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More Evidence of Future Bilingual Mathematicians and Scientists from the USA

The Language Magazine has recently published an article about a new data release from Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) with respect to English Language Learners (ELLs).

As the article discusses, this newest release titled “Academic Performance and Outcomes for English Learners,” builds upon previously released data about “the characteristics and educational experiences of English learners” as well as ELLs’ NAEP performance and high school graduation rates.

The newest data release pulls vital information from the National Center for Education Statistics. The data shows “that higher percentages of ELs are proficient in math than in reading… [and] that graduation rates for ELs improved by ten percentage points between 2010–11 and 2015–16 (from 57% to 67%).” However, it should be noted that these percentages fall below the national average of non-ELs graduation rates (84%) which, according to Language Magazine, “underscores the necessity of research and development to produce better resources and information to support EL learning.”

To this point, a report from The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), titled “English Learners in STEM Subjects: Transforming Classrooms, Schools, and Lives,” suggests that “that ELs develop proficiency in both STEM subjects and language when their classroom teachers provide them with opportunities for meaningful interaction and actively support both content and language learning.” In order to help STEM teachers reach ELLs in the classroom, NASEM offers several recommendations to improve preservice and in-service training in the body of the report. In addition, the publication includes “recommendations for how developers and publishers might produce better instructional materials and assessments to help both teachers and EL students.”

Lastly, Language Magazine recommends two new toolkits by the Office of Education Technology to promote “instructional preparation and development of new materials.” According to the article, these toolkits “are designed for educators and developers, and each is organized around five specific guiding principles to help the targeted group approach education technology with ELs’ unique needs in mind.”

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TWIN-CS

TWIN-CS advances the Catholic tradition of academic excellence by empowering Catholic schools to systematically transform from a monolingual to multilingual educational model in the service of vibrant culturally diverse populations.

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