Obscuring Equity in Dual Language Bilingual Education: A Longitudinal Study of Emergent Bilingual Achievement, Course Placements, and Grades

Morita‐Mullaney, Trish; Renn, Jennifer; Chiu, Ming Ming

doi:10.1002/tesq.592

Cited by 24 publications

(21 citation statements)

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“…Unlike the students in the Driscoll case, las escuelitas participants sometimes graduated high school a year early because they had been placed in 1-A, as they knew how to read, hold a pencil, and write their palitos and bolas. Tracking English learners into remedial courses carries on today, even when said students are enrolled in purportedly more rigorous dual language programs (Morita-Mullaney et al, 2020).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“I Learned How to Read in Spanish”: A Genealogical Analysis of Biliterate Subjective Possibilities in South Texas Escuelitas and Beyond

Degollado

Bell

Harvey‐Torres

2022

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education

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Background/Context: Historically, the literature on access to quality education for Mexican Americans has been wrought with injustices committed on them because of the racist and deficit thinking of the time. This includes, but is not limited to, access to literacy in English and Spanish. This article focuses on las escuelitas, or little schools, as sites of resistance that fostered Spanish literacy as an extension of the home before official schooling in all English public schools. These little schools were community-based initiatives that taught Texas Mexican children Spanish literacy and Mexican culture from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s in the borderlands. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: Drawing on nepantla and border thinking as theoretical frameworks, we argue that biliterate subjectivities emerge(d) from geographically contingent ideologies rooted in colonizing codes of power. We asked: (1) How do participants describe their early literacy experiences in las escuelitas? (2) How do the discursive characterizations of participants’ early literacy experiences inform our understanding of emerging discursive biliterate subjectivities? Research Design: Employing a Foucauldian genealogical analysis, this article examines the experiences of nine escuelitas attendees. Oral histories were collected form a group of Mexican Americans who attended las escuelitas in the 1940s and were from the same graduating high school class, though they did not attend the same escuelita. Alongside their narratives, we draw on historical accounts of las escuelitas and broader Mexican American history of education of the southwestern United States. Other data include poems and textbooks provided by the participants themselves. Foucauldian genealogical analysis offered a more nuanced story in which to situate their narratives. Findings/Results: The findings demonstrate how biliterate subjectivities were produced ideologically as the participants lived and made meaning in a time when official biliteracy was not only inconceivable, but effectively outlawed by English-only laws governing public schools. We go on to consider the clandestine biliteracy of escuelita attendees of the early 20th century, in contrast to the growing popularity of official forms of biliteracy for (some) contemporary students in schools today. To do so, we detail how participants engaged in complex and contradictory discursive characterizations that revealed their nepantla and border thinking as a way of reading and writing the world. Thus, las escuelitas provide historical insight into not only the ingenuity of communities to resist English hegemony, but also how present-day bilingual education often reinscribes marginalization. Conclusions/Recommendations: The discursive narratives demonstrate the complexity of forming subjectivities in relation to biliteracy. We reveal the ways in which their biliterate subjectivities of reading the word informed the ways in which they also read the world. Thus, their subjective formations emanated nepantla and border thinking as a facet of their biliteracy. We also find that their biliteracy stories echo present discursive formations of who is considered biliterate through official manifestations like the Seal of Biliteracy. Finally, their stories indicate that biliteracy as a subjective possibility has always been rooted in communities of color whose lives and knowledges often go unrecognized.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“I Learned How to Read in Spanish”: A Genealogical Analysis of Biliterate Subjective Possibilities in South Texas Escuelitas and Beyond

Degollado

Bell

Harvey‐Torres

2022

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education

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“…Numerous studies have found that TWI programs improve academic achievement for both ELs and native English speakers (Collier & Thomas, 2004; Rolstad et al, 2005; Steele et al, 2017; Umansky & Reardon, 2014; Valentino & Reardon, 2015). ELs perform better on standardized tests in mathematics and English language arts than their peers in English as a second language classes and tend to have higher grades and higher likelihood of taking advanced courses in middle school after participating in an elementary TWI program (Morita-Mullaney et al, 2020). TWI positively impacts not only language development but also academic outcomes in other subject areas (Steele et al, 2017; Umansky & Reardon, 2014; Valentino & Reardon, 2015).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Teachers and Leaders Facilitate Integration in a Two-Way Dual Language Immersion Program

Ayscue

Uzzell

2022

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education

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Background/Context: Public school enrollment in the United States is becoming increasingly racially and linguistically diverse; however, school segregation continues to intensify across the nation. Within this context, two-way dual language immersion (TWI) programs, which intentionally strive to balance English learners and English speakers, may create a natural opportunity for integration. Research Question: How do teachers and leaders facilitate integrative interactions among students of different racial and linguistic groups in a TWI program? Research Design: This qualitative, holistic, single case study explores the TWI program at Silverthorne Elementary School (pseudonym), a K-5 traditional public school in the southeastern United States. Silverthorne is in a rural community on the outskirts of a large metropolitan area that is a new immigrant destination. At the time of data collection, Silverthorne’s TWI program was in its seventh year of implementation. Participants include 12 teachers, one guidance counselor, and one school leader. We conducted semi-structured individual interviews with all participants, observed eight classrooms, and analyzed supplemental documents. We used inductive coding and ultimately generated four themes to describe how TWI teachers and leaders facilitate integration. Findings: Silverthorne’s TWI program provides an opportunity to facilitate integration among students from different racial and linguistic backgrounds. The nature of these integrative experiences is shaped by the structure of the TWI program, the teachers’ conceptualizations of diversity, the teachers’ pedagogical and curricular decisions, and the school leader’s support of the TWI program. Conclusion: Although teachers and leaders in the Silverthorne TWI program have promoted integration in numerous ways, they also have missed important opportunities to facilitate greater integration. Nonetheless, this TWI program illustrates the potential of TWI to provide opportunities for students from different racial and linguistic backgrounds to learn together in a truly integrated environment. Findings suggest the need for enhanced professional development regarding how to facilitate integration in diverse classrooms as well as future research to understand how, if at all, integration is considered when districts and schools are designing and implementing TWI programs.

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“…Estrada (2014) examined ELL course placement policies in four California middle schools and found that ELLs' class schedules mostly consisted of few or no core contents classes, remedial and English language support classes, both of which did not serve academic purpose. Even high-achieving ELLs could not as fully access to academic subjects as their non-ELLs did (Estrada, 2014;Morita-Mullaney et al, 2020). Gándara and her colleagues (2003) who examined transcripts of high school students from two California school districts also found the similar course placement patterns; ELLs' class schedules showed multiple empty class periods, remedial classes, too many electives while having few or no core contents areas, especially science.…”

Section: Coursesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, their findings suggest that ELLs are consistently denied access to advanced core courses even though they share the similar observed characteristics and achievement level with non-ELLs. Qualitative studies have also documented ELLs' limited access to advanced courses or core-contents area classes (Estrada, 2014;Gándara, Rumberger, Maxwell-Jolly, & Callahan, 2003;Morita-Mullaney, Renn, & Chiu, 2020;Thompson, 2017;Xiong, 2010) despite their high prior achievement (Kanno, 2018;Zuniga et al, 2005) or high aspiration for post-secondary education (Kanno & Kangas, 2014).…”

Section: Statement Of the Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Scholars have pointed out that the poor implementation of ELL language and other support programs and their quality of instruction result in producing negative effects of such programs, which are supposed to help ELLs access to academic contents (Hakuta, 2011;Ovando & Collier, 1998). ELLs programs should not supplant academic subject courses but in practice ELL programs occupy a portion of their course schedule, crowding out core contents courses as documented by studies (Estrada, 2014;Gándara et al, 2003;Morita-Mullaney et al, 2020;Umansky, 2016a).…”

Section: Deficit Orientation Equating English Proficiency With Academic Abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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How far can they go? : English language learners' math course taking in high school and school practices

Moon¹

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Over the last three decades in the U.S., schools have endeavored to provide more equitable access to rigorous courses, especially for racially or socioeconomically marginalized students, and increased those students' participation in higher level courses. Despite such improvement, the gaps in high level courses enrollment among racially or socioeconomically different student groups still remain with those marginalized students underrepresented in the high level courses. The present study focused on another marginalized group of students, English language learners (ELLs) and sought to identify school practices that may improve ELLs' access to advanced math courses in high school. Using the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, the present study examined three key school practices in association with ELLs' taking advanced math: i) student choice-based math placement policies, ii) math encouraging programs for underrepresented studentudy found that only math PLCs had a statistically significant association with the probability of taking advanced math courses, net of prior achievement and other student- and school-level factors. The math PLCs examined here represented a collaboration among math teachers to learn effective teaching methods and discuss their teaching/learning belief for students including ELLs or under-performing students. It found no differential effects of school practices and ELLs' taking advanced math courses, the main focus of this study. However, the findings indicate that ELLs can also benefit from high quality math PLCs as much as other students. The key finding of the present study suggests the possible area that school leadership and educators should develop to improve students' access to advanced math courses net of their prior achievement. Particularly for ELLs, the finding suggests that training content area teachers may help ELLs more readily access academicarformance. Most importantly, considering taking advanced math in high school is a critical issue for ELLs in regard to their participation in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) workforce in the future, there should be more research that explicitly investigates school policies and practices that may facilitate ELLs' access to higher level courses in high school. keywords: English language learners, High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, math professional learning communities, student choice, advanaced math

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Obscuring Equity in Dual Language Bilingual Education: A Longitudinal Study of Emergent Bilingual Achievement, Course Placements, and Grades

Cited by 24 publications

References 55 publications

“I Learned How to Read in Spanish”: A Genealogical Analysis of Biliterate Subjective Possibilities in South Texas Escuelitas and Beyond

“I Learned How to Read in Spanish”: A Genealogical Analysis of Biliterate Subjective Possibilities in South Texas Escuelitas and Beyond

How Teachers and Leaders Facilitate Integration in a Two-Way Dual Language Immersion Program

How far can they go? : English language learners' math course taking in high school and school practices

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