What Does It Mean? EL‐Identified Adolescents’ Interpretations of Testing and Course Placement

Abstract

AbstractAdultism within English learner (EL) policy in the United States relegates youth to the status of objects whose English proficiency and academic achievement is assessed, monitored, and developed. This study challenges this institutionalized adultism by centering youths’ interpretations of their own schooling experiences. It uses an intersectional anti‐adultism conceptual lens to investigate how 20 high school youths understood the relationship between two routine EL practices—English language proficiency (ELP) testing and EL‐related course placement—and their institutional EL classification. The primary data source for this study is semi‐structured interviews with youth that were contextualized by student records, administrator interviews, policy documents, and analytic memos. The findings indicate that in the absence of mandated direct communication about their EL classification from school‐affiliated adults, most participants did not use ELP testing or EL‐related course placement to recognize their labeling. Although adult‐determined significance of these routine EL practices shaped all youths’ educational trajectories, it did not dominate how most youths interpreted their significance. Youths’ interpretations of meaning were related to how they understood themselves and their experiences of schooling. The findings highlight the necessity to create structures for multidirectional and intergenerational communication between youth and adults that challenge institutionalized adultism within EL policy.