Panel Paper:
Secondary English Learner Opportunity to Learn and Curricular Streams: Access to Core Content, the Full Curriculum, Higher-‐Performing Non-‐EL Peers, and High School Outcomes
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
Methods: Mixed methods involved analyses of cross-‐sectional student administrative data for 2 years in 2 districts; policy documents, and staff interviews; and 4 years of longitudinal data for one grade 9 cohort who reached grade 12 by the end of the study.
Results: In both districts secondary ELs faced diminished OTL, obtaining the least number of core and advanced credits; the most intervention credits; and the least total credits, compared to other language status groups. ELs were also isolated in courses primarily with other ELs, former ELs, & low-‐performing peers. Curricular Stream features were implicated in increasing or diminishing OTL, including the relative emphasis on English language proficiency versus core academic content, remediation versus acceleration, isolation versus integration of ELs, and whether reclassification functioned as the gateway to full access. In District 1, EL placement was in separate, isolated nonmainstream ELD or sheltered Curricular Streams. Even higher-‐performing ELs typically remained in sheltered classes. Reclassification was the gateway to the mainstream academic core, honors and magnet programs, full curriculum, and higher-‐performing non-‐EL peers. Curricular Streams involving ELD, non-‐core “enabling” content courses, and/or interventions reduced access markedly. Most of these courses garnered neither graduation nor 4-‐year college eligibility credits. Of the District 1 grade 9 EL cohort, 26% versus 75% of reclassified students graduated; 14% of the entire grade 9 EL cohort completed 4-‐year college eligibility courses.
District 2 Curricular Streams were more variable: schools sometimes placed ELs with non-‐ELs based on performance; high performing ELs were more often mainstreamed. Finally, both districts’ staffs tended to report that although ostensibly equivalent, sheltered compared to mainstream core courses involved less rigor, depth, slower pacing, simplified language, and fewer language intensive assignments and activities.
Significance: This study contributes to our understanding of secondary EL OTL by construing it as access to mainstream core content, the full curriculum, and higher performing non-‐EL peers and by further developing the concept of Curricular Streams and identifying features that can increase or diminish OTL. Educational achievement remains the key pathway for reducing poverty and increasing upward mobility (Stiglitz, 2013). Lest we relegate our secondary ELs to an impoverished education and future, we must provide them full access, support, and college and career pathways.
