This review explores the multifaceted challenges and strategies related to the education of emergent bilingual (EB) students in the U.S. education system. It highlights three primary themes: program approaches, instructional needs, and the importance of school-home connections. The first theme evaluates various educational programs for EB…

Schools are required by the U.S. Constitution, federal and state legislation, and court rulings to ensure equity and excellent education for emergent bilingual students. This literature reviews those policies, related funding and the history of poor quality of instruction provided to these learners. It also describes the research on bilingual…

Public education in the United States acts as a governmental tool of neoliberalism, through which state power and sovereignty are deployed and transformed in daily life. Here, I examine how the divergence of sovereignty is exerted over refugee students and their families in US public education. Drawing on 42 months of ethnographic data collected…

This report summarizes findings from a 2016 study that estimated the time it takes English learner students to be reclassified as former English learner students in seven Washington state school districts. The study found that it took students who entered kindergarten as English learner students a median of 3.8 years to develop the English…

In the United States, English is not the official language but the dominant one. But for many students, the dominance of English instruction has come at the expense of losing their first language. For much of our history of schooling in the United States, students have been forced to leave their heritage or home languages at the door when they…

This brief describes findings on the percentage of English learner students entering school in kindergarten in seven Washington school districts who developed the English proficiency necessary to be reclassified as former English learner students and the average time to reclassification. Eighty-five percent of English learner students who entered…

This report synthesizes findings from extant empirical research to identify nine key policy areas that state policymakers and stakeholders in California can leverage to improve English learners' (ELs') opportunities and outcomes across the state. Importantly, the report situates these policy areas within the current framework of California state…