The Bottom Group

Abstract

In the United States, K-12 initiatives in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) have been advancing in an overall push to give students the skills necessary to participate meaningfully in the 21st-century workplace. Access to STEM academic pathways typically begins at the elementary level, when many English learners (ELs) are still in the process of developing English language proficiency. The qualitative study reported in this chapter examines the beliefs and decisions of elementary math and science teachers when teaching and assessing English learners. Through classroom observations and interviews, fourth-grade math and science teachers shared their beliefs about students’ capacity, potential, and effort around STEM instruction, assessment, placement, and tracking. Findings suggest that teachers believed that for ELs, English language instruction should take precedence over STEM instruction, at least in the short term. Elementary STEM teachers tended not to recognize the power of their decisions beyond their own classrooms, and though teachers did advocate for STEM access for individual ELs, this action tended to be reserved for students who showed remarkable talent in STEM. These findings have implications for school organization, curricular design, and professional development for content math and science teachers working with ELs.