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This recent report by Carola Suárez-Orozco and Vivian Louie summarizes a focus group meeting regarding the challenges facing English learners. They conclude:

“Despite their differences, newcomers and English learners who have lived in the U.S. for some time are often socially isolated, and many have pressing educational and social-emotional needs. Practitioners, policymakers, and researchers should work together to address the challenges facing these young people—both the newcomers who are adjusting to their homeland and dealing with acculturative stress, and the long term ELs who may not be hearing or engaging in enough high-level conversational discourse to develop their skills. Whether research identifies the extra supports needed to develop skills or opportunities to participate in rich language use, there is more we can do to improve outcomes for these English learners.

“Inclusion is at the forefront of this research agenda, both in terms of the education that English learners have and their exposure to peer and teacher relationships and in developing research questions that practitioners and policymakers want to have answered. This will mean doing a better job of both identifying what works, in what contexts, and for which learners, and also developing ongoing and sustained in-service professional development to support teachers.

“Systematically considering programs, practices, and policies that may move the needle in some of these important areas is the next frontier of research if we want to address inequality for this fast growing group of students.”

Read the full article here: http://wtgrantfoundation.org/toward-new-research-agenda-improve-outcomes-adolescent-english-learners