This article presents findings drawn from the development of an intervention designed to leverage Spanish to improve English reading comprehension. Five teachers and 18 middle school English language learners (ELLs) in 2 urban middle schools participated in the project over the course of an academic year. Analysis of policy documents, interviews,…

This article examines an after-school program in which English language learners (ELLs) collaborated with their mainstream peers at an urban middle school to produce a multilingual video that addressed a social issue. The project, which was grounded in the tenets of critical and culturally relevant pedagogies, allowed the young people to mobilize…

The purpose of this 18-month case study is to highlight the successes and challenges that an ESL/mathematics teacher encountered as she made a shift from traditional mathematics curriculum to a standards-based curriculum as part of a statewide systemic initiative. The study was conducted in an urban, public middle school in Central Texas that…

This article presents findings from an action research study that investigates the impact of an inquiry project designed to help better prepare pre-service middle level teacher interns for their work with English language learners (ELLs). The inquiry project combined a "rounds" approach with ethnographic observation to help pre-service interns see…

This study emerged out of a year-long narrative ethnography that investigated the first year of ESL teachers. It describes key personal, contextual, and structural factors that influenced the teachers' professional beliefs and practices. The focus of this study centers on the conversations of three middle school ESL teachers during new teacher…

This mixed-methodological study examined changes in perceptions of teachers (n = 70) engaged in a two-year professional development program designed to meet the unique needs of English Language Learners (ELL), and changes in ELL students' (n = 235) math and reading achievement scores. The study was conducted in two urban middle schools in Kansas…

This article explores the theoretical framework upon which a democratic classroom is based, and the effects that a curriculum based on social justice has on English Language Learners (ELLs). Furthermore, it explores authentic means of assessing ELLs, in addition to other more traditional and standardized testing. In a social justice framework, all…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of a two-way immersion elementary school program on academic achievement at the end of the elementary school and the end of the first year of junior high school. Longitudinal high stakes test data in reading, writing, and mathematics were collected on native English speakers and native Spanish…