READING AND ENGLISH ACHIEVEMENT OF FOURTH GRADE ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN A TWO-WAY DUAL LANGUAGE PROGRAM AND A TRANSITIONAL BILINGUAL PROGRAM

Abstract

According to the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics as of 2017 the percentage of English language learners enrolled in U.S. public schools held steady at around 5 million or 10.1 % of the entire student population. The continued growth of ELL student populations in Texas has also increased the demand for Bilingual/English as a second language instructional programs as 1,129,558 students are currently enrolled in these programs for the 2019-20 academic year. It is vital for scholars and educators to reach a consensus through research and educational practices on which bilingual education program model is more favorable for developing strong literacy skills in L2 and increase academic levels in all content areas for English learners. The primary interest of this study was to providing insight on the student achievement levels of English learners in a dual language model compared to a transitional bilingual program using state assessment data. More specifically, to determine if there are differences in passing rates on the English version of the Reading STAAR 2018-2019 exam between fourth grade ELLs in a Two-Way dual language program and a transitional bilingual program. The second purpose of my study was to determine if there are differences in the percentages of fourth grade ELLs in a Two-Way dual language program and a TBP scoring on the meets and masters grade level on STAAR Grade 4 Reading Assessment. In order to compare the differences in performance between the student groups of the 12 schools, an ANCOVA was applied. The ANCOVA test allowed me to simultaneously compare the STAAR results, by way of the scaled scores, of fourth grade students from the 12 participant schools to determine whether a relationship exists between them. The findings suggested that students in the DL group outperformed TBP significantly in terms of satisfying passing performance standards of Approaches or above in the post-reading assessment, STAAR Reading Grade 4. The student scaled scores of the dual language immersion program on Reading Grade 4 STAAR was higher than that of the transitional bilingual program.