Tracking and linguistic minority students: Consequences of ability grouping for second language learners

"Like Everybody Else": Equalizing Educational Opportunity for English Language Learners

“…However, with the exception of Gina, the teachers did not attempt to alter their traditional methods of assessment. In other studies of secondary ELLs, researchers have found that educators confused ELLs' English language ability with academic or cognitive ability (Fu, 1995;Harklau, 1994Harklau, , 1999Verplaetse, 1998). That was not the case in this study.…”

Learning About New Demands in Schools: Considering Algebra Policy Environments (LANDSCAPE)

“…District leaders' perspectives on ability grouping were evenly split: almost the same percentage of district leaders reported strongly agreeing/agreeing (51.9%) that more students would successfully complete algebra earlier if they were grouped by ability as those reporting to disagree/strongly disagree (48.1%). Given the overwhelming evidence in research, dating back to the 1980s, about the effects of tracking on students (e.g., Chunn, 1988;Gamoran, 1992;Harklau, 1994;Lucas, 2001;Welner & Oakes, 1996), it is surprising that so many district leaders agreed with this statement. Response patterns for these questions are shown in Figure 5.3.…”

The Quality of Writing Tasks and Students’ Use of Academic Language in Spanish

“…Teachers of ELL students have higher mobility rates (Katz, 1999), schools that serve large numbers of ELL students have poorer infrastructures (Gándara et al, 2003), and ELL students are disproportionately represented in nonacademic or lowtrack classes (Gándara et al, 2003;Harklau, 1994). Much less is understood, however, Figure 2.…”