The Texas Education Code (§ 29.051) requires school districts to provide every language minority student with the opportunity to participate in either a bilingual or English as a second language (ESL) program. This evaluation report summarizes the performance of students who participated in the district's bilingual and ESL programs during the…

Background/Context: Students designated as English Learners (ELs) account for 10.4 percent of all students nationwide but have historically been provided unequal access to educational resources (Gándara et al., 2003; National Center for Education Statistics, 2023). Further, education policies are often blind to ELs' strengths and challenges,…

This report summarizes grade-level promotion and graduation outcomes for 2,192 Austin Independent School District (AISD) students who participated in the Twilight Program in 2019-2020. Of the 12th-grade students enrolled in Twilight in 2019-2020, 92% graduated. Of Twilight students in 6th through 11th grades, 90% were promoted to the next grade…

Prior research shows that English learners (ELs) lag behind their peers in academic achievement and education attainment. The persisting gap is partly attributed to ELs' limited exposure to academic content. This article investigates the efficacy of a summer credit recovery program aimed at expanding high school newcomer ELs' access to academic…

Overall, Twilight credit recovery program student outcomes were positive during 2020-2021. The middle school students who participated in Twilight had a 60% success rate and high school students who participated in Twilight had a 77% success rate. In addition, 81% of the 12th graders who participated in Twilight graduated from high school. Lastly,…

Between 2015 and 2019, Holyoke Public Schools in Massachusetts cut its dropout rate nearly in half and increased its graduation rate by 10 percentage points, with notable gains among historically marginalized student groups. The district cites Opportunity Academy (OA), an alternative education program within the district's high school, as a key…

This report summarizes grade-level promotion and graduation outcomes for 2,163 Austin Independent School District (AISD) students who participated in the DELTA Program in 2019-2020. Seventy-four percent of DELTA students in 9th through 11th grades were promoted to the next grade level and of the DELTA students in 12th grade, 83% graduated from…

Research has largely been silent on English Learner (EL) persistence and completion in U.S. community colleges, yet studies conducted across higher education report that only one in eight ELs completes a bachelor's degree (Kanno & Cromley, 2013). Many interventions have been proposed to improve college student persistence and completion. This…

This report summarizes grade-level promotion and graduation outcomes for 2,859 Austin Independent School District (AISD) students who participated in the Twilight Program in 2018-2019. Of the 12th-grade students enrolled in Twilight in 2018-2019, 95% graduated. Of Twilight students in 6th through 11th grades, 94% were promoted to the next grade…

Community asset mapping is an approach that school counselors can use to locate resources to meet the needs of families, schools, and communities. This article provides step-by-step instructions on how school counselors might use community asset mapping to address the needs of their population(s), illustrated with an example of implementation in a…

This report summarizes the academic performance of students in the Austin Independent School District's bilingual and English as a second language programs during 2018-2019. Students' advanced placement course performance, state academic tests (STAAR and EOC) performance, as well as graduation and dropout rates are summarized.

Traumatic experiences in children are pervasive, and trauma has been correlated with adverse academic outcomes, including school dropout. This research study aimed to answer the following question: According to selected educators in specialized programs in Ontario, in what ways are trauma-informed frameworks used to support the social-emotional…

Effectively educating the large English learner population requires policymakers to ensure developmentally appropriate settings and services throughout the time students are learning English, as well as during their transition to fluent English proficient status--a process termed reclassification. Using longitudinal student-level data from two…

Early College High School (ECHS) provides students with the opportunity to earn a high school diploma and 60 college hours, which lead to an associate's degree. This report describes demographic characteristics and academic outcomes of the students served by ECHS and highlights emerging topics from the program coordinator survey.

This report summarizes grade-level promotion and graduation outcomes for 2,646 Austin Independent School District (AISD) students who participated in the DELTA Program in 2018-2019. Seventy-one percent of DELTA students in 9th through 11th grades were promoted to the next grade level and of the DELTA students in 12th grade, 85% graduated from high…