Effective Reading Programs for Spanish-Dominant English Language Learners (ELLs) in the Elementary Grades

13 qualifying studies on language of instruction

Spanish-dominant English language learners in US elementary schools

Updates and supersedes the authors' 2005 synthesis on the language-of-instruction question, and adds a second strand on reading approaches holding language of instruction constant. Same best-evidence-synthesis method.

The overall language-of-instruction effect favours bilingual education at +0.21 - about half the 2005 median - but the authors flag something more important than the pooled number: the LARGEST and LONGEST evaluations, including the only multiyear randomised evaluation of transitional bilingual education, found NO differences by the end of elementary school between children taught in Spanish and transitioned to English and children taught only in English. What did show reliable effects were whole-school and whole-class interventions (Success for All, cooperative learning, Direct Instruction, ELLA) and phonetic small-group or one-to-one tutoring. The authors' own conclusion: QUALITY of instruction matters more than LANGUAGE of instruction.

Medium-to-high for the observational component; the one multiyear randomised evaluation is the exception and it returns a null.

Same research group as the 2005 synthesis, so this is an internal update rather than an independent replication - but it deflates its own earlier estimate, which is the direction of update that deserves weight.