by Alex Meneses Miyashita
Bilingual education continues making headlines
English-language learners narrow the achievement gap with white students when these two groups are not segregated in different schools, according to a report by the Pew Hispanic Center.
The study, released June 26, reported ELL students tend to be isolated in public schools that the center suggests are low-achieving given the schools’ characteristics.
Such characteristics include higher student-to teacher ratios, higher enrollment and a large number of students from poor families.
“A large part of the gap is that they’re not attending the same middle schools,” said Richard Fry, senior research associate at the Center and author of the report.
Fry pointed out that in New York schools, for instance, a 48-point gap in mathematics proficiency separates white and ELL eighth graders who study in schools that do not have these two groups together.
In schools where both white and ELL students are enrolled, the achievement gap narrows to 31 points. The scores of white students at these schools also drop.
The study reports 4 million ELL students in the nation and estimates the number will surge considerably in the coming years.
The number of students from immigrant parents will grow from 12.3 million in 2005 to 17.9 million in 2020’it projected.
The study focused on the states Arizona, California, Florida, New York and Texas, which have the highest concentration of ELL students.
The 34-page report, The Role of Schools in the English Language Learner Achievement Gap’ is available at http://pewhispanic.org.
