Despite frequent political and policy debates, the effects of imposing accountability pressures on public school teachers are empirically indeterminate. In this paper, we study the effects of accountability in the context of teacher responses to student behavioral infractions in the aftermath of teacher evaluation reforms. We leverage cross-state variation in the timing of state policy implementation to estimate whether teachers change the rate at which they remove students from their classrooms. We find that higher-stakes teacher evaluation had no causal effect on the rates of disciplinary referrals, and we find no evidence of heterogeneous effects for grades subject to greater accountability pressures or in schools facing differing levels of disciplinary infractions. Our results are precisely estimated and robust to a battery of specification checks. Our findings provide insights on the effects of accountability policy on the black-box of classroom practice and highlight the loose-coupling of education policy and teacher behaviors.

Using a contexts of reception framework, we draw on administrative data from two states to examine several features of contexts of reception for newcomers as a whole and for newcomer subgroups. We discuss implications for educational leaders serving newcomers in different contexts.

This manuscript puts forth a framework for state EL education policy organized around three core principles of understanding students, providing high quality instruction, and supporting effective systems.

We review the empirical literature from 51 studies of principal behaviors and student, teacher, and school outcomes and conduct a meta-analysis of these relationships.

In Oregon, the passage of a state-level policy designed to support districts identified as struggling to support students classified as English learners (EL), House Bill (HB) 3499, created the conditions to study the combined effect of additional funding, technical assistance and accountability on EL-classified students’ outcomes. Using an event study and difference-in-differences specification, I estimate the impact of HB 3499 identification on a set of outcomes in identified districts in the first three years following policy implementation. Overall, I find that HB 3499 identification led to an increase in EL expenditures per EL-classified student at the district level. However, HB 3499 identification resulted in no significant change in the district ratio of teachers who were English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) endorsed to EL-classified students. Identification also did not change the probability that an EL-classified student received bilingual services, nor result in significant changes in academic outcomes for EL-classified students in identified districts in the first three years after identification. Heterogeneity analyses suggest that the observed increase in expenditures per EL-classified students was concentrated among districts that received a less intensive intervention. Overall, findings point to a need for interventions that are larger in scope if meaningful shifts in outcomes are to be observed, although the litany of null findings may also be evidence of the longer time horizon needed to see meaningful changes in the educational environments and outcomes of EL-classified students.

Teacher quality is positioned as a critical element of education systems. However, studies that attempt to quantify the variation in teacher effectiveness and implications of this variation for student performance typically overlook the nuances of EL education that likely impact conclusions about teachers’ roles in shaping EL-classified students’ educational outcomes. Specifically, the provision of additional instruction on the English language is not explicitly addressed in examinations of teachers’ unique contributions to EL-classified students’ academic performance, nor do examinations of teacher contributions to student outcomes include English language proficiency as an outcome. Addressing these gaps can inform our conceptual understanding of how different sources of instruction throughout the education process contribute to variability in measured academic and linguistic performance among EL-classified students. In this study, using statewide data for Oregon EL-classified students who are in grades 6-8 and enrolled in both an English language development (ELD) and English language arts (ELA) class, I explored the extent to which variation is measured across ELA and ELD teachers in their contributions to EL-classified students’ performance on ELA and ELP assessments. I find that variation in both ELA and ELD teachers' instructional effectiveness, as proxied through changes in students' test scores, has implications for EL-classified students' ELA and English language proficiency performance. The variation is larger for teachers' own subject. This highlights the important role that content and language teachers play in supporting EL-classified students language and literacy development.

Constricted core content access is a critical issue in English learner education. In this study, I examine patterns in course placement and course-taking trajectories for immigrant students classified as English learners arriving in grades 6-12, then model the relationship between participation in a newcomer program and course access over time.

This report examines the population of Alaska Native students who are classified as English learner (EL) students and how EL policies function for these students, focusing on EL identification, classification, service provision, and reclassification as fluent English proficient.

This resource is intended to help educators identify and use research-based policies, practices, and procedures for welcoming and registering newcomer immigrant and refugee students who are attending secondary schools in the United States and for supporting them once they are in school.

This report explores answers to three critical questions. (1) Who are recently arrived immigrant EL students? (2) What are their educational needs? and (3) What school, district, and state-level policies and practices are being implemented to support them? Our hope is that the report offers information, support, and guidance for the work of both state departments of education and local education agencies as they design, implement, adapt, and evaluate their programs, policies, and services for this important group of students.

Given differentiated EL identification criteria, this study explores how EL classification impacts Indigenous students’ educational outcomes for Alaska Native students, drawing on data from five Alaska school districts.