English Language Learner Status Research Articles

Associations between Food Group Intake, Cognition, and Academic Achievement in Elementary Schoolchildren.

Nutrition plays an important role in proper physical and cognitive functioning. However, there is limited evidence on the relationship between overall diet, cognition, and academic success in children, particularly among low-income and diverse groups. The objective of this study was to examine the relationships between healthful versus less healthful food group intake, cognitive performance, and academic achievement in a diverse sample of schoolchildren. 868 urban schoolchildren (age 8 to 10 years) participated in the study. Intake of healthful (fruits, vegetables, unsweetened beverages) and less healthful (sweet and salty snacks, sugar-sweetened beverages) food groups was determined via a food frequency questionnaire. Digit Span and Stroop test scores were used to assess cognitive performance. Academic achievement was assessed via standardized test scores. Multiple Poisson and multiple linear regression were used to test the associations between diet and cognitive scores. Multiple ordered logistic regression was used to assess the associations between diet and academic achievement. Potential confounders (age, sex, body mass index (BMI) z-score, race/ethnicity, English language learner status, individualized education plan enrollment, physical activity, and parent education level) were tested for inclusion in all models. The sample included 868 children (56.7% girls; 33.2% non-Hispanic white, 26.2% Hispanic, 17.1% multiracial/other, 8.3% non-Hispanic black; 40.5% overweight/obese). The most frequently consumed foods were fruits and sweet snacks (1.9 and 1.6 servings per day, respectively). There were no statistically significant associations between diet and cognitive test scores. Greater intake of less healthful food groups (sweet snacks, salty snacks, and sweetened beverages) was associated with lower math (OR = 0.91, CI [0.84, 0.98], p = 0.014) and English standardized test scores (OR = 0.87, CI [0.80, 0.94, p = 0.001). Greater intake of sweet snacks and fruits was associated with lower English scores (OR = 0.72, 95% CI [0.59, 0.88] p = 0.001; and OR = 0.75, 95% CI [0.72, 0.94] p = 0.003, respectively). Consumption of less healthful food groups was associated with poorer academic achievement. Further research may shed light on unexpected associations between fruit consumption and achievement. Policies targeting multiple dietary components may positively influence child academic achievement and development.

How to support secondary school students’ consideration of uncertainty in scientific argument writing: A case study of a High-Adventure Science curriculum module

Incorporating scientific uncertainty as part of science teaching means acknowledging that there may be incomplete or potentially limited scientific information when scientists draw conclusions. In the geosciences, scientists routinely make inferences about the Earth based on observations of the present, and test those observations against hypotheses about Earth’s history and processes that are not readily observable. We engage students in thinking about uncertainty as part of writing scientific arguments in an online Earth science curriculum module called, “Will there be enough fresh water?” In this article, we introduce the module, the structured scientific argumentation task format, and students’ uncertainty attributions identified across eight argumentation tasks in the module. The impact of the module on student learning of uncertainty attribution was based on 546 middle- and high-school students taught by nine teachers who implemented the module in six states. Students achieved significant gains from pretest to posttest on scientific argumentation (effect size = 1.38 SD, p < .001) consisting of claims, explanations, uncertainty rating, and uncertainty attribution. According to our linear regression analysis, students’ uncertainty attribution performance during the module was a statistically significant predictor (p < .001) for their posttest uncertainty attribution performance, although gender (p = .48), ethnic minority status (p = .71), English language learner status (p = .27), and prior computer use for science learning (p = .42) were not. Teachers can use these results to support students’ consideration of the strengths and limitations of data and models and the uncertainty of the science itself.

Teachers’ perceptions of students’ executive functions: Disparities by gender, ethnicity, and ELL status.

Teacher-report is commonly used to assess executive functions (EFs) in schools, but teachers’ perceptions of EF skills may be biased by students’ demographic characteristics. In this short-term longitudinal study, we assessed whether students’ gender, ethnicity, and English language learner (ELL) status predicted teachers’ reports of students’ EFs, beyond what would be expected based on direct assessment of EFs. In addition, we tested whether these associations changed between the fall and spring. Data were drawn from a school-based study of third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students (N = 558, 33 classrooms, 8 schools) in which students’ EFs were measured using direct assessments and teacher reports in the fall and spring. Using path analysis to control for the contribution of the direct assessment of EFs, we found systematic gender, ethnic, and ELL status disparities in teachers’ reports of students’ EFs. Moreover, these disparities did not change between the fall and spring. Given increased interest in incorporating teachers’ report of students’ EF skills into student report cards and school accountability indices, researchers and practitioners should further investigate and address the potential for systematic disparities in teachers’ reports of EFs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

Associations Between Dietary Intake Patterns, Cognition and Academic Achievement in 3rd and 4th Grade Children from the Fueling Learning Through Exercise Study (P04-096-19)

ObjectivesEvidence on associations between dietary patterns and academic outcomes is limited. This study examined relationships between dietary pattern, cognitive performance and academic achievement in a diverse sample of children. MethodsReported intake of food groups [fruits, vegetables, sweet and salty snacks, sugar-sweetened and unsweetened beverages], dietary patterns (healthful and unhealthful), cognitive measures (Digit Span and Stroop test) and academic achievement (standardized test scores) were obtained from 3rd and 4th grade urban schoolchildren. Multiple Poisson and multiple linear regression were used to test associations between cognitive scores and diet. Multiple ordered logistic regression was used to assess associations between academic achievement and diet. Potential confounders (age, sex, BMI z-score, race/ethnicity, English language learner status, individualized education plan enrollment, physical activity and parent education level) were included in all models. ResultsThe sample included 868 children (56.7% girls; 33.2% Non-Hispanic white, 26.2% Hispanic, 17.1% multiracial/other, 8.3% Non-Hispanic black; 40.5% overweight/obese). The most frequently consumed foods were fruits and sweet snacks (1.9 and 1.6 servings per day, respectively). There were no statistically significant associations between diet and cognitive test scores. Greater intake of unhealthful food groups (sweet snacks, salty snacks and sweetened beverages) was associated with lower math (OR = 0.91, CI [0.84, 0.98], P = 0.014) and English standardized test scores (OR = 0.87, CI [0.80, 0.94, P = 0.001). Greater intake of sweet snacks and fruits was associated with lower English scores (OR = 0.72, 95% CI [0.59, 0.88] P = 0.001; and OR = 0.75, 95% CI [0.72, 0.94] P = 0.003, respectively). ConclusionsUnhealthful dietary patterns were associated with poorer academic achievement. Further research can shed light on unexpected associations between fruit consumption and achievement. Policies targeting multiple dietary components may positively influence child academic achievement and development. Funding SourcesEunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, National Institutes of Health and the Boston Foundation. Supporting Tables, Images and/or Graphs▪▪▪

Automated text scoring and real‐time adjustable feedback: Supporting revision of scientific arguments involving uncertainty

AbstractThis paper describes HASbot, an automated text scoring and real‐time feedback system designed to support student revision of scientific arguments. Students submit open‐ended text responses to explain how their data support claims and how the limitations of their data affect the uncertainty of their explanations. HASbot automatically scores these text responses and returns the scores with feedback to students. Data were collected from 343 middle‐ and high‐school students taught by nine teachers across seven states in the United States. A mixed methods design was applied to investigate (a) how students’ utilization of HASbot impacted their development of uncertainty‐infused scientific arguments; (b) how students used feedback to revise their arguments, and (c) how the current design of HASbot supported or hindered students’ revisions. Paired sample t tests indicate that students made significant gains from pretest to posttest in uncertainty‐infused scientific argumentation, ES = 1.52 SD, p &lt; 0.001. Linear regression analysis results indicate that students' HASbot use significantly contributed to their posttest performance on uncertainty‐infused scientific argumentation while gender, English language learner status, and prior computer experience did not. From the analysis of videos, we identified several affordances and limitations of HASbot.

New benefits of public school pre-kindergarten programs: Early school stability, grade promotion, and exit from ELL services

This study explores the short-run effects of state-funded, public school-based pre-kindergarten (pre-K) programs on the early educational outcomes of students in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Using data on all kindergarten students enrolled in the public schools in years 2006 and 2007, we examine differences in outcomes from pre-K to the early grades – promotion to first grade, school mobility, and exit from English language learner (ELL) status – for students who were enrolled in public school pre-K in the previous year as compared to students who entered the public school system at kindergarten. We find that children who participated in a public school pre-K program had higher rates of promotion to the first grade and higher rates of school stability between kindergarten and first grade. ELL children who enrolled in public school pre-K also had higher exit rates from ELL status by first grade compared to students who entered at kindergarten. Analyses explore the role of kindergarten schools and classrooms as well as school stability between pre-K and kindergarten as possible mediators.

Implementing Engineering in Diverse Upper Elementary and Middle School Science Classrooms: Student Learning and Attitudes

Recent reforms in education call for science teachers to incorporate STEM concepts into their curricula. This study explores the association among student and teacher demographics, and student learning of engineering content and attitudes towards STEM after participation in an elementary or middle school engineering-based science curricula. Analysis of 732 students’ scores on engineering content knowledge assessment and STEM learning attitudes survey revealed several significant factors that influence students’ post-survey and assessment scores. Our analysis identified English language learner (ELL) status and special education (SPED) status as significant predictors for post-test scores at the elementary school level. At the middle school level, SPED status and ethnicity were found to have significant effects for students’ post-test scores. Student gender was found to be a significant predictor of student attitudes after taking the curriculum. Additionally, students who were taught by teachers that participated in two consecutive years of STEM professional development (PD) program had more positive attitudes towards engineering compared to students taught by teachers attending the PD program for only 1 year. These results suggest the ability of design-based science curricula to close the achievement and attitudinal gaps towards STEM in some student demographics. Additionally, our data revealed that continued PD can have positive effects on student attitudinal outcomes, suggesting long-term PD as an avenue to improve science education.

A 16-Year Review of Participant Diversity in Intervention Research Across a Selection of 12 Special Education Journals

Given the continued changes in demographic diversity of students in the United States, it is important to ensure that participants included in special education research reflect the diversity of the classroom. We examined 16 years of intervention research across 12 special education journals to evaluate the extent to which diverse student populations (e.g., race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, English language learner status) were included in published intervention research. We analyzed 495 intervention articles (9.6%) out of 5,180 total articles. Results revealed that progress has been made in the inclusion of diverse participants in special education intervention research compared with previously conducted reviews, yet some racial and ethnic populations are still underrepresented. We discuss strategies for recruitment and retention of underrepresented diverse populations.

Supportive classrooms for Latino English language learners: Grit, ELL status, and the classroom context

ABSTRACTStudents' academic achievement is the result of the interplay between person-level and contextual factors (R. R: Greene, 2014; D. E. Hunt, 1975). Students perform better when classroom characteristics support their characteristics. The authors examine whether student perceptions of two classroom characteristics (care and control) fit with two Latino student characteristics (English language learner status and grit) in relation to their academic achievement. Using a sample of fourth- and fifth-grade Latino students from the Measures of Effective Teaching dataset (n = 3,272), the authors conducted a series of nested regression models with two- and three-way interactions between student characteristics and student perceptions of classroom characteristics. Findings revealed that grit is most strongly associated with Latino English language learners’ English/language arts achievement when students perceived that teachers used high levels of care and control. We conclude with implications for practitioners.

The impact of English language learner status on screening for emotional and behavioral disorders: A differential item functioning (DIF) study

AbstractThere have been significant changes in the racial/ethnic and linguistic background of students attending public schools in the United States. The number of public‐school students who are English language learners (ELLs) participating in programs of language assistance has more than doubled over the past two decades. In 1993–1994, 5.1% of public‐school students in the United States were ELLs, or an estimated 2.1 million students. As of 2014–2015, 9.4% of students were ELLs, or an estimated 4.6 million students. It is estimated that by 2030, upward of 40% of school children will speak English as a second language. Meeting the needs of students who are not proficient in English is challenging for school professionals and even more so if they are identified for special services. Researchers have found that ELL students live in situations with numerous high‐risk factors, including poverty, inadequate schools, poor and violent neighborhoods, and limited access to adequate health care, mental health services, and schools. As a group, these students are more likely to underperform academically, have a lower grade point average, and drop out of school compared to non‐ELL Latino students.

Replicated Evidence of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Disability Identification in U.S. Schools

Federal legislation and policy increasingly seek to address minority overrepresentation in special education due to concerns that U.S. schools are misidentifying children as disabled based on their race or ethnicity. Yet whether and to what extent this is occurring is currently in dispute. We estimated racial disparities in disability identification using very large (e.g., Ns = 183,570, 165,540, and 48,560) student-level, nationally representative data sets and multivariate logistic regression including school fixed effects models along with tabulations of percentage with a disability among racial or ethnic groups across academic achievement deciles. Among children who were otherwise similar in their academic achievement, poverty exposure, gender, and English language learner status, racial or ethnic minority children were consistently less likely than White children to be identified as having disabilities. Minority children’s disability underidentification was evident (a) in elementary, middle, and high school; (b) across racially diverse groups and specific disability conditions; and (c) throughout the achievement distribution. Contrary to federal regulatory and policy efforts, minority children have been less likely than otherwise similarly achieving White children to receive special education services in the United States since at least 2003.

The Gender Gap in Charter School Enrollment

Many studies have investigated whether students in charter schools differ systematically from those in traditional public schools with respect to prior achievement, special education, or English Language Learner status. None, however, has examined gender differences in charter school enrollment. Using data for all U.S. public schools over 11 years, we find charters enroll a higher fraction of girls, a gap that has grown steadily over time and is larger in secondary grades and KIPP schools. We then analyze longitudinal student-level data from North Carolina to examine whether differential rates of attrition explain this gap. We find boys are more likely than girls to exit charters once enrolled, and gender differences in attrition are larger than in traditional schools. However, the difference is not large enough to explain the full enrollment gap between charter and traditional schools in North Carolina, suggesting gaps exist from initial matriculation.

School Choice in Indianapolis: Effects of Charter, Magnet, Private, and Traditional Public Schools

School choice researchers are often limited to comparing one type of choice with another (e.g., charter schools vs. traditional public schools). One area researchers have not examined is the effects of different school types within the same urban region. We fill this gap by analyzing longitudinal data for students (grades 3–8) in Indianapolis, using student fixed effects models to estimate the impacts of students switching from a traditional public school to a charter, magnet, Catholic, or other private school. We find that students experience no differences in their achievement gains after transferring from a traditional public school to a charter school. However, students switching to magnet schools experience modest annual losses of −0.09 standard deviation (SD) in mathematics and −0.11 SD in English Language Arts. Students switching to Catholic schools also experience annual losses of −0.18 SD in mathematics. These findings are robust to a series of alternative model specifications. Additionally, we find some variability in the mean school type impacts by students’ race/ethnicity, English language learner status, and number of years enrolled in a choice school. We discuss our results in the context of the variability of choice school effects across an entire urban area, something future research needs to examine.

Digital Media for Low-Income Preschoolers' Effective Science Learning: A Study of iPad Instructions with a Social Development Approach

ABSTRACTAs digital media devices have been increasingly used in early childhood educational settings, this study examined whether the iPad with a Vygotskian social development approach—namely, More Knowledgeable Other—can be integrated into low-income preschool classrooms to improve science learning. An analysis of variance was used to examine the overall improvement and differences in improvement among English language learners, children with special needs, and children without special needs or English language learner status. Results showed that all participants improved their science learning abilities as a consequence of the iPad instruction. Among all groups, English language learner children benefitted more than the other groups, but only with a game that had less verbal directions. There were no significant differences by gender.

The racialized construction of exceptionality: Experimental evidence of race/ethnicity effects on teachers' interventions

Scholars, policy-makers, and practitioners have long argued that students of color are over-represented in special education and under-represented in gifted education, arguing that educators make racially/ethnically biased decisions to refer and qualify students with disabilities and giftedness. Recent research has called this into question, focusing on the role of confounders of race/ethnicity. However, the role of educator decisions in the disproportionality is still unclear. In this study, I examine the role of student race/ethnicity in teachers' categorization of student needs as “exceptional” and in need of special or gifted education services. I use an original survey experiment in which teachers read case studies of fictional male students in which the race/ethnicity, English Language Learner status, and exceptionality characteristics were experimentally manipulated. The teachers are then asked whether they would refer the student for exceptionality testing. My findings suggest a complex intersection of race/ethnicity and exceptionality, in which white boys are more likely to be suspected of having exceptionalities when they exhibit academic challenges, while boys of color are more likely to be suspected when they exhibit behavioral challenges. This suggests that the racialized construction of exceptionalities reflects differential academic expectations and interpretations of behavior by race/ethnicity, with implications for the subjectivity of exceptionality identification and for the exacerbation of racial/ethnic inequalities in education.

Associations between child home language, gender, bilingualism and school readiness: A population-based study

This paper examines school readiness profiles of kindergarten children for the largest language groups in British Columbia, Canada. School readiness data were drawn from a population-level database that contains teacher ratings of children's school readiness, obtained via the Early Development Instrument (EDI; Janus & Offord, 2007). School readiness profiles (N=95,537) were compared according to children's home language background (English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Punjabi, and Tagalog) serving as a proxy for cultural/ethno-cultural background, and gender (49% female). Furthermore, children speaking Cantonese, Mandarin, Punjabi, or Tagalog as their home language were divided into monolingual and bilingual groups according to their English proficiency, using administrative records of children’s home language and English Language Learner (ELL) status. Analyses were conducted via multilevel modeling, controlling for the nested structure of the data (children within classrooms) and for children's families’ socioeconomic status (i.e., income). The most prominent findings were that bilingual children were rated higher than the overall average on virtually every aspect of school readiness. Cantonese and Mandarin speaking children were rated most highly on pre-academic skills, and Punjabi-speaking children on emotional and social competencies and behaviors. English Language Learners in all language groups were rated as being more shy and reluctant to display socially scripted behaviors than non-English Language Learners.

Perceptions of Critical Thinking, Task Value, Autonomy and Science Lab Self-efficacy: A Longitudinal Examination of Students' CASE Experience

The purpose of this study was to begin examining the impact of the Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE). Under development since 2008, the curriculum is intended to integrate core academics and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) into agricultural education programs. This longitudinal descriptive correlational study (N = 173) sought to examine the perceptions of students enrolled in a CASE course specific to the constructs of critical thinking, task value, autonomy, and science lab self-efficacy. Results revealed no differences in construct means between points of assessment. Correlation of the constructs of interest with student characteristics revealed small correlations between gender, English Language Learner status, and activity in the FFA with task value, autonomy, and science lab self-efficacy. Conclusions and recommendations are discussed in light of both the findings and the exploratory nature of this study.

Race and class categories and subcategories in educational thought and research

Educational thought and research often operates with whole-race (‘Black’, ‘White’, and ‘Asian’) and whole-class (‘low-income’) categories. For both explaining disparities and assessing them normatively, it is essential to pay attention to subdivisions within those groups. Regarding affirmative action, on average African and Afro-Caribbean immigrants, and to some extent their offspring, have educational and motivational advantages over, and a distinct normative standing from, African Americans that is masked in the use of ‘Black’ as the operative category in affirmative action. With regard to assessing – both explanatorily and normatively – the performance of ‘high commitment’ charter schools, such as the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), that make substantial demands on parents of admitted students, compared to traditional public schools serving the same population, it is essential to internally differentiate the relevant race and class categories with respect to the degree of poverty, English language learner status, and parental capital.

How motivation and engagement predict reading comprehension among native English-speaking and English-learning middle school students with disabilities in a remedial reading curriculum

The present study examined self-reported levels of motivation in predicting reading comprehension among 76 linguistically diverse middle school-aged students with disabilities in an urban Northeastern school district in the United States. Fifty-one percent of the students were English language learners (ELLs), and all were enrolled in READ180, an online and classroom-based, commercial reading program designed to promote comprehension for students who struggle with reading. Controlling for time spent in READ180 and formative vocabulary and comprehension performance within the environment, we investigated whether reading-related motivations (intrinsic motivation; extrinsic motivation; self-efficacy) predicted comprehension outcomes, and whether language status (ELL or non-ELL) moderated any relationships with reading comprehension. Self-efficacy was positively and significantly associated with reading comprehension, while intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation were not. The effect of self-efficacy was not moderated by ELL status and ELL students scored significantly below their non-ELL peers on the measure of reading comprehension.

“The Biggest Problem”: School Leaders’ Covert Construction of Latino ELL Families—Institutional Racism in a Neoliberal Schooling Context

This critical discourse analysis focuses upon the discursive construction of Latino English language learners (ELL) identity within a Texas neoliberal schooling context. Qualitative content analysis was used to examine the construction of Latino ELL identities in the discourses of Texas school leaders practicing under the aegis of neoliberal schooling. Important to this construction was the context of the discourse. School leaders’ discourse was colorblind and largely silent about both ELL status and ethnicity/race. Instead the dominant Discourse constructed economically disadvantaged families as deficit. However, in the discursive context Latino ELL families were disproportionately economically disadvantaged; thus, they were covertly constructed as deficient. The covert nature of the deficit construction makes it difficult to identify and thus resist. Given the other negative effects of neoliberal policies and practices, the implication of these findings is that neoliberal school policies are a manifestation of institutional racism, as they induce multiple forms of covert oppression for Latino ELLs. Yet the data also revealed a counter-Discourse that contested and resisted deficit low-income families, and therefore deficit Latino ELL identities, by drawing from a subordinated discourse of systemic inequities and social justice.