New research that suggests struggling English-learners could benefit from repeating 3rd grade has drawn a strong rebuke from leading scholars鈥攁nd rekindled the national debate over so-called 鈥渓iteracy laws鈥� that require retaining students if they fail to achieve a target score on reading tests.
While studies have questioned the effectiveness of holding back students to reach that goal, a pair of researchers have concluded that English-learners in Florida benefited from the extra year of and exposure to the language.
Led by David Figlio, an education economist and the dean of the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University, and Umut Ozek, a senior researcher at the American Institutes for Research, a study of 40,000 English-learners in Florida found that students who repeated 3rd grade learned English faster and took more advanced classes in middle and high school than their peers, who also struggled to learn the language, but moved on to 4th grade. Figlio and Ozek published the research in January in a working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Their study, however, has attracted a group of high-profile critics, who are concerned that their work could have ramifications well beyond academia.
In a scathing critique, members of the Working Group on ELL Policy, a collection of nationally known scholars on English-language-learning, challenges the 鈥渁ssumptions, approach, and findings鈥� of the research, making the case that it could harm students who are already often marginalized and misunderstood.
The group also questions what actually benefited the students鈥攖he retention, the targeted reading instruction and related academic support students received, the teachers leading the instruction, or some combination of those factors.
Two former bilingual education teachers, Megan Hopkins, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego, and Francesca L贸pez, of the University of Arizona, were the letter鈥檚 main authors.
鈥淲hether grade retention is a good idea for all struggling [English-learners] is not a finding this study can support,鈥� they wrote in the letter posted online.
Dating to 2002, the year that Florida鈥檚 law that requires 3rd graders to pass a reading test took effect, Figlio and Ozek reviewed records of English-learners in a dozen districts. Those who didn鈥檛 pass the test repeated 3rd grade with extra support, including extended blocks of daily reading instruction and summer school classes.
The researchers compared the academic trajectories of English-learners who fell just below the score threshold to pass, and were retained, with those of English-learners who scored just high enough to pass and move on to 4th grade.
When Figlio and Ozek compared test scores of the students when they reached the same grade level, they found ELLs who were held back in 3rd grade consistently outperformed their peers on state tests and were less likely to take remedial English courses in middle school.
The students who repeated 3rd grade were also more likely to enroll in middle school honors courses and high school classes that could earn them college credit, they found.
鈥楢 Year Left Behind鈥�
In the state鈥檚 Miami-Dade school system鈥攈ome to more than 70,000 ELLs鈥攖eachers and administrators home in on students who need additional help well before they reach 3rd grade, said Ana Gutierrez, the director of the district鈥檚 bilingual education programs.
鈥淚t can be misleading to assume that an English-language learner just needs a year left behind, that that鈥檚 going to sort of miraculously be the end-all to everything, because that鈥檚 not the case,鈥� Gutierrez said.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e looking at it from the perspective of 鈥榃ow. Well you don鈥檛 know enough English. We鈥檙e going to retain you and that鈥檚 going to help you in the following year.鈥� It becomes punitive then.鈥�
Under Florida鈥檚 law that requires students to be retained, the district typically identifies less than 10 percent of the district鈥檚 roughly 8,000 3rd grade English-learners for possible retention, Gutierrez estimated.
Even students who don鈥檛 earn a qualifying score on the Florida Standards Assessment can be promoted to 4th grade if they pass a test at the end of a mandatory summer reading camp.
Education Week reached out to seven Florida districts鈥攁ll with more than 10,000 ELLs鈥攁bout how they handle retention. In Polk County, a 100,000-student district, ELLs were statistically overrepresented among the 3rd graders retained last year. The students made up 16 percent of the overall population, but 32 percent of those held back, said Michael Ackes, the district鈥檚 chief academic officer.
Ackes, who calls himself a staunch opponent of the state law, said, 鈥淲e have students, like ESOL students, who are put at a disadvantage, and we need to be real cognizant of how we provide support on the front end, not retention on the back end.鈥�
Officials at the Florida education department did not respond to an interview request.
Beyond the retention debate, there鈥檚 the issue of whether students, ELL or not, are still developing reading skills as 8- and 9-year-olds.
In Michigan, New Mexico, and North Carolina, students who fell short of the requirements to advance to 4th grade are not always held back. Even in Florida, lawmakers have weighed scrapping it.
While retaining students could be expensive for districts and stigmatizing for students, researchers Figlio and Ozek argue those potential risks are worth it if schools boost the graduation prospects of more ELLs and spend less on remedial education classes down the line.
Helping more ELLs earn diplomas could help narrow a yawning gap between them and their non-ELL peers. Nationally, the graduation rate for ELLs is 67 percent; that鈥檚 18 percentage points less than the overall graduation rate.
In an interview, Ozek said he and Figlio plan to revise their working paper, based on feedback from colleagues and other researchers, before submitting the final version, but don鈥檛 expect the results to change much.
鈥淲e understand the sensitivity around the issue because English-learners are a vulnerable population,鈥� Ozek said. 鈥淭his is a highly contentious topic and [retention is not] the most popular intervention.鈥�
In their letter challenging the research, The Working ELL Group urged policymakers in other states to tread carefully before trying to pitch a similar approach.
鈥淲ithout situating Figlio and Ozek鈥檚 study in the broader scholarship on EL education, and fully considering its limitations and implications, policymakers risk applying this study鈥檚 findings in ways that could exacerbate inequalities for [English-learners],鈥� the letter reads.
The research group also questioned why the authors didn鈥檛 do more to explore the social-emotional impact of grade retention, which can be stigmatizing.
Like members of The Working Group on ELL Policy, Ozek also expressed concern about lawmakers or state education officials potentially developing new policy based on their research findings in Florida.
And Gutierrez, a former ESOL teacher and principal, noted: 鈥淚 know that within our state, they require... us to take a look at the number of students that are being retained, and to ask some deeper questions.鈥�
