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TitleStudy: English Learners Stigmatized by Teachers
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From http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2019/07/bias_teachers_english_learners.html

Do English-Language Learners Get Stigmatized by Teachers? A Study Says Yes
by Corey Mitchell
July 17, 2019

Research from Ilana Umansky of the University of Oregon and Hanna Dumont of Germany's Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education suggests that English-learner classification has a "direct and negative effect on teachers' perceptions of students' academic skills."

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, the researchers examined teacher perceptions of 2,166 students who spoke a language other than English at home.

At the start of kindergarten, the students had the same English proficiency and academic skill levels; whether they were identified as English-learners or not largely depended on differences in states' and districts' thresholds for classification.

The study included questions in which teachers recorded their perceptions of students' academic skills and knowledge over time. Umansky and Dumont used responses from the spring of kindergarten, after teachers had been working with their students for almost a full school year, and then again at the end of 1st and 2nd grades. They focused on teachers' perceptions of students' skills and knowledge in four areas: language and literacy; math; social studies; and science.

Their findings indicate that, across all the grade levels and content areas, teachers had lower perceptions of the academic skills and knowledge of those students who were classified as English-learners.

They also found, however, that the teachers' negative bias or low academic perceptions were virtually nonexistent for English-learners in bilingual settings, such as dual-language programs and traditional bilingual programs, where a teacher or paraprofessional is using a language other than English at least half the time.

Read the full article at http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2019/07/bias_teachers_english_learners.html
Umansky and Dumont's working paper is available at https://edworkingpapers.com/sites/default/files/ai19-94.pdf

SourceEducation Week
Inputdate2019-07-19 18:25:30
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