Ecologically Just Conditions for Secondary Multilingual English Learners: Course Access, Teacher Collaboration, Curriculum, and Instruction

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

In this session, we present new findings from studies undertaken by the National Research & Development Center to Improve Education for Secondary English Learners. This research explores key ecological factors that influence the quality of education that English learner-classified multilingual students receive in middle and high school, and the relationships among those factors. Individual studies address: 1) the prevalence of and factors associated with EL-classified students’ exclusionary tracking in high school, 2) the collaborative communities and ecological factors that support or inhibit high-quality lessons integrating language and content, 3) the diverse affordances for teachers and students found in a secondary language arts educative curriculum, and 4) the features of educative curriculum materials that most impact secondary mathematics teachers’ planning and instruction.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Second Language Research

Chair

• Aida Walqui, WestEd

Papers

• Beyond English Instruction: A Multistate Analysis of Lau’s Unfulfilled Promise of Access to Core Content - Ilana M. Umansky, University of Oregon; Nami Shin, University of Kansas; Karen D. Thompson, Oregon State University; Janette Dalila Avelar, University of Oregon; Jaclyn B. Bovee, Oregon State University

• Instructional Quality in Collaborative Teaching: What Factors Support or Impede It? - Amanda Kibler, Oregon State University; Martha Castellon Palacios, WestEd; Jaclyn B. Bovee, Oregon State University; Sarah Marie Howard, Oregon State University

• Quality and Equity with Multilingual Learners: Ecological Research on the Development of Teacher Expertise - Aida Walqui, WestEd; Lee Hartman, WestEd; Mary K. Schmida, WestEd

• What is Compelling in Educative Curriculum Materials for Secondary Mathematics Educators of English Learners? - Haiwen Chu, WestEd; Leslie Hamburger, WestEd

Discussant

• Ester J. de Jong, University of Colorado - Denver