Our recent research projects, involving faculty and students from our research group as well as others in SE&IS and outside organizations, include the following:
Dynamic Language Learning Progressions Project
The DLLP is an ongoing project aimed at developing empirically validated language learning progressions encompassing the oral and written language development of Kindergarten through 6th grade students. Explanations from both English Proficient and English Language Learner students were used to derive the progressions, which describe features of language at the word, sentence, and discourse levels. In the most recent phases of the project, we created and piloted materials to support teachers’ use of the DLLPs to improve instruction and formative assessment. The work done by the DLLP was supported by the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. Visit the DLLP project website for more information.
This work is now being extended with a Diversity Student Support Initiative grant to follow a small group of 5th grade students into 6th grade at a California Public School. The DLLP approach to formative assessment with English Learners is being implemented with New York and Connecticut teachers through Project ExcEL, a National Professional Development Grant (Bailey, PI) from the US DOE.
Learning in Two Languages Research & Development Project
This project aims to evaluate the benefits and challenges to attending a bilingual (English-Spanish) elementary school on children’s academic and social outcomes. Specifically, we are evaluating the Learning in Two Languages (LTL) program, a dual language program at UCLA LAB School, a prek-6th grade elementary school on the UCLA campus. As part of this project, we are following a cohort of students from school entry through 6th grade with regular assessments of their Spanish and English proficiency and academic skills, as well as their social and cognitive perspectives. The project is in its fifth year of data collection; participants are in fourth grade during this wave of data collection. This work is supported by the CONNECT office at the UCLA Lab School and a Diversity Student Support Initiative grant from SE&IS to Alison Bailey and Rashmita Mistry, co-PIs.
Standard English Language Project
This project is part of a larger initiative by Center X, which houses SE&IS’s Teacher Education Program, to evaluate the efforts of Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to establish the validity of a student standardized English Language (SEL) Screener and teacher practices with SEL students. Members of the Language and Literacy Research Group have conducted reports of the literature, expert reviews, and small-scale studies of construct and concurrent validity of the SEL screener.