I have always been skeptical of so many education people and laws (I’m looking at you, Every Student Succeeds Act) who have made reclassification of English Language Learners just an over-arching priority.

Often, what I’ve seen and heard of is that many ELLs get reclassified far too soon, lose their needed extra support, and are less successful than they could have been.

Now, a new study, that uses a different research design that other studies have used to claim reclassification advantages, substantiates my concerns.

Reclassifying English Learners is NOT behind a paywall.

Here’s another excerpt from it:

Though the pattern of our results indicate a need for policymakers to identify strategies for improving student outcomes during their first reclassified year, they do not point to the most effective strategy for achieving that goal. We can think of two potential strategies available to policymakers that rely on different assumptions for what factors drive the disruption in student outcomes during their first year as a non-EL. One potential interpretation of our results is that
students are reclassified before they have achieved sufficient proficiency in English to succeed in a general education classroom, which would suggest benefits from increasing the standard for reclassification. However, we find it equally plausible that the immediate negative effect is driven by factors associated with the student adjusting to a new learning environment, which would suggest policymakers should focus on adopting strategies to ease student transitions into general education.

I’m adding this info to The Best Resources For Learning About The Ins & Outs Of Reclassifying ELLs.