Peeling Back the Label: Studies of Educational Opportunity Among Students Learning English

• In Event: 63.018 - Promising Scholarship in Education: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

This dissertation examines the educational opportunities and resulting outcomes of the fastest growing official subgroup of students in U.S. schools, students learning English. English learners (ELs) constitute roughly 5 million public school students or about 10% of public school enrollment, up 150% since 1990. In addition to being the fastest growing subgroup of students, English learners are also the lowest performing subgroup of students, apart from students with disabilities.
The dissertation uses state-of-the-art quantitative methodologies and 12 consecutive years of longitudinal data from a large, urban school district in California (2000-2012). Drawing upon sociological theory on educational stratification, immigration, language, race and ethnicity, and labeling, the dissertation is comprised of three main analyses, each comprising a chapter. Each chapter takes up a crucial aspect of the education of English learners: the first analysis explores students’ journey from English learner status to mainstream status, while the second and third analyses examine the educational opportunities and outcomes students have as ELs, respectively.
The first analysis examines the reclassification patterns of Latino English learner students, identifying not only the median amount of time it takes to reclassify but, importantly, what proportion of students reclassify by the end of elementary, middle, and high school, and how these reclassification patterns differ based on students’ instructional environment (English immersion, transitional bilingual, maintenance bilingual, and dual immersion). Reclassification is currently the single most crucial educational milestone for students learning English, marking students’ change in official status from ‘English learner’ to ‘reclassified fluent English proficient’ (RFEP). This is the first study to compare reclassification patterns across the four main programs offered to ELs, and also the first that is able to trace students from kindergarten through high school. The study uses event history analysis in a regression framework controlling for student and school background characteristics and employing school and cohort fixed effects. I find that 50% of Latino ELs have been reclassified by the 8th year in school and that there are important differences in reclassification patterns by language of instruction. In particular, it takes students in bilingual programs longer to reach English proficiency and reclassification, on average, compared to students in all-English classrooms, but more students in bilingual classrooms are proficient and have exited EL status by the time students are in high school.
One critical determinant of educational achievement is students’ access and exposure to academic content. The second analysis, therefore, examines English learner students’ course-taking in middle school. The first section offers a descriptive analysis of EL students’ middle school course-taking, and compares patterns between students of different English proficiency levels, and students of different linguistic and national origins. The second section of the paper contains quasi-experimental analyses to understand the causes of ELs’ access to core content. This topic is important because it is an area that presumably has a large effect on student outcomes and is also malleable to school and district policies and practices.

Author

• Ilana Marice Umansky, University of Oregon