Photo by Frank Curran

Academics

Translating Success

English learners don’t go to college at the same rates as their native-speaking peers. Yasuko Kanno is studying how to change that.

English learners account for 9.6 percent of US public school students, and that number is expected to grow in coming years. Studies show a large achievement gap between English learners (ELs)—students categorized by their schools as needing support to learn English—and native speakers. Associate Professor Yasuko Kanno’s research reveals that just 19 percent of ELs go to four-year colleges after high school, compared to 45 percent of native speakers. Kanno, coeditor of the Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, has published studies on ELs’ pathways to postsecondary education. She spoke with BU Wheelock about her research and what high schools can do to help ELs reach higher.

BU Wheelock: From 2010 to 2013, you closely followed eight students from a large Pennsylvania high school as they made their postsecondary plans. What did you learn?

Kanno: That there are really two things happening in terms of why ELs are not going to college. One is that English learners often start out in what are called sheltered subject-matter courses. These are subject-matter courses—algebra, US history, biology—that are taught specifically for ELs with embedded language support. When students finish these courses, they are usually placed in the lowest level subject-matter courses—often at the remedial level. So by the time students get to 12th grade, they may be taking on-grade level courses, but not advanced or honors or AP classes. Essentially, then, they are not competitive candidates for even moderately selective institutions.

The other part is a lack of navigational knowledge. Many of these students’ parents are either not college educated or went to college abroad. In this country, there is a very intricate process of college-going that’s confusing and stress-inducing, even for people who were born here and went through college themselves. And so even if ELs have the qualifications, they may not know how to leverage them.

You’re working with Clinical Assistant Professor Christine Leider on ethnographic studies at several Massachusetts high schools. What more are you learning?

This time, we are focusing on the relationship between ELs’ access to college and their socio-economic status—and not just the students’ socioeconomic status, but the socioeconomic status of their high schools.

We’re just wrapping up data collection at the first two schools. One is a suburban, fairly wealthy, well-resourced school. The other is more working class, more urban. We have a group of students at each school who have similar qualifications, and while the students at the suburban school are going to four-year colleges, the similarly qualified students at the urban school are either going to community colleges or not going to postsecondary education at all.

The difference has to do with the schools’ resource levels and the individualized support they can provide. Also, about 90 percent of students at this suburban school go on to four-year colleges. So there’s this norm: it is normal to go to a four-year college. Therefore, these ELs’ expectations get higher for themselves.

You and Associate Professor Marcus Winters received funding from the Spencer Foundation to analyze EL data from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. What do the data say about the EL achievement gap?

The assumption has been that there is this achievement gap because of ELs’ language barriers. But if you compare ELs with non-ELs who come from very similar backgrounds, and you follow them five years or seven years until the end of high school, there is no difference. We are basically asking, does the EL achievement gap exist because these students are ELs or because these are low-income students from minority families? These statistical analyses certainly seem to indicate that it’s their socioeconomic status and racial minority status that lead to their under-education, rather than language barriers.

So now I’m coming to a fairly firm conclusion that to give more postsecondary options to ELs, we need to improve access to opportunities to learn. I think we need to disrupt this notion that you first need to learn English before you can access academic content. I think it is totally feasible to provide very high-level, rigorous academic instruction to ELs while also providing balance with language support.

What advice would you give to high school teachers and administrators preparing ELs for postsecondary opportunities?

First of all, school districts are legally obligated to provide ELs with the same access to educational programs as any other student. And yet, often schools seem to think it’s okay not to provide access to honors and AP classes to ELs on the grounds that they’re still learning English. I think that’s borderline illegal.

Second, if a student’s goal is to earn a bachelor’s degree, and they are wondering whether they should attend a community college or a four-year college after high school, you should really push the student to go into a four-year college because they’ll have a much better chance of graduating. Statistically that’s the case.

At the same time, I really do not hold this belief that everybody should go to a four-year college, and I think CTE, career and technical education, is really underutilized for ELs. There are many great career options that do not require a bachelor’s degree. If you want to become a car mechanic, a hairstylist, a nursing aid, pursue these careers through CTE at the high-school level and then maybe do one year of trade school or a community college certificate program, and then you become career-ready and can really start making money. That’s often a lot more realistic option for many ELs, because many of them come from low-income families and need to support their family financially. To tell them that going to college is the only option, that’s just not helpful.