Date of Conferral

5-31-2024

Date of Award

May 2024

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Education

Advisor

Julie Frese

Abstract

In 2023, California schools served 1.2 million students designated English learners (EL-classified students). Most EL-classified students in grades 6-12 were considered long-term English learners. The problem addressed by this study is that LTEL-considered students have historically had the lowest academic achievement of any student group, despite federal and state mandates for instructional support through designated and integrated English language development (ELD). The purpose of this case study was to explore how content-area teachers at one California high school used components of integrated ELD to support LTEL-considered students in learning language, literacy, and content knowledge and how site and district administrators supported this work. The conceptual framework was Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development. Data collection included interviews and document analysis. Data analysis incorporated a priori and in vivo coding for interviews and the use of analytical memos for document analysis. Findings included the need to distinguish LTEL-considered from other EL-classified students; reconsider the efficacy of the integrated/designated ELD model; cultivate academic optimism at sites with a high population of LTEL-considered students; refocus instruction on high-level literacy tasks and productive struggle; and refine the implementation of the Constructing Meaning™ instructional framework and examine its efficacy in various contexts. This study was significant to social change because LTEL-considered students remain among the nation’s most academically underserved students, due in part to decades of poor instructional practices, and this work added to the research on LTEL instruction.

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