Research Hones Focus on ELLs

Even as new research turns up promising insights on how best to teach English-language learners, the pool of high-quality studies is still shallow, scholars say.

By Debra Viadero

Five years ago, researchers from the University of California, Davis, took a look at reading-exam scores across the K-12 grade span for students growing up in non-English-speaking homes.

Predictably, the researchers found that the students who struggled the most with learning English lagged well behind their English-speaking peers at all levels of schooling, never really catching up at any point along the spectrum.

A more curious pattern emerged among students with stronger English skills. During the first few years of school, this group’s achievement levels were almost on par with those of English-speaking students. But the more skilled English-learners began to drop back after 4th grade. By middle and high school, the gap separating them from the higher-achieving English-speaking students...