A New Vision to Increase the Academic Achievement for English Language Learners and Immigrant Students

A New Vision to Increase the Academic Achievement for English Language Learners and Immigrant Students Kathleen Leos and Lisa Saavedra The Global Institute for Language and Literacy Development, LLC About the Roundtable on Young Children in Immigrant Families The goal of Young Children in Immigrant Families and the Path to Educational Success, a roundtable funded by the Foundation for Child Development and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, was to connect state and federal policy debates about early childhood education and education reform with emerging research about young children in immigrant families and what they and their families need to support their success at school in the United States. Specialists in education and early education—including researchers, key federal and state policy experts, and policymakers—came together for a day-long session with four closely related goals: to inform education and early education policymakers of the growing body of research about young children of immigrants; to educate researchers about policymakers’ needs; to build relationships between the two groups; and to generate specific, useful insights about the intersection of policy and research in this field. This report is one of several papers and policy briefs developed for the roundtable to provide the viewpoints of individual experts in order to stimulate group discussion, offer syntheses of the research on early education/pre-kindergarten and early elementary education as viewed by individual researchers and policymakers, and discuss the policy opportunities and challenges related to immigrant and ELL children age 3 to 8. The views of the papers’ authors catalyzed a rich discussion among roundtable participants. A synthesis report that brings together key themes from the whole session is forthcoming. The Global Institute for Language and Literacy Development, LLC, thanks Diane Staehr Fenner for her professional expertise and feedback on this paper . Copyright © October 2010. The Urban Institute. Permission is granted for reproduction of this file, with attribution to the Urban Institute. The Urban Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and educational organization that examines the social, economic, and governance problems facing the nation. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. Contents A New Vision to Increase the Academic Achievement for English Language Learners and Immigrant Students 1 Goal and Challenge 1 Who the Children Are 2 Reauthorization Debate 3 The Legal Context: Framework and History 4 Results of the Legislation 6 The Evidence-Based Research: Recent History and Impact 7 Brain Research: Language Development and Language Acquisition 8 The Vision 9 References 10 Notes 12 A New Vision to Increase the Academic Achievement for English Language Learners and Immigrant Students This paper analyzes the challenges and opportunities posed by today’s education reform debate for the early education and language learning of immigrant, limited English proficient, and English language learner students 3 to 8 years old. Because of the close connections between the preschool and early elementary years, the paper addresses children who attend early childhood and kindergarten-through-3rd-grade education programs throughout the United States. The analysis focuses primarily on provisions in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 (reauthorized as the No Child Left Behind Act, or NCLB, in 2001), as well as other relevant legislation and Supreme Court decisions that affect education of this student population. New, exciting solutions to educating English language learner (ELL) and immigrant students arise from creating a unified, coherent vision for early childhood and K–3 education by integrating evidence-based research with the education requirements outlined in NCLB. Historically, this integration has been difficult, if not impossible, to conceive—much less implement—given the paucity of available research, fragmented prior legislative history, and congressional interpretations of various Supreme Court mandates. However, the passage of NCLB and its detailed focus on student academic achievement, supported by an explosion of new scientific research related to the students’ complex linguistic and academic demands, presents an opportunity to transform education systems based on a vision for ELL and immigrant students’ educational attainment the moment they enroll in any early childhood or K–3 education setting. The key is merging the science with the law in a way that is student centered and developmentally and linguistically age appropriate. To begin, the paper defines the educational goals for the students by briefly summarizing the characteristics of young immigrant students and English language learners and their reported academic achievement to date. A short account of the cur