English Learners' Pathways Through English Language Arts and Beyond: A Statewide Examination

• In Event: Examining Opportunity to Learn for Multilingual Students

Abstract

Objectives: English learners’ (ELs’) limited access to required high school coursework (Kanno & Kangas, 2014) may pose an acute threat to their ability to graduate (Callahan, 2013). Using longitudinal data from one state, I examine ELs’ access to English language arts (ELA) coursework and credits in high school and how this access limits students’ ability to graduate. In Oregon, as in nearly all other states, students are required to complete four years of high school ELA in order to graduate (Macdonald, Zinth, & Pompelia, 2019).

Framework: I propose a conceptual framework that identifies a focal problem, causes of this problem, and levers to alleviate it (Figure 1). This study tests the problem and causes portions of this framework. The proposed problem is that many EL students have too few ELA credits to graduate from high school. The conceptualized causes of this problem are that ELs have limited exposure to ELA classes, and that ELs earn too few ELA credits. Future research will explore the solutions proposed in the framework.

Data: This study uses longitudinal statewide K-12 student-level data from 2006/07 through 2016/17. The state’s public schools serve roughly 580,000 students annually, of whom approximately 15,000 are ELs enrolled in grades 9-12.

Method: I conduct a series of analyses of ELA course-taking and completion, examining likelihood of ELA enrollment, type of ELA enrollment, pathways through ELA across grade levels, and graduation. For example, using regression analyses, I predict the likelihood of ELA enrollment for ELs compared to non-ELs as well as for different EL subgroups (e.g. newcomers, ELs with disabilities). In addition, I identify a typology of ELA trajectories and then compare the likelihood of EL and non-EL students in following those trajectories. Finally, I predict graduation for students who have completed different numbers, types, and trajectories of ELA coursework.

Results: While nearly all non-EL students are enrolled in ELA in every grade, ELs’ ELA enrollment hovers around 85%. As a result, students who enter high school as ELs take significantly fewer years of ELA and are significantly less likely to meet the state’s ELA graduation requirements, compared to students who do not enter high school as ELs.
Among high school students who do take ELA, ELs are 9 times more likely to be enrolled in remedial ELA, and ELA access differs significantly for different subgroups of ELs. Identifying four ELA trajectories (standard, delayed, remedial, and repeating) I find that ELs are significantly more likely than non-ELs to be in delayed, remedial, and repeating ELA trajectories.

Significance: Immigrant students and students acquiring English have long faced inequality in public education. A growing body of research shows that many ELs continue to be placed into lower track classes or excluded from academic instruction (Estrada, 2014; Gándara, Rumberger, Maxwell-Jolly & Callahan, 2003). This study builds on existing research, identifying common EL trajectories through ELA and studying the relationship of ELA access to graduation.

Author

• Ilana Marice Umansky, University of Oregon