As the number of English Learners (ELs) continues to grow in schools across the United States, educators are optimistic about the academic potential of these students, but they still see room for improvement – and they clearly indicate that some classroom approaches and resources are more effective than others:
- Teachers and administrators alike find adaptive learning technologies to be the most effective resources for EL instruction.
- Teachers and administrators report interactive classroom games and collaborative group work to be the most effective approach to EL instruction.
- Audio-visual resources were reported to be the most widely used classroom instructional tools, used by 77 percent of teachers and 76 percent of administrators, followed by adaptive learning technologies and free online educational resources.
These findings come from McGraw-Hill Education’s second annual English Learners report, which surveyed more than 460 teachers and administrators in K-12 schools across the United States to examine their opinions regarding English Learner (EL) instruction. Other findings include:
- 69 percent of administrators and 65 percent of teachers report that conversations about immigration impact their school/classroom environment, and educators overall indicate that discussions around immigration are more prevalent than those about other social issues, including healthcare, climate change and gun violence.
- 77 percent of teachers and 81 percent of administrators agreed that social and emotional learning challenges presented a significant obstacle to effective EL instruction.
- More than half of teachers and administrators report that EL enrollment in their school or district has increased in the past five years, and almost a quarter report that it has increased significantly.
