Long-term English learners’ mathematics course trajectories: downstream consequences of early remediation on college preparation

ABSTRACT

We investigated how high school mathematics course placement contributes to inequalities in college preparation for students categorized as “English Learners” (ELs), especially “long-term” English Learners (LTELs). We devised a base-2 enumeration approach that allowed us to process complex transcript data from one school district and enumerate the thousands of possible trajectories (combinations) of mathematics courses taken by students during high school. We observed significant disparities in college preparation across students by English proficiency designation. In comparison to English Only (EO) students, LTELs were funneled into fewer trajectories that predominantly included lower level mathematics courses. We found that enrollment into remedial mathematics courses in Grade 9 appears to restrict access to advanced courses, with grave consequences for Grade 12 college preparation.

KEYWORDS:

• English learners
• college preparation
• remedial courses
• opportunity to learn
• tracking

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported with funding from the Stanford University Graduate School of Education. We wish to thank the John Gardner Center, the California Education Partners, Guadalupe Valdés, and the school districts, teachers, and administrators for their support. The first author also wishes to acknowledge that their research is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. The opinions expressed here are those of the authors, not necessarily those of the funding source. The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Stanford University (protocol #43489, approved on February 2, 2018).