Reclassification and Multilingual Learners’ Science Achievement

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 2:30 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Reducing Structural Barriers to Educational Opportunity: Multilingual Education and Beyond (Table 27)

Abstract

This study traces multilingual learners’ science academic achievement over a six-year period using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011) and examines the relationships between reclassification out of EL services and subsequent science outcomes. We use panel data regression analyses to explore the relationship of reclassification with MLs’ science achievement at a national scale, and then, how variation in contextual factors shapes this relationship. Results show that reclassification is associated with higher science test scores when compared to students that retain their EL status, but that this relationship is no longer significant once controls are accounted for. Results further show that reclassification is associated with differential science achievement across certain subgroups of multilingual learners.

Authors

• Katharine Taylor Harris, University of Florida

• Amber W. Deig, University of Southern Mississippi

• Tiffany S. Tan, Learning Policy Institute

• Mark B. Pacheco, University of Florida

• Chris Curran, University of Florida

• Lelydeyvis Boza, First Things First