Deconstructing the EL Gap

Authors: Marcus A. Winters & Yasuko Kanno

Project Summary
Across U.S. schools, students classified as English learners (ELs) tend to achieve lower educational outcomes than their non-EL peers. What explains these differences? Are they a product of ELs’ developing English language proficiency and/or the services they receive at school, or do other factors play a role? The authors of this study attempt to deconstruct the “EL gap” in Massachusetts by examining the extent to which differences in outcomes between ELs and non-ELs can be attributed to factors that are unrelated to a student’s English proficiency or receipt of EL services.

Key Findings
Using data on fifth- and ninth-grade students in Massachusetts, the authors identify the following key findings:

• Demographic and prior achievement differences explain much of the EL gap in educational outcomes such as test scores, educational attainment, and high school coursework.
• When ELs are compared to non-ELs with similar characteristics—e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, free lunch eligibility, prior achievement—the gaps narrow substantially, and in some cases completely disappear. 

Implications

These findings indicate that unequal educational outcomes between ELs and non-ELs are not a product of EL classification itself or of the language services ELs receive in school, but rather a reflection of the fact that ELs are very likely to be students of color who come from lower-income households. This does not mean that ELs are achieving adequate educational outcomes overall, or that EL services are unnecessary. Instead, this study emphasizes that school systems must continue providing high-quality language supports for ELs in order to ensure that gaps do not widen, and that policies that effectively improve opportunities and outcomes for students of color and lower-income students will also play an important role in decreasing the EL gap.