In the present study, we aimed to compare reading-writing relations between first-grade Native English Speakers (NESs) and English Language Learners (ELLs). Thirty-four ELLs and 35 NESs completed measures of receptive and expressive vocabulary, lexical-level reading (word reading) and writing (spelling), and discourse-level reading (reading…

We present findings from a randomized controlled trial of "Descubriendo la Lectura" (DLL), an intervention designed to improve the literacy skills of Spanish-speaking first graders, who are struggling with reading. DLL offers one-on-one native language literacy instruction for 12 to 20 weeks to each school's lowest performing…

The use of accommodations is often recommended to remove barriers to academic testing among English Learners (ELs). However, it is unclear whether accommodations are particularly effective at improving ELs' test scores. A growing foundation of empirical work has explored this topic. We conducted a meta-analysis that examined several possible…

A translanguaging lens in educational research focuses on social, cultural, and power dynamics of language and multilingualism in practice. It also represents a potentially transformative pedagogical practice that centers the languaging practice, power, and agency of multilingual learners to transgress classroom language borders. However,…

Purpose: This study examined the relationship between utterance length, syntactic complexity, and the probability of making an error at the utterance level. Method: The participants in this study included 830 Spanish-speaking first graders who were learning English at school. Story retells in both Spanish and English were collected from all…

Two consequentially related education policy topics in the United States are kindergarten entry assessments (KEAs) and the growing number of students who are "English learners" (ELs). In this study, I compared the content of, and home language use policies for six state KEAs, all of which were comprised of items from the GOLD®…

English learners are a significant student population in the American public education system that should be considered when proactively addressing the achievement gap in the United States. Fuel by immigration, the number of English learners enrolled in the United States has been growing at a rapid rate compared to their monolingual peers. In this…

The U.S. government encourages the study of critical languages spoken in geographic areas of strategic importance to U.S. national security and the global economy through a variety of discretionary grants and scholarship programs. U.S. students are traditionally underrepresented in the study of these languages; however, many of the nation's K-12…

Purpose: This retrospective study was intended to replicate findings from Sacks et al. (2013) regarding the efficacy of using the SATPAC (Systematic Articulation Training Program Accessing Computers) approach for remediating speech sound errors in a Tier 3 response to intervention (RTI) context. Method: Nine children aged 7;7 (years;months) to…

Despite the importance of assessment accommodations, little is known about its use in the context of classroom assessments. To provide guidance for teachers on how to best support their emergent bilinguals during classroom assessments, there may be ideas from large-scale assessments that can be used in the classrooms. This article, a targeted…

This reports examines the Fall 2017 early reading performance of students who attended the Austin Independent School District's English learner summer school program in June 2017.

Young English learners (ELs) whose home language is Spanish continue to lag behind in several school readiness areas including language and literacy skills in spite of their strong social skills, which are positively related to language and literacy. The purpose of this article is to identify challenges that preschool Spanish speaking ELs face,…

Given the growing number of Latino English learners and the lack of evidence-based educational opportunities they are provided, we investigated the impact of one potentially effective literacy intervention that targets struggling first-grade Spanish-speaking students: Descubriendo La Lectura (DLL). DLL provides first-grade Spanish-speaking…

Given the growing number of Latino English learners and the lack of evidence-based educational opportunities they are provided, we investigated the impact of one potentially effective literacy intervention that targets struggling first-grade Spanish-speaking students: Descubriendo La Lectura (DLL). DLL provides first-grade Spanish-speaking…

We identify contributions in this special issue in terms of two essential ways of threading systemic change for language equity in schools: theories/concepts from school governance down to classroom practice, and values/morals from practical realities in classrooms up. We characterize 'language equity' as a sense of belonging and meaningful…