Contexts, Policies, and Outcomes for English Learners

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

This panel brings together research on the educational experiences of English Learners (ELs) across varied state policy contexts in the United States. Although EL students represent a growing and heterogeneous population, important gaps remain in understanding how differences in state policies and educational contexts shape their academic outcomes and trajectories. The papers in this panel address these gaps by examining EL across multiple states, grade spans, and learning environments.

Together, the papers highlight how English Learners’ outcomes are shaped by both the challenges they face and the supports available to them. One paper examines how COVID-19-related disruptions affected the academic outcomes of English Language Learner (ELL) students and non-ELL students from non-English-language backgrounds in New York City, with attention to variation across school and neighborhood peer language environments. A second paper documents the characteristics, distribution, and academic trajectories of newcomer students in Massachusetts public high schools, emphasizing heterogeneity across student groups and districts by drawing on both longitudinal administrative data and interviews. A third paper investigates the causal effects of state biliteracy seal policies in Florida on postsecondary enrollment, persistence, and degree attainment. A fourth paper adds to this focus on policy and programmatic context by examining bilingual education in Texas, comparing the academic and postsecondary outcomes of Hispanic EL students who participated in Dual Language Immersion (DLI), Transitional Bilingual (TB), and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs.

By spanning grade levels, policy settings, and outcomes, this panel offers a broader view of the educational pathways of English Learners and the institutional conditions that shape them. The papers employ diverse methods, including causal inference, descriptive longitudinal analysis, and mixed methods, while maintaining a shared focus on policy relevance. Collectively, the papers show that English Learners’ educational trajectories are shaped not only by student background and need, but also by the policy environments, program models, and institutional supports they encounter across stages of schooling.

Policy Area

• Education

Chair

• Kalena E Cortes, Texas A&M University

Discussant

• Caroline Bartlett, University of Tennessee (Knoxville)

Organizer

• Dong Hoon Lee, Syracuse University

Individual Presentations

• Recognizing Biliteracy as an Asset: The Effects of Biliteracy Seals on Postsecondary Outcomes - Presenting Author: Umut Ozek, RAND Corporation

• English Learners in Dual Language Programs: Evidence from Middle School Through College Enrollment - Presenting Author: Camila Morales, University of Texas, Dallas

• Educational Outcomes of High School Newcomers: Evidence from Massachusetts - Presenting Author: Diana Carolina Quintero Castellanos, Brown University; Non-Presenting Co-Author: John P Papay, Brown University; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Richard J. Murnane, Harvard University; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Preeya Mbekeani, American Institutes for Research

• The Impact of Remote Learning on English Language Learners: COVID and Peer Language Environment - Presenting Author: Dong Hoon Lee, Syracuse University