Education Commons^™

Schools’ Civil Rights Obligations To English Learners: Leadership Perceptions On Key Issues, Pamela R. Schwallier

Dissertations

English Learners (ELs), who now represent nearly 10% of all K-12 public school students, 4.8 million of who speak over 400 different languages and dialects, continue to lack equitable educational opportunities as demonstrated through gaps in achievement outcomes, poor graduation rates, and identified systemic barriers related to the intersectionality of language, culture, race, and racism (Crump, 2014; DeMatthews & Izquierdo, 2017; Menken & Solorza, 2015; Morita-Mullaney, 2018; National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition [NCELA], 2015, 2018). This quantitative study captured over 800 K-12 educational leaders’ perspectives, via an anonymous electronic survey, on key issues regarding equitable programs for ELs that …

Engaging Middle School Emergent Bilinguals In Language Awareness: A Practitioner Researcher Study, Carol Lickenbrock

Dissertations

This practitioner research study (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009) traced the journey toward critical literacy of a group of seven emergent bilinguals and me, their teacher, over the course of a four-month unit on argument as part of our English for Speakers of Other Languages 3 (ESOL3) class. Many of these students, like many emergent bilinguals in the United States, had been disempowered because they had not had access to the academic texts of school. As part of this research, students worked with tools of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to analyze the interpersonal, ideational and textual metafunctions of argumentation in lessons …

Taming Test Anxiety About Multiple-Choice Questions In Academic-Track Esl Students: A Test-Taking Skills Workshop Series, Lori Selke

Master's Projects and Capstones

Test anxiety among students at all levels is a well-documented phenomenon. Academic English learners, however, such as those who enroll in for-credit academic classes in California community colleges, face issues specific to their situation. Most notably, these students are often unfamiliar with the multiple-choice question (MCQ) test format, which is common in the United States but not as frequently utilized in in other countries. Students thus lack knowledge of the specific strategies and approaches that can help them successfully complete an assessment offered in this format. Both test anxiety and cultural unfamiliarity with assessment formats can prevent students from exhibiting …

Examining Grit With Middle Schoolers In Diverse General Education Classrooms – Validating The Grit Scale, Cristina Liliana Reding

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Educators and researchers are still attempting to narrow the achievement gap for students in diverse needs general education classrooms. In this quest, non-cognitive skills are being researched for their potential to influence behavioral changes and to increase the academic success of diverse needs students. Grit, a newly defined non-cognitive skill, is defined as perseverance and passion for long term goals. This construct has been explored in a variety of settings but not in diverse general education classrooms, with participants from culturally, linguistically and ability diverse groups. The validity of instruments is paramount for successful studies, and current scales measuring non-cognitive …

An Urban High School’S Response To A Demographic Shift, Tristian Cox

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Abstract

With the increasing numbers of Latino English Learners in United States, school educators are tasked with how to better service this population of students. New immigration destination schools are being affected by challenges that come with this increasing population of students. High schools that are experiencing demographic shifts from being predominantly African American to Latino are not prepared to meet the needs of these students. Moreover, additional challenges that arise with this group of students involve addressing their socio emotional and acculturation needs. This qualitative study examined how key personnel in an urban high school responded to a swift …

Creating A Sentence Frame Toolkit Based On Third Grade Writing Standards To Support The Writing Instruction Of Spanish-Speaking English Learners, Tanisha J. Rosa Le Bron

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Third grade general education teachers, particularly in Florida, will teach English learners (ELs) in their classroom who must participate in their English Language Arts writing classes at roughly the same pace as native English speakers in order to perform grade-level, standards-based writing tasks. For this reason, general education teachers must be equipped with helpful, research-based resources to support the ELs to become equally successful in writing instruction as their native-speaking peers. This thesis explored the use of sentence frames for improving the English skills of ELs as they start to understand and use the syntax of Standard English. As a …