Equity for Emergent Bilinguals through Evidence-based Instruction

Hello teachers of Emergent Bilinguals! Welcome to a newly updated aebll.com! My name is Ingrid Heidrick, and I’m the founder of Advocating for Emergent Bilinguals through Language & Literacy. I’m a linguist, educator and advocate for Emergent Bilinguals and their teachers. Equity for emergent bilinguals through evidence-based instruction is our theme for this school year! 

Emergent bilinguals are students who are classified by NY State as English Language Learners (ELLs) or Multilingual Learners (MLLs), and require English as a New Language instruction for school. We like the term Emergent Bilingual to stress that these students are in the process of developing language and literacy skills in two languages. That’s a good thing!

Studies continually show that students who reach high levels of proficiency in two languages do better academically than students who only speak one language! Equity for emergent bilinguals through evidence-based instruction means that our students have the same opportunities as English-proficient students because they’re able to learn at school!

It’s 2024 and a new school year! Aebll.com is fully updated to be a go-to resource for teachers to learn about, strengthen, and gain confidence in promoting equity by implementing evidence-based instruction for emergent bilinguals in the classroom.

Evidence-based instruction consists of teaching methods and strategies that advance academic outcomes for students.

Teachers, this is not easy. You are being asked to teach grade-level content to students who need support with English language and literacy to access that content. Some of you may be highly trained and experienced, and some of you may be brand new to the classroom. Regardless, public school teachers are dealing with large populations of students from under-resourced communities who need support academically and beyond.

The city’s latest test scores are not good. In fact, since  No Child Left Behind became law in 2001 and we began using standardized testing to measure student progress on a yearly basis, scores have never been acceptable to anyone who wants emergent bilinguals to have equal opportunities to their peers in school and beyond. And yet, in spring 2024, only 8% of current ELLs in grades 3-8 in NYC public schools were proficient in English Language Arts and only 25% were proficient in math.

You read that right: Only 8% of NYC ELLs were able to successfully read, analyze text, and write at a proficient level of English.

Folks, these are not just newcomer student (0-3 years of English instruction) scores. 30% of ELLs have been receiving English instruction for four years and more. The gap between 8% proficiency of ELLs to 54% of non-ELLs (which, needless to say, is also nothing to write home about) is enormous.

Of course, it is well documented that the design and practice of standardized testing is biased. Far from measuring progress, it has become a form of inequity for ELLs and other disadvantaged and vulnerable students, who continually lose time and opportunities for learning so teachers can prepare them for the tests.

As inadequate a metric as standardized tests are, we understand that there is a disparity between the academic opportunities of ELLs and non-ELLs. We want and need to do better.

We got this!

Many, many factors contribute to improving outcomes for emergent bilinguals, but by far the easiest and most immediately impactful is a caring, knowledgeable teacher implementing evidence-based methods of instruction. 

This fall, I’m providing you with the knowledge and practical steps you can take to help your emergent bilingual students develop their new language, while strengthening their Home Language and content knowledge.

We’ll focus on stand-alone instruction, but we will also address integrated ‘push-in,’ especially for students with more advanced proficiency who don’t get stand-alone instruction anymore.

Before we dive into specifics for this school year, I want to give you with a basic starting point: welcoming your students to school.

Social-emotional well-being is a critical step in any child’s learning. Many of our students are not only new to English, but may have missed some time in school or perhaps never have been a student in their home countries. It’s incredibly important to start off on the right foot and give your students a sense of comfort in the classroom.

I’ve written two introductory lessons that you can download for free in resources: This is My School! and I Speak English as a New Language! 

Stay tuned for our next article on developing oral language and vocabulary this year!

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