Transforming High School Instruction for English Language Learners: National Research Project Data

• In Event: Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Teaching, Learning, and Identity: Lessons From the Experiences of English Language Learners

Abstract

Under pressure to graduate students within four years, traditional high schools struggle to meet academic and linguistic needs of adolescent English Language Learners (García et al., 2008; Suarez-Orozco et al., 2008). Nationally, ELLs are twice as likely as their US-born and English proficient peers to drop out before completing high school (Callahan, 2013). Findings from a USDOE i3 project demonstrate targeted instructional and structural changes that led to improved services for high school ELLs in two urban schools. Data reveal how instructional shifts can: 1) maximize learning opportunities for high school ELLs; 2) engage teachers in shared responsibility for students who have long struggled academically; and 3) use structural shifts within the high school to support sustained instructional improvements.

Authors

• Marguerite Lukes, Internationals Network for Public Schools

• Natalya Gnedko-Berry, American Institutes for Research

• Joseph Luft, Internationals Network

• Trisha Hinojosa, American Institutes for Research