English Learner Grouping: Why It’s Often Harmful
- These studies add to a growing body of evidence questioning the effectiveness of traditional EL grouping practices.
- Two recent studies dig into academic outcomes for elementary and high school students and found, in most cases, no benefits and some disadvantages from grouping English learners.
- For years, K-12 schools have grouped English learners in classrooms, driven by factors including limited resources and the intention to provide targeted language instruction to students with similar...
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Two recent studies dig into academic outcomes for elementary and high school students and found, in most cases, no benefits and some disadvantages from grouping English learners.
For years, K-12 schools have grouped English learners in classrooms, driven by factors including limited resources and the intention to provide targeted language instruction to students with similar educational needs. Despite this continued practice, there is a lack of evidence showing that separating English learners from their peers is effective.
In a new study in Peabody Journal of Education researchers examined outcomes for English learners (ELs) grouped together in core academic courses in high schools and found that concentrating els was linked to lower rates of graduation and college enrollment.
“Many well-intentioned educators are trying to manage logistical complexities of staffing and scheduling,” says lead author Kristin Black, research scientist at the Institute for Human Development and Social Change at New York University steinhardt.
“We need to learn more about whether there are particular English learners who might be able to benefit from this kind of segregated course surroundings,but our latest study suggests that school leaders should be much more cautious about this practice.”
The findings build upon a growing body of research challenging grouping ELs together, including a study american Education Research Journal in which researchers tested the effects of teaching elementary school ELs in homogenous versus heterogenous groups and found no significant differences in academic outcomes for most students.
“Across these two studies and others, our findings challenge the default practice of separating English learners for instruction. While the details depend on student and school characteristics, we found little evidence that grouping English learners separately yields academic benefits for most students,” says NYU Steinhardt Professor Michael Kieffer, lead author of the AERJ study and a coauthor of the study in PJE.
“Moreover, we found troubling evidence that it can have meaningful negative associations with later outcomes.”
In the latest study of high schoolers, Black and her coauthors analyzed New York City Public School data for 31,303 ELs enrolled as ninth graders in 2013, 2014, and 2015. Students were categorized into three groups based on their years learning English prior to ninth grade: newcomer EL (1-3 years),developing EL (4-6 years),and long-term EL (7 or more years).The researchers separated high