Improving and Sustaining Bilingual Mathematics Instruction Through Targeted Professional Development

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 2:30 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Transforming Bi-/Multilingual Instruction in Mathematics, Science, and History Education (Table 3)

Abstract

This study examines the impact of professional development with dual language (Spanish/English) teachers and Multilingual Learners (MLLs) state mathematics and English proficiency assessment outcomes. The project included models for integrating language and literacy into Spanish-language mathematics instruction. Coarsened exact matching was utilized to establish a treatment and unbiased comparison group. MLLs taught by project teachers had mathematics assessment standardized scores of 0.374 standard deviation units higher than comparison students whose teachers did not participate. These results were statistically significant, equivalent to moving the performance of a MLLs from the 50th to the 64.6th percentile rank. The effect on English proficiency scores was not statistically significant. This study illustrates the potential impact of specially designed professional development to improve MLLs mathematics outcomes.

Authors

• Marco A. Bravo, Santa Clara University

• Eduardo Mosqueda, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Kip T. Tellez, University of California - Santa Cruz