Language Minority Students

Research related to effective educational policies and practices for language minority students (English language learners).

The Education of English Language Learners in Arizona: A Legacy of Persisting Achievement Gaps in a Restrictive Language Policy Climate

Part 8 of the Arizona Educational Equity Project. Arizona is on the wrong path for closing achievement gaps for its ELL students and that this is due, at least in part, to its highly restrictive language instruction policies.

The Arizona Home Language Survey and the Identification of Students for ELL Services

Part 7 of the Arizona Educational Equity Project. Analyses of data from two Arizona school districts clearly show that use of a single home language survey question will under-identify ELLs.

Assessment of Young English Language Learners in Arizona: Questioning the Validity of the State Measure of English Proficiency

Part 9 of the Arizona Educational Equity Project. The present assessment policy is likely denying services ELLs need and violating the rights of these students to an equal educational opportunity.

The Students We Share: A Binational Conference

Conference agenda for the 2010 The Students We Share - A Binational conference.

Forbidden Language: English Learners and Restrictive Language Policies

Increasingly, the academic achievement of English language Learners (ELLs) is affecting the academic achievement of American students as a whole Book: Forbidden Languages

The Latino Education Crisis: The Consequences of Failed Social Policies

The challenges that face Latino students threaten to undermine the academic accomplishments and economic prospects of the U.S. as a whole. This book examines the educational landscape for Latino students, looks at policies that have failed to support Latino families, and suggests specific policies that can address these problems.

Proposition 227 in California: A Long-Term Appraisal of Its Impact on Language Minority Student Achievement

For almost ten years now, school districts and more importantly English learners have felt the impact of Prop 227’s policy change. A number of research reports have attempted to analyze the impact of Prop 227 with varying methods and findings. In most cases, the reports relied on achievement data that straddled three different standardized tests, the Stanford-9 Achievement Test (SAT-9), the California Achievement Tests, Sixth Edition Survey (CAT-6), and the California Standards Test (CST). This study uses five years of CST data to examine Prop 227’s impact on English learner achievement.