESL teachers—to assist them in meeting the NCLB requirements for high-quality teachers. This assistance might include working with local colleges to increase the production of high-quality bilingual/ESL teachers and to offer courses in areas where current teachers need to acquire credits for certification. Local colleges and alternative certification programs should be encouraged to incorporate courses on ELL instruction as part of the required general teacher education curriculum. These courses should be required for certification or employment of all teachers, at least in high-ELL-enrollment districts but preferably in all districts.
• More effective strategies are needed for conducting parental outreach and information efforts with parents of ELL students. Districts and schools must acquire a greater understanding of effective strategies to reach this group of parents, who face many barriers to understanding the requirements of NCLB and their role in supporting its goals.

• Read the Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
The Urban Institute 2100 M Street N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037

Consentino de Cohen, Clemencia and Beatriz Chu Clewell. (2007). Putting English Language Learners on the Education Map: The No Child Left Behind Act Implemented. Washington, D.C. The Urban Institute.

Tags: Curriculum; Instructional Programs; Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: "Why do California elementary schools serving similar proportions of low-income, Spanish speaking EL students differ by over 250 points on California's new EL Academic Performance Index score? What school practices can help explain this API gap?"

Findings:

• One practice strongly correlated with a higher EL-API among our sample of elementary schools was the extensive use of student assessment data by the district and the principal in an effort to improve instruction and student learning.
• EL-API performance was higher in schools where principals reported that a larger proportion of their teaching staff had qualities such as a demonstrated ability to raise student achievement, strong content knowledge, and others.
• Higher EL-API was correlated with schools in which teachers reported most strongly that there is school-wide instructional consistency within grades, curricular alignment from grade-to-grade, and that instruction is based upon state academic standards.
• A shared culture within the school regarding the value of improving student achievement and a sense of shared responsibility for it seems to distinguish the higher performing schools in our sample based on EL—APIs.
• A school's outreach to parents, encouragement of teacher collaboration, and enforcement of positive student behaviors (like attendance and tolerance) have long been recognized as important contributors to the student and professional culture at a school.

Policy Recommendations:

• California should "stay the course with its reforms" to make sure that "curriculum programs and state standards tests are well aligned with the state's academic standards."
• School districts need to provide "better assessment and other data on their students in easy-to-access formats"
• Hire more administrators to try to adjust the highest-in-the-nation pupil-to-administrator ratio in the country
• Professional development needs to provided to ensure that teachers have the resources they need to effectively combat the challenges that educating ELL students provides

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Williams, T., Hakuta, K., Haertel, E., et al. (2007). Similar English Learner Students, Different Results: Why Do Some Schools Do Better? A follow-up analysis, based on a large-scale survey of California elementary schools serving low-income and EL students. Mountain View, CA: EdSource.

Tags: Bilingual Instruction; Differentiated Instruction; Language of Instruction; Placement;

Target Population: Elementary School

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• What are the key elements of successful bilingual schools?
• How do these six high–achieving bilingual schools implement those strategies?

Findings:
Among the features of effective schools and effective programs for English learner found in these six schools were:

• The bilingual programs were a school-wide effort.
• Teachers collaborated and team–taught, particularly for ELD instruction.
• Staff demonstrated extensive language and cultural competence.
• Staff displayed overall support for language and cultural diversity.
• Staff demonstrated a focus on the individual student and differentiated instruction.
• The school culture emphasized consistent monitoring of students' progress and teaching to rigorous academic standards.
• Staff articulated rigorous expectations of staff and students.
• Consistent leadership supported and benefited programs and instruction.
• Staff demonstrated a focus on consistent, coherent program design.

Policy Recommendations:

• Rather than debate the best approach for all English learners, we should improve schools by employing the most effective practices, whether using only English or with some form of bilingual instruction.
• Staff should identify areas of strength already in place at their own school, and then decide which paradigm features schools might improve their school.
• Additional research should be conducted, making use of the tools developed by the five–year Proposition 227 study to identify other successful schools with large proportions of English learners. Additional documentation of successful schools can counterbalance the impact of state and federal accountability systems that more often emphasize the schools that fail to perform to standards.

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Gold, N. (2006) Successful Bilingual Schools: Six Effective Programs in California. San Diego, CA: San Diego County Office of Education.

Tags: Instructional Programs; Placement;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: Are immigrant children left behind academically as a result of whether they are in a high or low LEP school?

Findings:

• The majority of LEP students are concentrated in a small number of schools: Nearly 70 percent of LEP students nationally enroll in only 10 percent of elementary schools. In these schools, LEP students account for almost one half of the student body (on average), a striking contrast to the 5 percent of LEP students enrolled in the average Low-LEP school.
• High-LEP schools tend to have higher a higher prevalence of poverty, Title I services, native language instruction, LEP-target instructional techniques, and services like Pre-K and summer enrichment, parent outreach, and hard-to-staff school status.
• Principals in High-LEP schools are more likely to be racially diverse, female, earn more money, and hold a PhD than their Low-LEP school counterparts.
• Teachers in High-LEP schools, on average, earn more, are more racially diverse, are less experience, and, overall, have less academic preparation than their counterparts in other schools.
• Educators in High-LEP schools are more likely to hold ESL/bilingual certification as well as their main certification. However, ESL/bilingual educators in both High- and Low-LEP schools are equally likely to have that specific field qualification.
• Educators in High-LEP schools are more likely to have provisional, emergency, or temporary certification than those in other schools.
• Potential effects of NCLB on LEP students may include: fewer resources for LEP students in Low-LEP schools; multiple NCLB reporting categories such as language, poverty, race, or ethnicity; more attention on LEP family outreach.

Policy Recommendations:

The authors recommend:

• Recruiting, preparing, and credentialing more ESL/bilingual teachers in High-LEP schools
• Improving teacher education programs for ESL/bilingual teachers
• Providing all educators professional development for working with LEP students, particularly in Low-LEP schools
• Improving LEP services in Low-LEP schools, such as extra support, enrichment, differentiated instruction
• Go to Executive Summary
• Download full report (144KB PDF)*

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Urban Institute 2100 M Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20037

Cosentino de Cohen, C., Deterding, N., Chu Clewell, B. (2005). Who's Left Behind?: Immigrant Children in High and Low LEP Schools. Program for Evaluation and Equity Research, Urban Institute: Washington, D.C.