Achievement and Growth for English Learners

Abstract

This study reports achievement and growth from kindergarten to fourth grade for three groups of English Learners (ELs): (a) ever-ELs; (b) ELs consistently eligible for service; and (c) EL and Special Education dually-identified students. All three EL groups had lower test scores than never-ELs throughout K-4. In math, ELs grew more than never-ELs during academic years but lost more during summers. In reading, ELs grew less than never-ELs in K-1 and grew more in later grades, but ELs also lost more during summers. These findings suggest summer support is required to help ELs maintain and develop academic skills.

Achievement and Growth on English Language Proficiency and Content Assessments for English Learners in Elementary Grades

“…Regarding growth in content assessments, exited EL students were found to quickly achieve academic goals. This finding is consistent with previous research (e.g., Johnson, 2022;Kieffer & Thompson, 2018), supporting the argument for tracking exited EL students' growth to better understand EL students' academic achievement trends over time. Concerning ELP growth, different growth patterns were observed in terms of four language domains (particularly in the Speaking domain) in States A and B.…”

“…When making inferences about growth or changes in academic content assessment scores over time, students’ development of ELP is also important to measure, not only to understand student learning, but also to make decisions about the supports and instructional opportunities that students receive (Umansky, 2016). Extant studies have tended to estimate EL students’ growth patterns either on state content assessments (e.g., Johnson, 2022; Lakin & Young, 2013) or ELP assessments (e.g., Sahakyan & Cook, 2021; Shin et al., 2022). To our knowledge, few studies, if any, have estimated concomitant performance.…”

“…In particular, we focused on estimating EL students’ academic growth in relation to their progress in ELP attainment. As Johnson (2022) pointed out, prior research has predominantly examined the cross‐sectional relationship between content and ELP assessment scores. A longitudinal investigation of the academic content‐ELP growth relationship would not only yield strong validity evidence for the use of ELP assessments but also help to reveal how ELP and academic achievement develop over time.…”

Cross-linguistic influence of early Spanish reading on English reading trajectories among Spanish–English emergent bilinguals: A latent class growth analysis.

“…They must both learn to comprehend the English oral language and decode English words at the same time. As such, it is not surprising to see initial differences in reading at school entry, as well as variability in reading growth rates between native English speakers and EBs (Johnson, 2023; Soland & Sandilos, 2021).…”

Waived English Learners: The Understudied Intersection of English Learner and Special Education Status

“…Although research on ELs has significantly grown in the past decade, empirical work documenting waived ELs' education is limited (for exceptions, see Flores et al, 2012;Flores & Drake, 2014;Mavrogordato & Harris, 2017). Studies and reports on ELs have typically focused on students receiving English language services and rarely disaggregate the EL-identified population by receipt of language services (e.g., Betts et al, 2020;Johnson, 2022). Additionally, within the limited literature on waived ELs, most studies focus on ELs' transition to college and show mixed findings on the link between waiver status and outcomes: Studies report that compared with EL peers receiving English language services, high school waived ELs were more likely to perform poorly on advanced college-preparation courses (Flores & Park, 2011) or less likely to need additional coursework to be ready for collegelevel coursework (Flores & Drake, 2014).…”