Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Academic Achievement And Course Taking Among Language Minority Youth In U.S. Schools: Effects Of Esl Placement, Rebecca Callahan, Lindsey Wilkinson, Chandra Muller

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The 1974 Lau decision requires that U.S. public schools ensure a meaningful education for students learning English. English as a Second Language (ESL) placement is an institutional response to the linguistic needs of these students; however, its academic implications remain largely unexplored. Using nationally representative data from the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS), the effects of ESL placement on college preparatory course enrollment and academic achievement of language minority students are estimated, first with fixed effects regression models and then with multi-level propensity score matching techniques. While numerous school and individual level factors beyond language proficiency predict ESL placement, a significant …