The conversation around English language learners too often dehumanizes them, ASU researcher says

MARK BRODIE: The Trump administration last month rescinded guidance telling schools to accommodate students who needed to learn English.

Shantel Meek says the guidance has been around for about a decade and was aimed at helping states and school districts meet their legal obligations to make sure English language learner students, known as ELL, could take part meaningfully and equally in schools — and are getting appropriate language services.

Meek is a professor of practice at Arizona State University and leads the Children’s Equity Project there. She says the impact of this change needs to be seen in the context of other actions the feds have taken. That includes shutting down in a number of states the offices of civil rights within the U.S. Education Department. That’s led to the dismissal of several complaints.

Meek says there’s also the issue of federal money for ELL students being delayed earlier this summer — as well as immigration enforcement in these communities.

When Meek came by the studio recently, we started with the issue of the enforcement of existing laws. With the federal guidance gone, some people have expressed concern about civil rights laws — which are still on the books — being enforced. I asked Meek if she shares those concerns.

SHANTEL MEEK: Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, there's a really important ... federal role for enforcement of those laws and so I think it's a big concern that folks have across the country and you know, the thinking through what, you know, if there's going to be remedies in the courts, or, or in other ways, but I think it's a major concern. Enforcement has to go part and parcel with the law, right, for implementation.

Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ

MARK BRODIE: What is the debate right now in terms of the best ways, maybe the most effective ways to teach English language students how to speak English? Because this is obviously a very big point of contention here in Arizona in terms of, is it just English immersion? Are there dual-language programs? The state school superintendent is trying to weigh in on a lawsuit on this. What do the data say about the best way for at least the majority of ELL students to get them up to speed in English so that they can speak the language but also succeed in non-English school subjects?

MEEK: Right, right. So there's a large body of research on one, the benefits of bilingual and multilingualism in general. With lots of research across lots of different sectors finding that bilingualism is associated with cognitive benefits in early childhood, with academic benefits and when to get to the school age, with economic benefits once you graduate from school and so on.

With respect to dual-language education — which is really education that provides instruction in usually English and a partner language, there's also a whole bunch of research on that, that has found that providing dual-language education to English learners is associated with them learning English faster. Is associated with them meeting academic norms, grade level content faster. Is associated with them being exited from ELL status faster.

And so there's a whole number of these different findings in different ways that I found that dual-language education really helps kids one, learn English, yes, but also not fall behind in in their other subjects.

And so when we think about the English-only law in the state, there's been a few longitudinal studies that have looked at the difference there. We know that data found gaps in eighth-graders’ math performance, for example, between English learners and their peers. And that that gap increased dramatically once that four-hour block mandate was implemented.

We have — there's another decade-long study that found that while kids made some gains in third grade, after the English block was put in, there was dramatic deterioration in outcomes in fifth grade and eighth grade and 10th grade.

BRODIE: Is there a debate about the goal being that all students in schools in this country should be proficient in English? Like, is that a subject that's up for debate?

MEEK: No, I think that there's widespread agreement that that should be one of the goals, right? In addition to — which exists in civil rights laws — that they should also receive opportunities to, to ensure that they're succeeding in grade-level content in math and science and everything else.

BRODIE: So it seems the debate is really just about the best way to do that, right, to make that happen.

MEEK: That sounds right, yeah.

BRODIE: So dual-language programs, it sounds like you're saying, based on your research, the best ways to do that. Are there different ways to do those kinds of programs, to structure those kinds of programs that maybe are more effective than others?

MEEK: Yeah, there's, there's lots of ways to structure the programs. We published a few reports on them back in 2023 where we tried to really capture the different ways to implement a dual-language education model for early childhood and for the early grades, which is really where kids start to learn to read and to, you know, form the foundation for long-term educational outcomes.

And so certainly there's a lot of support for the 50/50 model, for example. Where kids spend half of the day in English, half of the day in the partner language. There's different ways to do that. You could do that by split up the 50/50 by subject. You can split it up by day, by teacher, by classroom. And there is research supporting those different pieces.

So yeah, there's, there's a number of different ways to do it. But I would say that we do have some work to do in getting some uniformity in the implementation of dual language.

BRODIE: How important is it that all students or maybe all schools or districts do it the same way? Like, does it matter if some are doing things in different ways?

MEEK: No, I think at the end of the day ... we have some characteristics for high quality dual-language education, right? And that doesn't mean that they all have to be exactly the same, but they have to kind of fall under and consider the various dimensions of high quality dual-language education.

That includes, you know, for example, instruction for reading that is aligned with the science of reading, right, in both languages that are being taught. That includes teachers who are prepared to work with students at different language levels and different language backgrounds. That includes support and training for those teachers. That includes partnerships with families to ensure that there is that that continuity.

So there's a number of pieces — assessments in both languages to understand you what do you know in English? And then what do you know in general in whatever language? And so we list out those characteristics of high quality dual-language education in our report that we can certainly refer folks to.

BRODIE: So when you look at the landscape, especially in Arizona for English language learner students going forward — given what we know about the controversy here, given what we know about things coming from the federal government — what do you see the landscape looking like in the next six months, year, two years?

MEEK: Probably more court cases. I'm not sure. I mean, there are district leaders across the state who are trying to align their practices with research, who are trying to establish or grow or maintain dual-language education opportunities for English learners.

Because, you know, the courts have already determined that they are able to do that and that the state the board of ed is the entity with the authority to to make that call and of course dual language, 50/50 dual language is one of the approved models. And so I think there are schools and district leaders across the country, principals who hopefully will continue aligning their practice and policies with what we know the research says. Which is not, not confusing actually, it's quite clear.

So I'm hoping that that continues to be the case and, and that goes forward, but it'll certainly be a rocky terrain with the policies.

BRODIE: So understanding that you were speaking for yourself here, not for ASU, what do you hope for this space for the ELL space, for the students, the teachers, the administrators anybody involved in these programs? What do you hope for them going forward?

MEEK: I hope that they have equal access to educational opportunities like they are entitled for. I hope that we can humanize them in a conversation that has too often been dehumanizing for this group of kids and their families. And so I hope that we can align the science and what we know, and embrace their strengths. Embrace all the languages that they bring, right? And, and, and support them in the ways that they need. And so that's my hope for them is — is that we can do right by them.