Category Archives: Research and Publications

New IES blog post about Oregon’s use of the Ever EL category

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The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) published a blog post authored by our partnership about how Oregon is using the Ever EL category to more accurately capture outcomes for the full group of students who started school classified as English learners. As we explain in the IES blog post, one major reason why the Ever EL category is useful is that at higher grade levels, former ELs far outnumber current ELs. Reporting outcomes for Ever ELs allows us to understand how well schools and districts are serving both groups of students.

In our post, we go into more detail about how analyzing outcomes only for current ELs provides incomplete information. Typically, graduation rates are reported only for current ELs, with former ELs included in the “non-EL” group (as illustrated by the panel on the bottom left in the figure below). However, this reporting scheme provides no information about how schools are serving the much larger group of former ELs. In fact, former ELs graduate at rates slightly higher than students never classified as ELs (comparing the red and yellow bars in the top panel of the figure below). It is certainly concerning that only about half of current ELs graduate from Oregon high schools within four years. Nonetheless, it is important to recognize that the full group of current and former ELs–in other words, the Ever EL group–is graduating at rates much closer to their peers never classified as ELs (comparing the red and green bars in the bottom right panel below). This information combats deficit narratives about EL students and about how effectively schools are serving this group of students. While there is still much room for improvement in how education agencies meet the needs of current and former EL students, having complete data about outcomes for both groups, by using the Ever EL category, can facilitate better decision making.

Presenting the Ever EL Framework at the 2016 IES PI Meeting

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Dr. Martha Martinez from ODE and Dr. Karen Thompson from OSU presented on a panel about reacher-practitioner partnerships at the IES Principal Investigator meeting in Washington D.C. on December 16, 2016. Dr. Martinez and Dr. Thompson discussed the ODE/OSU ELL partnership’s ways of working together, including structures they have developed to support collaboration. They also discussed the evolution of the partnership’s research questions, demonstrating how the creation of a flag to identify students ever classified as English learners (Ever ELs) has enabled them to pursue a variety of additional questions, including analyzing graduation rates and special education disproportionality for Ever ELs.

As part of their presentation, Dr. Martinez and Dr. Thompson shared the figure below, created by partnership member Dr. Ilana Umansky. In this figure, white circles represent students currently classified as English learners while orange circles represent students formerly classified as ELs who have attained English proficiency and exited EL services. At early grade levels, most students in the Ever EL group are currently classified as ELs. However, because most students who enter school as ELs do attain English proficiency, at higher grade levels most students in the Ever EL group are former ELs. Because state and district data systems typically have not flagged former ELs after the short-term monitoring period required under federal law, reporting systems have not been capturing information about outcomes for this large group of students. A key focus of the ODE/OSU ELL partnership has been making changes to state reporting systems in order to provide information about outcomes for the full group of students who enter school as ELs.

Materials for the session can be downloaded here.

New Policy Brief on English Learner Students with Disabilities

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We are pleased to announce the release of a policy brief examining English learner students with disabilities in Oregon. Both practitioners and policymakers have raised concerns about this group of students, including whether ELs are over-represented in special education and how best to determine when ELs with disabilities have become proficient in English and no longer need EL services. In this brief we present results of a variety of analyses that compare likelihood of special education identification for English learners and other students.

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For one of the three main analyses in the brief, we examine special education enrollment rates for Oregon students in 2013-14. As the lefthand panel of the graph above shows, nearly 40% of students classified as ELs in the middle school grades were in special education. This far exceeds the special education enrollment rate of approximately 15% for students never classified as ELs at this grade level (the Never EL group, shown in the righthand panel of the graph). However, as the middle and righthand panels of the graph illustrates, when we compare special education enrollment rates for all students ever classified as English learners (the Ever EL group) to rates for students never classified as ELs (the Never EL group), the rates are quite similar. As explained in more detail in the full brief, ELs with disabilities are much less likely to meet the criteria necessary to become considered proficient in English and exit EL services. Therefore, large proportions of students in middle and high school who remain classified as English learners qualify for special education. We discuss a variety of implications of our findings, including a need for more guidance on how to effectively determine when ELs with disabilities should exit EL services.

Presenting Partnership Findings at the American Education Research Association Annual Meeting

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AERALeaders from the Oregon Department of Education and Oregon State University recently presented findings from our research-practitioner partnership at the 2016 American Education Research Association Annual Meeting in Washington DC. We presented alongside other IES-funded researcher-practitioner partnerships focused on English learners, sharing a typology of questions that can be explored by partnerships. For our second presentation, we shared results from our analysis of English learner students in special education.

Sharing our Partnership Research at the 2016 ELL Alliance Conference

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We presented findings from our partnership at annual ELL Alliance conference in Eugene from March 9-March 11, 2016. We presented our current analysis on the over- and under-representation of English learners in special education. In addition, we shared preliminary findings from our new study, Reclassification Learning Labs, which focuses on understanding how districts implement Oregon’s policies about when ELs have attained English proficiency and should exit EL services.

Topics address in our presentation about English learner students in special education included:

  • What proportion of students currently classified as English learners are in special education?
  • How does likelihood of identification for special education compare for students ever identified as English learners (Ever ELs) and other students (Never ELs) in Oregon?
  • For both Ever ELs and Never ELs, what is the likelihood of identification for special education by disability type?
  • What types of services are Ever EL students with disabilities receiving? How does this compare to services for other students?

The presentation on English learners in special education is available here. Results are preliminary and we are currently preparing a manuscript for publication on this topic.

The Reclassification Learning Labs presentation focuses on understanding:

  • How are state reclassification policies implemented in a variety of Oregon districts? What are the similarities and differences in implementation across districts?
  • What are the rationales for the ways in which districts implement the state’s reclassification policies?
  • What changes in instructional settings and services do students experience as a result of reclassification and how does this vary by district and by school?

The presentation for the Reclassification Learning Labs is available here.

New article highlighting implications of recent research about English learners for education policy

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A recent article by Dr. Joseph Robinson-Cimpian, Dr. Karen Thompson, and Dr. Ilana Umansky published in the journal of Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences provides a review of the research on educational policies for English language learners. The research we review includes analysis conducted as part of the ODE/OSU ELL partnership. We summarize key research findings on four topics: 1) ELL classification and services, 2) language of instruction, 3) access to core content, and 4) assessments. In addition, we discuss implications of this research for education policy.

Our partnership awarded funding by the Spencer Foundation

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We are very pleased to announce that our partnership has been awarded a Research-Practice Partnership grant from the Spencer Foundation.  This award of $400,000 over three years will allow us to continue our work to improve policies and practices for ELLs in Oregon. In particular, we will focus on investigating ways to better identify and support English learner students with disabilities. We are grateful for this award and look forward to deepening our collaboration.

Read OSU’s press release about our award here.

Sharing findings at summer conferences in Oregon

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We were pleased to share findings from our partnership at two conferences this summer. We presented at the annual conference of the Oregon Association for Bilingual Education on June 13 and at COSA’s Seaside conference for school administrators on June 18. As in our presentation this spring, we shared analysis of how long it is taking students who enter Oregon schools as ELLs to exit ELL services and information about the proportion of ELLs participating in bilingual programs over time. In addition, we also presented findings about ELLs who qualify for special education services, including:

  • The proportion of ELLs who qualify for special education over time and by grade level
  • The proportion of ELLs identified with particular types of disabilities at particular grade levels
  • The likelihood of exiting ELL services for students with particular types of disabilities

We appreciated hearing questions and ideas for future analyses from the attendees at our session and look forward to sharing more.

Presenting findings at 2015 ELL Alliance Conference

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We presented initial findings from our joint research at COSA’s annual ELL Alliance conference in Eugene on March 12, 2015. The conference was attended by over 600 Oregon educators interested in the education of ELLs, and we appreciated receiving feedback and ideas for future analyses from the audience. Topics we addressed in our presentation included:

  • How long does it takes students who enter kindergarten as ELLs in the state to develop English proficiency and exit ELL services?
  • What are the characteristics of students who remain classified as ELLs for seven years or more?
  • What proportion of ELLs are enrolled in different types of bilingual programs and how has this changed over time?

Our presentation is available here.