A critical examination of the academic trajectories of ESL youth

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A critical examination of the academic
trajectories of ESL youth

• Bruce Garnett, PhD
• BC School District 36 (Surrey)
• Canadian Council on Learning

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Research questions

• What do the academic trajectories of BC ESL
  students look like?
• How do their trajectories differ by personal
  background factors including ethno-cultural
  group English language proficiency gender age
  on entry socio-economic status?
• How do these personal background factors
  interact?
• What is the interaction of the personal
  background effects upon the structural effects?
• What policy implications can be drawn from the
  responses to these questions?

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Population

• 1997 Grade eight cohort
• ESL students n 7 527 any student who received
  one or more years of ESL service and claimed a
  home language other than English.
• Chinese (Chinese, Mandarin, Cantonese) 3365
• South Asian (Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu) 1470
• Vietnamese 373
• Philippino (Tagalog, Pilipino) 323
• Spanish 291
• Persian -284
• Korean 239
• Other 1182
• Native English speakers n 37 612 any student
  who never received ESL service and claimed only
  English as a language spoken at home.

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Ethno-cultural group and graduation
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Ethno-cultural group, English proficiency and
graduation
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Estimated family income, ethno-cultural group and
graduation
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Gender, ethno-cultural group and graduation
(beginner ESL)
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Age of entry and graduation
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Logistic regression model Odds ratios of
graduation in six years
Even odds
Nagelkerke r sq. .357
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Themes

• The ESL label is of limited value due to the wide
  variation within this category.
• Disadvantage is additive and multiplicative.
• First language academic knowledge (not just
  English proficiency) appears correlated with
  success.
• The male disadvantage generally extends to ESL
  groups.
• Most ethno-cultural groups appear to aspire to
  academic success.
• Schools have further to go to reduce
  inequalities.
• School population composition effects appear
  minimal.

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Policy implications

• Disaggregate data for decision making.
• Assess for prior learning before entry to the
  system.
• Target support towards groups most in need.
• Schools should do what schools do best (i.e.
  teach language and content).
• The policy mix should target both students and
  schools (time, attitudes, professional
  development).
• ESL support should be ongoing.
• Provide additional time for graduation.