Academic achievement gaps among English language learner students

ESL and Poor Achievement

ENGLISH IS A SECOND LANGUAGE AND POOR ACHIEVEMENT

This work will conduct a review of at least three articles related to the problem topic of "children for whom English is a second language and are at the bottom of their classes in the early grades." Potential research as to the appropriate method including the rationale will be discussed.

The first step in conducting a review of available literature is choosing appropriate literature of an academic and peer reviewed nature such as material published in academic journals or publications. For the purpose of this review three such articles have been chosen.

This material will be reviewed in the nature of a 'qualitative' research study. The 'qualitative' method of research is one that is referred as a secondary analysis and one that is interpretive in nature.

Key Phrases:

The key phrases used for researching this information are those of: (1) "ESL students"; (2) falling behind in class; and (3) poor achievement.

Rationale:

The rationale for this is because there is very little research in this area and as well this is a very complex area of research and one that must be viewed from various perspectives and as such an area of research that quantitative data alone will be unable to inform fully.

I. ARMALINE & LEVY 2005 - NCLB & FAILURE FOR PROVISION

The work of Armaline and Levy (2005) entitled: "No Child Left Behind: Flowers Don't Grow in the Desert" states that the 'No Child Left Behind Act' (NCLB) while "Hailed as a sweeping educational reform by supporters...purports to bridge a long standing achievement gap between poor and/or minority students and their large white peers by instituting a system of 'accountability' in education...." The problem is that measurements are of such a nature that student achievement is conflated with "the ability to perform on standardized tests" as well as the fact that the discourse and employment of the NCLB legislation do not recognize issues of institutional racism, class or language disparities as potential causal variables underlying differential performance on standardized measures (tests)." (Armaline and Levy, 2005) In a multi-method approach the construction of education reform was investigated with findings which state that poor and minority children "are capable or learning" and as well that "their families share the dream of advancement through education" and finally that the achievement gap "is a result of deeply rooted structural factors - not simply the inadequate efforts of teachers, or the (in) capabilities of students." (Ibid)

III. SURPRISING RESULTS - LESAUX & THIRTY LANGUAGES ESL BASE

In a study conducted by Nonie Lesaux on a group of 30 ESL children in Vancouver, Canada exceeding a total thirty total languages researcher and professor Nonie Lesaux states that: "...with proper intervention, children who speak English as a second language can learn to read English as well as or even better than their English-speaking peers." (Poiter, 2003) The study which is reported to be published in the "Developmental Psychology" journal and reported by Harvard News Office: "tracked 1,000 children speaking native English and English as a second language (ESL) in mainstream English classrooms from kindergarten through second grade." (Ibid) The study which included participants from "across an entire school district in North Vancouver, Canada" is stated to be the first of any "longitudinal study to look at a population-based sample that took in a citywide sweep of social classes, immigrant populations and native languages - 33 of them." (Ibid) In what Lesaux describes as a 'preventative model' and a combination of 'everything we know works well" the "bottom up approach" which has been named 'Firm Foundations' and is stated to Lesaux to be "an amazing collaboration" in what has been a "research-to-practice" development. The curriculum is informed from various literacy techniques shown to be effective accompanied by "monitoring, assessment and intervention." (Ibid)