Dr. Lucinda Lee Katz was born and raised in North Beach, San Francisco, CA adjacent to Chinatown proper, where she spent her K-12 years attending San Francisco's public schools. Throughout her K-12 education, her peers were primarily Chinese, but she never had a Chinese teacher. She attended Chinese school every day after school and on Saturdays…

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…

The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) ensures educational equity for multilingual learners through supporting school districts and charter schools to develop, implement and evaluate research-based language instruction education programs so that multilingual learners, including students with English learner status, attain academic language…

The term "newcomers" is commonly used to describe students who have recently arrived in U.S. schools. Depending on usage, newcomers may mean students in their first 6 months in U.S. schools, in their first 4 years, or anywhere in between. A majority arrive speaking little to no English, most are from socioeconomically disadvantaged…

In 1974, the Supreme Court drew on the 1954 Brown decision in "Lau v Nichols," placing English learner (EL) students' right to a meaningful education at the forefront of educational policy. Subsequent federal decisions and legislation (i.e., Castañeda; Equal Educational Opportunities Act [EEOA], No Child Left Behind [NCLB], and Every…

The abilities to communicate in multiple languages and navigate distinct cultural settings are significant assets that need to be understood and supported in schools. Minnesota values schools that strive to recognize and build on the linguistic and cultural resources of students and families. Recognizing and building on the strengths and resources…

The ability to communicate in multiple languages and navigate distinct cultural settings are significant assets that need to be understood and supported in schools. Minnesota values schools that strive to recognize and build on the linguistic and cultural resources of students and families. Recognizing and building on the strengths and resources…

How to address the educational needs of students with limited English proficiency (LEP) is a particularly challenging and often controversial endeavor. Failure to address the needs of students with LEP often results in denial of meaningful educational opportunities and leads to disproportionate representation in special education programs. This…

The study focuses on the background of Social Science and Humanities students (specifically in the course General Psychology) on their English education and competence. This research aims to identify the common factors of these students in terms of their English Proficiency. The students will answer survey questions that will give us information…

In conducting this review, we examine literature that explores the merits and shortcomings of ELP test design and testing as they have evolved over time through the current era of CCR standards. In the first section, we situate the role of language testing in its broader historical and policy context. In the second section, we examine the evolving…

While a substantial body of research exists on First- and Second-Language Acquisition (SLA), research on the language acquisition process that a language minority student goes through when they are acquiring a second language has been largely unexplored. Pedagogical practices that espouse language learning theories facilitate both the language…

Having reviewed several bodies of research, the authors provide 14 guidelines for educators to help English learners (ELs) make greater strides in learning English. These guidelines are: (1) Providing English Language Development (ELD) instruction is better than not providing it; (2) ELD instruction should continue at least until ELs attain…

There is a sizable number of English Language Learners (ELL) that are not succeeding in schools and are academically "falling through the cracks." The purpose of this thesis is to gather information that identifies reasons why students are not succeeding academically and which strategies individual teachers can implement to help these…

The last several decades have made clear that large numbers of immigrants still see America as a land of opportunity--and this influx of students has had a strong impact on the K-12 educational system. Most of the million-pupil increase in the public school population in the decade between 2001 and 2011 is due to the increase in English language…

This article examines the role of language policies in mediating access and equity in education. By examining a range of research and case studies on language policies, the authors explore how educational language policies serve as a central gatekeeper to education itself, as well as to quality education that may fundamentally depend on language…