Placement of Former English Language Learners in Middle Schools: General Education or Dual Language?

Historically, many educators have attempted to help English Language Learners (ELLs) develop sufficient English skills to be reclassified so that they can be placed in general-education classrooms. At present, educators increasingly favor a policy of placing former ELLs in dual-language settings. But it remains unclear whether former ELLs in middle schools perform better academically in general-education (GE) or dual-language (DL) classrooms. Research was conducted to compare former ELLs placed in GE settings and those who remained in DL classrooms on state tests in English Language Arts (ELA) and math (n=99) at the middle-school level. In both subjects, DL students outperformed GE students on two of four yearly test administrations following reclassification, and for ELA averaged across the four, with single-test effects stronger in math than ELA. GE students did not outperform DL students on any of eight tests. Calling into question policies favoring placement of former ELLs in GE classes, the results underscore the efficacy of continuing to use students’ home language in instruction following reclassification

Teachers’ Beliefs about Authoritative Teaching: Response and Demand, or Response and Control?

In two studies, 254 secondary teachers completed a survey assessing beliefs about three putative factors of “authoritative teaching,” response, demand, and control. Control was positively associated with response, suggesting that teachers viewed development of relationships with students as congruent with classroom discipline. But demand was not associated with response, suggesting beliefs holding that academic rigor does not necessarily undermine relationships. Teachers apparently view authoritative teaching as combining response and control, not response and demand. Beliefs as such provide a window on classroom practices and provide a starting point for teacher educators who aim to facilitate optimal interactional styles in schools

Teachers\u27 Perceptions of Pandemic Learning Losses among English Language Learners: Effects of Language Proficiencies and Language Modalities

Practicing teachers (n=95) completed a survey in correlational research conducted to determine the extent to which, and the ways in which, they reported learning losses among English Language Learners stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic. Two candidate factors were examined: language proficiencies (L1 and L2) and language modalities (listening, speaking, reading, writing). Students weak in both languages showed the largest losses, and students strong in both, the smallest. Low L-2 students suffered larger losses than high-L2 students regardless of L1 proficiency. In speaking skills, when L2 is weak, low-L1 students had larger losses than high-L1 students. Teachers reported no significant differences across language modalities for any language-proficiency group. Proficiency in L2 was the crucial factor in losses, although L1 proficiency operated as a mitigating factor in speaking skills. Low-L2 students are at an additional risk due to Covid-19 and might well be the focus of pandemic-recovery interventions, especially for students also weak in L1. These interventions may also benefit from leveraging ELLs\u27 L1 skills in remedial initiatives in speaking and perhaps also writing and other language modalities. Research evaluating these interventions is needed, in part for course corrections, since the pandemic recovery is likely to be protracted

Administrators\u27 Sense of Self-Efficacy in Supervision of Teachers of English as a Second Language

English language learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. school population, which means schools are hiring significant numbers of new ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers. This burgeoning pool of ESL teachers must be supervised by administrative staff, and the stakes are considerably higher now that teacher-evaluation policies frequently require teachers to make the grade or lose their jobs. But most administrators’ educational experiences are remote from ESL instruction; few administrators are former ESL teachers, and supervisory training routinely fails to encompass ESL pedagogy. Hence, it remains unclear whether the administrators who supervise ESL teachers feel competent to do so. It seems plausible that the increasing ESL population is causing a supervision problem in modern schools: more and more ESL teachers whom administrators feel unprepared to supervise. To test this theory, a study was conducted focused on administrators’ self-efficacy beliefs in supervision of ESL teachers. We designed a new survey instrument and evaluated its psychometric characteristics with a sample of 75 administrators, with linear regression performed to explore factors that predict administrators’ self-efficacy beliefs in ESL teacher supervision. Results indicate that the more ESL teachers an administrator supervises, the lower the self-efficacy the administrator reports in supervising these teachers. So the increasing quantity of ESL teachers is in fact producing a growing problem in schools, indicating an urgent need for more extensive and higher-quality training for administrators in the objectives and methods of ESL instruction

Growing Pains: The Effect of Common Core State Standards on Perceived Teacher Effectiveness

Survey research tested the hypothesis that teachers support less rigorous curriculum for English language learners (ELLs) than for general-education (GE) students. Participating teachers (n = 205) worked in urban schools with large populations of ELLs whose home language is Spanish. Eighty-seven were randomly assigned to respond about ELLs and 118 about GE students. Teachers rated descriptions of instructional activities that differed in demand for critical thinking (CT), a proxy for rigor of curriculum. In within-subjects analyses, teachers asked about ELLs rated low-CT activities over high-CT ones, but teachers asked about GE students produced no difference. In between-subjects analyses, teachers asked about ELLs rated high-CT activities lower than did teachers asked about GEs, but these teacher groups did not differ in ratings of low-CT activities. No effects were associated with teachers’ gender, ethnicity, age, educational attainment, teaching experience, or administrative experience, or if they held ESL or bilingual certification. Teachers favored less rigorous curriculum for ELL students, especially concerning high-CT activities. Beliefs as such would likely contribute to achievement gaps between ELLs and GE students

Educators’ Beliefs about Appropriate Pedagogical Models for Spanish-Speaking ELLs Who Differ in Home-Language and English-Language Literacy Abilities

Survey research (n = 366) examined educators’ beliefs about the efficacy of five pedagogical models (English as a second language (ESL) self-contained, ESL push-in, ESL pullout, bilingual, and dual language) for English language learners who differ in English literacy proficiency and home-language abilities (delimited to Spanish in this research). Dual language was preferred when students have high English proficiency; this effect was extremely strong for students who are also proficient in Spanish, and moderate when students’ Spanish skills are low. Bilingual education was moderately favored when English is low and Spanish is high. ESL self-contained was moderately favored when students lack literacy proficiency in both English and Spanish. Language proficiency was a consistent predictor of model preferences, with effects sufficiently strong to likely have meaningful impact on actual student placements. Future research should determine the extent to which this pattern in teachers’ beliefs comports with educational outcomes

Teaching Critical Thinking

This chapter outlines how to teach critical-thinking skills is a central issue at home, in school, on the job, and in life. Outcomes of critical-thinking pedagogies are optimized under three conditions: 1) when thinking skills are integrated with disciplinary content, not sequentially following a content presentation; 2) when thinking skills are taught as utilized in specific domains/disciplines, not decontextualized or treated as domain-general; and 3) when thinking skills are emphasized for all learners, not just advantaged ones with greater prior knowledge or academic ability. Accordingly, teaching critical thinking might well be structured to be integrative, domain-specific, and equitable. </jats:p

Teachers’ Beliefs about Translanguaging: Effects of Language Skills and Instructional Settings

Experimental research was conducted to examine teachers’ beliefs about classroom activities involving translanguaging, a pedagogical practice in which students use both their home language and second language to communicate, learn academic content, and develop oral and literacy skills in both languages. Teachers (n = 249) completed a survey to rate the effectiveness of translanguaging in general and specifically for students who vary in L1 and L2 proficiency (in this research, Spanish and English). Participants were randomly assigned to respond concerning one of four instructional settings: Bilingual Education (BE), Dual Language (DL), General Education (GE), and English as a Second Language (ESL). In general, translanguaging was viewed as more effective when students’ Spanish skills are strong, although strong English skills also were seen to make it more effective to a lesser extent. Teachers rated translanguaging as generally more effective in DL and BE, likely because these settings explicitly leverage students’ home-language skills. Classroom practices based on these beliefs may exacerbate achievement gaps between high- and low-proficiency populations, by directing the richness of the home language and culture disproportionately to high-proficiency students. Teacher-education practices are needed emphasizing translanguaging for all students regardless of home-language proficiency