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2008 - ESL Placement and Schools: Effects on Immigrant Achievement

Attribution: Callahan, Rebecca, Wilkinson, Lindsey, Muller, Chandra, & Frisco, Michelle
Researchers: Chandra MullerLindsey WilkinsonMichelle FriscoRebecca Callahan
University Affiliation: University of Texas - Austin; Pennsylvania State University
Email: callahan@prc.utexas.edu
Research Question:
Investigates the effect of placement in ESL on academic progress and how it varies across school contexts.
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Educational Policy
Journal Entry: Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 355-384
Year: 2008
Findings:
  • ESL placement in high-immigrant concentration schools appears to improve immigrant achievement.
  • In high immigrant concentration schools, second-generation students derive the greatest benefit from ESL placement.
  • The effect of ESL placement depends not only on the school context and individual generational status but also on the interaction between the two.
  • Some negative estimated effects of ESL placement might be due to the social and institutional marginalization of students into certain courses, especially in low-immigrant-concentration schools.
Keywords: CompositionEnglish Language LearnersImmigrantsMathMinoritiesScienceRegions: NationalMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: Secondary Survey DataAnalysis Methods: Propensity Score Matching Sampling Frame:Immigrant students attending 26 ESL schools
Sampling Types: RandomAnalysis Units: SchoolStudentData Types: Quantitative-Cross Sectional
Data Description:
  • First- and second- generation immigrant students in the 26 schools offering ESL courses who completed the AddHelath Wave ! And Wave III survey and for whom HS transcripts where available (n=1,683 students).
  • Data from AddHealth and the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study (AHAA).
  • 1994-1995 school year.
  • 1) Model predicting ESL Placement
  • DV: ESL Placement
  • IV: intact family structure, female, region, parent education, age, interview in non-English language, generation of immigrant status, race, AH-PVT (English Vocabulary Test), low math placement grade 9, proportion Filipino in school, proportion Cuban in school, proportion of parents with HS diploma, proportion age 5+ not speaking English well in student’s neighborhood, male unemployment rate in student’s neighborhood
  • 2) Effect of ESL Placement on Immigrant Grades and Math & Science
  • – DV: math and science enrollment, overall college preparatory course enrollment, junior-year GPA, and cumulative course failures.
  • – IV: ESL course placement
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation Abstracts
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