Exploring variations in educator perceptions of coursetaking ecologies for students classified as English learners

Abstract

This mixed methods study explores educators’ perceptions of the challenges that students who are classified as English learners (ELs) in the U.S. face in accessing core academic content in middle and high school. Based on a survey with educators (N = 156) recruited from a language education listserv and website who had experience working with students receiving EL services across 39 states, we explored variation in the ways that educators attribute challenges to course access (i.e. to students themselves, teachers, schools, and state policies). We used latent profile analysis to describe variation in quantitative survey responses and corroborated the findings qualitatively using participants’ open response data. We identified substantial variation in how educators rated teacher- and school-level challenges and less variation in their ratings of student- and policy-level challenges. We also found that these patterns were significantly predicted by educators’ roles. The qualitative data supported the quantitative findings, with variations in frequency with which participants in each profile described challenges related to the student, teacher, school, and policy levels. Implications include the importance of understanding the variation in educators’ perceptions about coursetaking ecologies as well as the need for multilevel coordination of services for educators working with students classified as ELs.