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Teachers ‘Optimistic’ about English Learner Success

A new McGraw-Hill Education survey shows that while social and emotional learning challenges still present hurdles for English Learners (ELs), the state of English Learning in the U.S. is improving rapidly, with most educators indicating they are optimistic about ELs ability to succeed academically.

More than 460 teachers and administrators in K-12 schools across the U.S. took part in the second McGraw-Hill English Learners Report, an annual survey of educators and administrators.

The study presents a positive image of English language instruction in America, noting its growth and increasing accessibility, with 50% of educators said EL enrollment has increased over the past five years. A majority believed that EL instruction is sufficiently funded, with access to appropriate instructional resources increasing over the past five years.

Respondents reported that interactive instructional approaches and adaptive tools were the most effective teaching methods. The survey highlighted interactive classroom games and collaborative group work as interactive instructional approaches. A 2017 McGraw-Hill article explained that adaptive learning utilizes artificial intelligence to give every learner a personalized course that adapted real-time to their performance and interest level.

However, the most widely used classroom instructional tools were audio-visual resources, while adaptive learning technologies and free online educational resources were second.

A majority of educators believed their school or district provided “sufficient ongoing professional development opportunities to hone their skills,” and many felt they were generally equipped to teach ELs.

However, 46% of administrators and 36% of teachers felt they had not received enough EL training/professional development, and nearly a quarter in both groups said they did not feel confident applying the development they had received.

A majority of educators believed that EL instruction contributes to students’ overall English proficiency and academic performance. More than 75% of educators say they are optimistic about EL’s ability to succeed academically.

However, numerous survey respondents say that social and emotional challenges created learning obstacles for students. The study used examples such as “having overcome trauma or insufficient language skills to communicate with other students” to define social and emotional challenges.

Respondents also note a lack of family and community support as the second-largest learning hurdle. Conversations about immigration, which more than 60% of administrators and teachers report as being more prevalent than those about other political issues such as climate change and gun violence, also impact EL classrooms. Student reluctance to participate is the fourth and final factor marked by educators as affecting EL learning.

The study findings highlight the connection between social and emotional health and academic success, underscoring the need for schools to improve their support systems, as well as the need for educator training and the continued implementation of adaptive learning technologies and interactive instructional approaches.

The full report can be downloaded here https://www.mheducation.com/prek-12/explore/2019-el-survey.html

Investing in Teachers

Despite multiple studies pointing to teacher professional development as being the most decisive factor in student achievement, funding for such programs can still be hard to find, and there are plenty of different opinions on what types of program are most beneficial.  

Last month, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a grant program that will award $10 million to professional development providers around training for “high-quality” curricula. The grants will focus on training to help teachers use existing resources and materials more effectively and adjust them to their own needs rather than developing new curricula from scratch.

As is its policy, the Foundation is concentrating on “supporting service development and refinement in middle and high schools serving student populations that are at least 50% Black, Latino, emerging multilingual or English learner (EL)–designated, and/or low-income.” Only projects in California, Florida, Georgia, New York, and North Carolina will be funded unless applicants submit proposals together with a local education agency serving at least 50,000 students.

This strategy represents a welcome shift from the Gates Foundation’s focus on teacher evaluation, and the focus on curriculum is based in part on a paper released in 2017 (“Teaching Our Teachers: A Better Way—Continuous improvement in teacher preparation”) by Education First, a consulting group partly funded by the Gates Foundation, which relies on experts from Australia, Brazil, Finland, and the U.S.

Although the paper focused on preparation in the U.S., one of its main points is that Singapore and Finland base most of their teacher preparation around evaluated curriculum, unlike the U.S. As usual, there was a presumption that if it works in Finland and Singapore, we should be doing it here, but that doesn’t take into account the decentralized education system in the U.S. and the diversity of the U.S. student population.

The report recommended that teacher trainers use their states’ and districts’ curriculum guides in their teaching programs and train teachers to choose good materials from a diverse selection.

Basing teacher preparation around high-quality teaching materials will be a great help to many educators, especially those with less experience, but it will not lead to the teacher development that is so crucial to the success of our students. 

Professional development should be based on a broad range of topics and options to enable teachers to become the best they can. A broad choice of quality professional development helps school districts retain good teachers, enables them to use new teaching methods and technology, and helps them to become even better. 

Although this contribution from the Gates Foundation should be welcomed, our public education system should not be relying on a private foundation to point the direction of its teacher development policy. 

French Accept their Feminine Side

Gold-leafed sculpture of Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans, is located in the French Quarter of New Orleans
French heroine, Joan of Arc

The use of the feminine form of job titles has finally been accepted by members of the Académie Française, the guardians of the French language.

The Academy’s first online dictionary includes “feminized” versions of occupations alongside the longstanding masculine nouns, such as professeure for a female teacher or ingénieur for a female engineer

Created in 1635 to “fix the French language, giving it rules, rendering it pure and comprehensible by all,” the Academy had long-resisted the change, arguing repeatedly that to add an “e” to such male titles would “end up with proposals that are contrary to the spirit of the language.”

When Hélène Carrère d’Encausse became the Academy’s first female perpetual secretary in 1999 and announced she would be referred to as Madame le secrétaire perpetuel, in the masculine form and that she opposed la ministre (a female minister), preferring Madame le minister, there seemed little chance of change.

The argument was that gender had nothing to do with job title. However, it appears that the staunchly conservative watchdogs have accepted the need to change with the times, and the growing use of feminine job titles in daily speech. They now say that their previous reluctance was primarily because the wrong feminine versions were being used.

Linguist Bernard Cerquiglini says that the change came because “their model no longer holds up.” He explained to L’Express, “The word autrice (a female author) for example isn’t a neologism, it’s been around since the 16th century. It wasn’t until the 17th century that women began to be excluded from certain occupations and were relegated to the kitchen. I think that many members of the Academy understood that they could not stick by a modus operandi that is in fact misogynistic”.

Delaware Doubles EL Funding

Delaware has more than doubled its spending to support English learner students (ELs), as well as those who come from low-income households, with a $60 million plan over the next three years.


Announcing the plan, Dr. Susan Bunting, Delaware’s secretary of the Department of Education, commented: “We have the opportunity to increase funding, which has never been done before [in Delaware], specifically for our low-income students and English-learning students. That number has been growing in Delaware over the past few years but there has been no specific funding to help those students.”


The layout for the proposed funds would be $60 million in total, with $30 million being one-time monies and another $30 million coming from the operating budget. The expenditure of those funds would come to roughly $20 million annually, and the allocation of the funds would be a total of $40 million for the first year and $10 million for the latter two years. “Using a combination of operating funds and one-time monies, we are able, over the next three years, to make it $60 million dollars,” added Bunting, who also noted that a previous support of $6 million was purely opportunity grants and that the plan will take some time to take effect.


In the meantime, her office will be developing a template for the plan, which will extend funding to schools with a lower percentage of ELs. “In the past, the schools that qualified for the opportunity grants had 60% low-income or they had a concentration of 20% English learners,” she added. “We’ve worked in collaboration with the superintendents. We’ve listened, talked, and considered—and so every English learner student will receive monies and every low-income student. So, even if you had a school with 10% English learner students, you’re going to get money for each of those students, which is very different.”

Celebrate International Mother Language Day Today

This year’s theme of international mother language day is indigenous languages as a factor in development, peace, and reconciliation, as 2019 is the International Year of Indigenous Languages

The idea to celebrate International Mother Language Day was the initiative of Bangladesh. It was approved at the 1999 UNESCO General Conference and has been observed throughout the world since 2000.

UNESCO believes in the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity for sustainable societies. It is within its mandate for peace that it works to preserve the differences in cultures and languages that foster tolerance and respect for others: “Linguistic diversity is increasingly threatened as more and more languages disappear. Globally 40% of the population does not have access to an education in a language they speak or understand. Nevertheless, progress is being made in mother tongue-based multilingual education with growing understanding of its importance, particularly in early schooling, and more commitment to its development in public life. Multilingual and multicultural societies exist through their languages which transmit and preserve traditional knowledge and cultures in a sustainable way.”

Director-General of UNESCO, Ms Audrey Azoulay released the following statement, stressing the importance of preserving indigenous languages:

“Our language is shedding tears all over because its own children are deserting it, leaving it alone with its heavy burden.” – from a Wolof poem by Useyno Gey Cosaan (Senegal)

“For UNESCO, every mother tongue deserves to be known, recognized and given greater prominence in all spheres of public life. This is not always the case. Mother tongues do not necessarily have national-language status, official-language status, or status as the language of instruction. This situation can lead to the devaluation of a mother tongue and to its ultimate disappearance in the long term.

“On this twentieth anniversary of International Mother Language Day, we must remember that all mother tongues count and that they are all essential to building peace and supporting sustainable development.

“A mother tongue is vital to literacy because it facilitates the acquisition of basic reading and writing skills, as well as basic numeracy, during the first years of schooling. These skills provide the foundation for personal development. A mother tongue is also a unique expression of creative diversity and identity, and is a source of knowledge and innovation.

“Much remains to be done. Learners’ mother tongues are rarely the language of instruction during the first years of schooling. According to UNESCO, nearly 40    per cent of the world’s population lack access to education in a language which they speak or understand. This situation persists despite studies showing that the command of a mother tongue facilitates general learning and learning of other languages.

“Indigenous peoples have always expressed their desire for education in their own languages, as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Since 2019 is the International Year of Indigenous Languages, the theme of this year’s International Mother Language Day will be indigenous languages as a factor in development, peace and reconciliation.

“Indigenous peoples number some 370 million and their languages account for the majority of the approximately 7,000 living languages on Earth. Many indigenous peoples continue to suffer from marginalization, discrimination and extreme poverty, and are the victims of human-rights violations.

“In the light of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg4) and of the objective to leave no one behind, it is essential that indigenous peoples have access to education in their own languages.

“On this International Mother Language Day, I thus invite all UNESCO Member States, our partners, and education stakeholders to recognize and enforce the rights of indigenous peoples.”

Japan Recognizes Ainu

Hokkaido, home to the last speakers of Ainu
Hokkaido, home to the last speakers of Ainu

The Japanese government has endorsed a bill to officially recognize the Ainu ethnic minority as an indigenous people of Japan for the first time and calls for “the creation of a society in which they can take pride in their heritage.” However, the move may have come too late to save the Ainu language, now spoken by only a handful of people.

The bill includes a subsidy program for regional revitalization to help local authorities implement projects to promote Ainu culture. It also calls for deregulation to make it easier for the Ainu people to gather wood in state-owned forests and catch salmon in local rivers, as part of efforts to help them preserve their cultural traditions.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said it is necessary to ensure that the Ainu people can maintain their dignity if Japan wants to be a vibrant society where diverse values are respected. He said the government will intervene to help the Ainu tackle new challenges.

Tadashi Kato, of the Ainu Association of Hokkaido, praised the move as a first step toward the harmonious coexistence of his people and other Japanese, but he hastened to add that the bill does not include provisions to improve the Ainu’s living standards.

The bill still needs to be passed by the Diet (Japan’s legislature) which will likely happen during the current session.

In 2008, the Diet passed a bipartisan, non-binding resolution calling upon the government to recognize the Ainu people as indigenous to Japan, and urging an end to discrimination against the group. The resolution recognized the Ainu people as “an indigenous people with a distinct language, religion and culture”. The government immediately followed with a statement acknowledging its recognition, stating, “The government would like to solemnly accept the historical fact that many Ainu were discriminated against and forced into poverty with the advancement of modernization, despite being legally equal to (Japanese) people.”

Ainu is a language isolate, unrelated to any other language, spoken only on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido by less than a hundred people. It was once spoken in the Kurile Islands, the northern part of Honshu and the southern half of Sakhalin, which is now part of Russia. Shigeru Kayano, who died in 2006, did much of the ground work in the Ainu ethnic movement in Japan. Despite having no formal education, he was the first Ainu politician to sit in the Diet, serving five terms in the assembly before taking over a vacated seat in the upper house. In the Diet, he often posed questions in the Ainu language.

Bilingual Babies Focus Better

According to new research published in Developmental Science and carried out at Canada’s York University, babies who hear two languages at home develop advantages in attention.

In the study, infants who were exposed to more than one language showed better attentional control than infants who were exposed to only one language. This means that exposure to bilingual environments should be considered a significant factor in the early development of attention in infancy, the researchers say, and could set the stage for lifelong cognitive benefits.

The research was conducted by famed specialist in the study of bilingualism Ellen Bialystok, distinguished research professor of psychology and Walter Gordon research chair of Lifespan Cognitive Development, and Scott Adler, associate professor in York’s Department of Psychology and the Centre for Vision Research, along with lead author Kyle J. Comishen.

The researchers conducted two separate studies in which infants’ eye movements were measured to assess attention and learning. Half of the infants who were studied were being raised in monolingual environments while others were being raised in environments in which they heard two languages spoken approximately half of the time each. The infants were shown images as they lay in a crib equipped with a camera and screen, and their eye movements were tracked and recorded as they watched pictures appear above them, in different areas of the screen. The tracking was conducted 60 times for each infant.

Baby looking at monitor with eye tracker and infrared mirror

“By studying infants—a population that does not yet speak any language—we discovered that the real difference between monolingual and bilingual individuals later in life is not in the language itself, but rather, in the attention system used to focus on language,” claims Bialystok. “This study tells us that from the very earliest stage of development, the networks that are the basis for developing attention are forming differently in infants who are being raised in a bilingual environment. Why is that important? It’s because attention is the basis for all cognition.”

In the first study, the infants saw one of two images in the center of the screen followed by another image appearing on either the left or right side of the screen. The babies learned to expect that if, for example, a pink and white image appears in the center of the screen, it would be followed by an attractive target image on the left; If a blue and yellow image appeared in the center, then the target would appear on the right. All the infants could learn these rules.

In the second study, which began in the same way, researchers switched the rule halfway through the experiment. When they tracked the babies’ eye movements, they found that infants who were exposed to a bilingual environment were better at learning the new rule and at anticipating where the target image would appear. This is difficult because they needed to learn a new association and replace a successful response with a new contrasting one.

“Infants only know which way to look if they can discriminate between the two pictures that appear in the center,” said Adler.  “They will eventually anticipate the picture appearing on the right, for example, by making an eye movement even before that picture appears on the right. What we found was that the infants who were raised in bilingual environments were able to do this better after the rule is switched than those raised in a monolingual environment.”

Anything that comes through the brain’s processing system interacts with this attentional mechanism, says Adler. Therefore, language, as well as visual information, can influence the development of the attentional system.

Researchers say the experience of attending to a complex environment in which infants simultaneously process and contrast two languages may account for why infants raised in bilingual environments have greater attentional control than those raised in monolingual environments.

In previous research, bilingual children and adults outperformed monolinguals on some cognitive tasks that require them to switch responses or deal with conflict. The reason for those differences were thought to follow from the ongoing need for bilinguals to select which language to speak. This new study pushes back the explanation to a time before individuals are actively using languages and switching between them.

“What is so ground-breaking about these results, is that they look at infants who are not bilingual yet and who are only hearing the bilingual environment. This is what’s having the impact on cognitive performance,” remarked Adler.

York University’s fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario’s Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Linguistic Chauvinism Condemned

Genevieve Finn examines two incidents of influential Americans demanding English be used by speakers of Asian languages which have sparked widespread criticism

In late January, Duke University professor and head of the School of Medicine’s Master of Biostatistics program Megan Neely sent an email to students entitled, “Something to think about,” in which she asked them to “commit to using English 100% of the time.”

Neely wrote that two other professors had approached her complaining that Chinese students were “being impolite” by having conversations in a common area not everyone could understand. Neely wrote that these professors had asked to see photos of the program’s students so they could remember them if they ever applied for future internships or work with them.

“To international students, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep these unintended consequences in mind when you choose to speak Chinese in the building,” the email cautioned.

Neely later apologized and stepped down from her post after facing public backlash.

Just over a week later, author Barbara Ehrenreich faced similar outrage over a string of tweets she posted about the Japanese cleaning guru Marie Kondo.

Ehrehreich is an author and activist who has written widely for decades about issues of social justice, philosophy, and feminism. Kondo is a recent pop culture sensation because of her Netflix show, “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo,” in which she uses a translator to communicate from her native Japanese to English.

“I will be convinced that America is not in decline only when our de-cluttering guru Marie Kondo learns to speak English,” Ehrenreich wrote in a now-deleted tweet.

Twitter users responded with accusations of racism. After an attempt to clarify that only worsened the situation, Ehrenreich apologized, saying her “attempts at subtle humor just don’t work.” The Twittersphere remained unplacated.

Both incidents bring up questions about the policing of language and whether the perception of some foreign languages as threatening by white Americans may be connected to race.

English Learners Succeeding in Math and STEM

The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has released its third data story (“Academic Performance and Outcomes for English Learners,” www2.ed.gov/datastory/el-outcomes/index.html) about ELs in U.S. schools. This story, which builds on two previously released stories about the characteristics and educational experiences of English learners (Els), focuses specifically on ELs’ NAEP performance and high school graduation rates. Through interactive infographics (many of which are built on data from the National Center for Education Statistics), the story shows that higher percentages of ELs are proficient in math than in reading, but that nearly half of all states experienced declines in the number of ELs who scored proficient in math between 2009 and 2017. The story also shows that graduation rates for ELs improved by ten percentage points between 2010–11 and 2015–16 (from 57% to 67%), but still fall well below the rates for non-ELs (84%). While interesting and informative, the data story also underscores the necessity of research and development to produce better resources and information to support EL learning.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine have also released English Learners in STEM Subjects: Transforming Classrooms, Schools, and Lives (www.nap.edu/catalog/25182/english-learners-in-stem-subjects-transforming-classrooms-schools-and-lives). This report examines what we know about ELs’ learning, teaching, and assessment in STEM subjects and provides guidance on how to improve STEM learning outcomes for these students. It reflects the consensus of a committee of EL experts that was chaired by National Center for Education Research (NCER) and National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) grantee Dr. David Francis and included past grantees Dr. Okhee Lee and Dr. Mary Schleppegrell alongside other experts in EL education, STEM education, and teaching. 

One of the report’s central conclusions is that ELs develop proficiency in both STEM subjects and language when their classroom teachers provide them with opportunities for meaningful interaction and actively support both content and language learning. Given that many STEM teachers do not receive preparation to teach in this way, the report provides several recommendations to improve preservice and in-service training. It also includes recommendations for how developers and publishers might produce better instructional materials and assessments to help both teachers and EL students. 

Efforts of both types—instructional preparation and development of new materials—may be further supported by two new toolkits (https://tech.ed.gov/edtech-english-learner-toolkits/) released by the Office of Education Technology. The toolkits are designed for educators and developers, and each is organized around five specific guiding principles to help the targeted group approach education technology with ELs’ unique needs in mind. The principles for developers emphasize the importance of thinking ahead about EL needs for those who wish to make products for this population. 

Meanwhile, the educator principles center on issues of awareness and encourage teachers to learn more about the features, platforms, and resources that are available for ELs in the world of education technology. The principles also complement one another—for example, developers are encouraged to offer instruction-focused professional development, and educators are encouraged to seek out the same. Brought together, these resources make a clear case for continued investment in R&D efforts to support STEM learning both for EL students and for their teachers.

LA Strike Sets Tone for Funding, Charters

Weakening of districts and unions through increased “charterization” was at the heart of the dispute

Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

As the teachers’ strike in the nation’s second-largest school district (Los Angeles Unified (LAUSD)) with the highest number (over 160,000) of English language learners (ELLs) comes to an end after six days, it makes sense to analyze what caused the district’s first strike in 30 years, especially since teachers in Denver and Oakland, which also have large minority populations, are on the verge of walking out. 

Of course, pay was one of the reasons behind the disagreement, but United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA, which counts about half of the city’s teachers as members) was prepared to accept a staggered 6% pay rise before the strike. So, this strike was about much more than pay. 

It is telling that first on UTLA’s summary of the deal was the agreement that “the Board of Education [BOE] will vote on a resolution calling on the state to establish a charter school cap and the creation of a Governor’s committee on charter schools at the next BOE meeting,” whereas LAUSD’s press release only mentions that they “also agreed to work together through joint committees that would provide recommendations on Charter co-location” and other topics in its final paragraph. With 277 charter schools, Los Angeles already has more than any other school district in the U.S., but 53 of those schools are affiliated to the district. The creation of more charter schools has become a contentious issue because they can operate independently of LAUSD, thus reducing the district’s income, and by the same token, their teachers negotiate separate contracts, which undermines teachers’ unions. 

According to UTLA, the parties agreed that by the end of June, the district will designate 20 community schools, with an additional ten the following year. These community schools will have additional funding (with UTLA positions) and their local school leadership councils will have full discretion over all budgetary items outside of infrastructure. Some Angelenos, especially those in more affluent areas where charters are very popular, want to limit the scope and power of LAUSD and the teachers’ unions. However, LAUSD and the unions will need to combine their resources if they are to tackle the underlying problem of inadequate education spending. 

Despite recent increases and the introduction of the Local Control Funding Formula, California still ranks in the bottom ten states in per-pupil spending, so it is hardly surprising that most of the strike agreement is about money. 

Under the agreement, not only will UTLA, LAUSD, and the mayor’s office jointly advocate for increased county and state funding, but LAUSD will:

Decrease class sizes in G4–12 by four students over the next three years;

Eliminate Section 1.5, which previously allowed the district to unilaterally ignore all class-size averages and caps;

Increase salaries by 6%;

Provide 300 more school nurses;

Provide 82 more school librarians;

Provide 77 more school counselors.

In among some of the other agreements on hours and procedures is an agreement to create a joint committee to “provide recommendations on the English Learner Master Plan including American Sign Language,” and another “to identify all district assessments [and] develop a plan to reduce the amount of assessments by 50%.”

LAUSD superintendent Austin Beutner was appointed just a few months ago after a contentious and expensive school board race in 2017, in which charter school supporters spent about $10 million to gain control of the board. Beutner claimed that giving in to union demands would bankrupt it and lead to teacher layoffs, while UTLA disagreed, saying that the district was holding on to $1.9 billion in unrestricted reserves.

During the strike, schools were kept open with skeleton staff by administrators who encouraged parents to send their children as usual. However, despite over 1,000 school buses running every day and the childcare necessities of working families, only about a third of the district’s students were in attendance during the strike, indicating an unexpected level of support for teachers among parents and causing a massive decrease in state funding for the district. LAUSD enrolls more than 650,000 students at over 900 schools, over 710 square miles. The ethnic composition of the LAUSD student population is primarily Latino (73.4%); the remainder are African American (10.0%), white (8.8%), Asian (3.9%), Filipino (2.2%), Pacific Islander (.04%), American Indian (.04%) and two or more races, not Latino (1%). In all, 92 languages other than English are spoken in LAUSD schools. The primary languages of its 160,000 English language learner students are Spanish (93.4%), Korean (1.1%), and Armenian (1.1%), with Tagalog, Cantonese, Arabic, Vietnamese, and Russian each accounting for less than 1% of the total. 

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