Kate Menken

Teaching to the Test: How No Child Left Behind Impacts Language Policy, Curriculum, and Instruction for English Language Learners

Abstract In the wake of the federal No Child Left Behind legislation, standardized tests have become increasingly high-stakes. Yet English language learners (ELLs) typically score far below native English speakers, creating pressure to “teach to the test.” This article shares findings from an intensive year long study in 10 New York City high schools, detailing how high-stakes tests become defacto language policy in schools. Most schools and individual educators have increased the amount of English instruction ELLs receive; however, some have instead increased native language instruction as a test preparation strategy. Curriculum and instruction focuses on test content and strategies, and English as a second language classes have become more like English language arts classes for native English speakers. In bilingual classes, tests are found to promote monolingual instruction with test translations guiding decisions about language allocation.

NCLB and English Language Learners: Challenges and Consequences

This article highlights key issues surrounding the assessment and accountability mandates of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) for English language learners (ELLs). The policy requires high-stakes testing of ELLs in English—a language that these students, by definition, have not yet mastered. After offering background on current federal education legislation, this article shares findings from a word frequency analysis of actual statewide exams. This analysis reveals that even academic content tests are linguistically complex, using words likely unknown by an ELL, which clarifies why testing poses unique challenges for this student population. Analyses of recent ELL performance data on high-stakes tests are also provided, which document why these students and the schools serving them are disproportionately likely to be penalized in accordance with the laws requirements. The article concludes by challenging two of the more problematic assumptions at the core of NCLB mandates for ELLs.

No Child Left Bilingual: Accountability and the Elimination of Bilingual Education Programs in New York City Schools.

Although educational policies for emergent bilinguals in New York City schools have historically supported the provision of bilingual education, the past decade has borne witness to a dramatic loss of bilingual education programs in city schools. This study examines the factors that determine language education policies adopted by school principals, through qualitative research in 10 city schools that have eliminated their bilingual education programs in recent years and replaced them with English-only programs. Our findings draw a causal link between the pressures of test-based accountability imposed by No Child Left Behind and the adoption of English-only policies in city schools. Testing and accountability are used as the justification for dismantling bilingual education programs and create a disincentive to serve emergent bilingual students, as schools are far more likely to be labeled low performing and risk sanctions such as closure simply for admitting and educating these students.

Spotlight on “Long-Term English Language Learners”: Characteristics and Prior Schooling Experiences of an Invisible Population

This article presents qualitative research findings about the characteristics and prior schooling experiences of “long-term English language learners” (LTELLs), who have attended U.S. schools for 7 years or more, and about whom there is little empirical research, despite their significant numbers. Findings indicate that these students are orally bilingual for social purposes, yet have limited academic literacy skills in English and their native languages as a result of subtractive prior schooling experiences. Two main groups of LTELLs are identified: (a) students with inconsistent U.S. schooling, who have shifted between bilingual education, English as a second language, and mainstream classrooms with no language support programming, and (b) transnational students, who have moved back and forth between the United States and their familys country of origin. It is argued that programming for LTELLs in high school must be distinctive, and recommendations for policy and practice are outlined.

Emergent bilingual students in secondary school: Along the academic language and literacy continuum

This article offers a critical review of research about emergent bilingual students in secondary school, where the academic demands placed upon them are great, and where instruction typically remains steadfast in its monolingualism. I focus on recent scholarship about the diversity within this student population, and center on ‘students with interrupted formal education’ (SIFE, new arrivals who have no home language literacy skills or are at the beginning stages of literacy learning) and ‘long-term English language learners’ (LTELLs, primarily educated in their receiving country yet still eligible for language support services). Little has been published about these students, making this a significant area of inquiry. Moreover, both groups are characterized by poor performance and together illustrate the characteristics of secondary students at various points along an academic language and literacy continuum. While existing research provides important information to help us improve secondary schooling for emergent bilinguals, it has also perpetuated deficit views of these students by focusing solely on their perceived academic shortcomings. Grounded in a new body of research in applied linguistics that examines the students’ complex, creative, and dynamic language and literacy practices, I apply a translanguaging lens to critique the positioning of such students as deficient, with implications for research and practice.

Looking Holistically in a Climate of Partiality: Identities of Students Labeled Long-Term English Language Learners

In recent years there has been growing awareness about a sub-group of students labeled Long-Term English Language Learners (LTELLs). Our study seeks to show how students who fall within the LTELL category see themselves through the lens of their lived experiences as (emergent) bilinguals, students, family/community members and transnational individuals. Countering discourses which frame these students as deficient, we apply the discourse of partiality framework as a lens through which to better understand how these students perceive themselves via their languages, ethnic-connectivity and academic trajectories. We argue that the discourse around the label can be understood as a racial project that serves to perpetuate white supremacy through the marginalization of the language practices of communities of color. We conclude by exploring how schools can take a broader view of this population to create positive learning opportunities that build on who they are and how they see themselves.

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND AND ITS EFFECTS ON LANGUAGE POLICY

The most recent federal education policy in the United States, titled No Child Left Behind (NCLB), was passed into law in 2001. High-stakes testing is the core of NCLB, as tests are used to hold each school, district, and state accountable for student performance, therein affording the federal government greater control over the constitutionally decentralized national system of U.S. education. Because the tests being used are administered in English, English language learners (ELLs) typically fail to meet the laws annual progress requirements, resulting in serious consequences for the students and their schools. This article reviews research about the effects of NCLB on language policies in education. Empirical studies show that the law—which is at face value merely an educational policy—is in actuality a de facto language policy. After explaining the laws assessment mandates, this article provides analyses of the wording of NCLB from a language policy perspective. It also reviews studies about the limitations of the required tests as instruments to carry out the laws demands, and about the effects of the law on instruction and the educational experiences of ELLs.

Restrictive Language Education Policies and Emergent Bilingual Youth: A Perfect Storm With Imperfect Outcomes

This article focuses on 2 recent policy changes that have resulted in increased English-only instruction in US schools, with detrimental effects for emergent bilinguals (also known as English language learners): (a) statewide antibilingual education mandates in California, Arizona, and Massachusetts; and (b) the federal passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The causal link between antibilingual education state policies and English-only instruction is transparent, yet NCLB likewise restricts the use of languages other than English in instruction. To support this argument, I share research recently conducted in New York City that demonstrates how the accountability requirements of NCLB have resulted in the dismantling of numerous bilingual education programs. Although restrictive language education policies have been adopted in US schools in the name of improving academic outcomes for emergent bilinguals, this article shares data highlighting how these policies have failed to deliver on their promises, and concludes with implications for future policies.

Principals as Linchpins in Bilingual Education: The Need for Prepared School Leaders.

This article reports findings from qualitative research conducted in 17 New York City schools to better understand why many school leaders – particularly principals – have recently dismantled their schools bilingual education programs, as part of a significant citywide trend during a restrictive period in US language policy. A main finding is that principals, who are called upon to determine their schools language policy, have not received any formal preparation to do so. New York, like most states, does not require any coursework on the education of emergent bilinguals for the certification of administrators. The school leaders we interviewed who had eliminated their bilingual programs hold limited understandings of bilingualism, linguistic diversity, and bilingual education. By contrast, principals who have maintained their bilingual education programs were found to be well prepared to serve emergent bilinguals and strongly believe in the benefits of bilingual education. They also advocate for bilingual education and protect their schools programming choices in the face of English-only pressures. Based on our findings, we argue that principals are particularly crucial to the survival and success of bilingual education. What is more, we argue that all school leaders serving emergent bilinguals would benefit from specialized preparation to educate this student population.

Emergent Bilinguals: Framing Students as Statistical Data?.

Immigrant youth who are designated as English language learners in American schools—whom we refer to as “emergent bilinguals”—are increasingly framed by numerical calculations. Utilizing the notion of assemblage from actor-network theory (ANT), we trace how emergent bilinguals are discursively constructed by officials, administrators, politicians, and the media through the manipulation and publication of school test scores, district data, and state reports. Drawing upon two overlapping, complementary qualitative studies conducted in New York City, we reveal the ways in which this places burdens on emergent bilinguals and their schools and narrows important discussions of bilingual education pedagogies to ones centered on numerical data.