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Educational change efforts that prioritize equity for multilingual learners (MLs) require attention to several interconnected components of the education system. We build on prior literature and our collective research to clarify the concept of shared responsibility for ML students and to operationalize the concept at the school, district, and state levels. Drawing on institutional theory and a racialized organizations lens, we argue that shared responsibility is embedded in the mindsets, norms, and structures that shape education systems. We also attend to the complexities of fostering shared responsibility in practice, such as grappling with pervasive educator burnout and developing innovative strategies that span levels of the system. We conclude with directions for future research, including studies examining effective approaches for shifting the mindsets, norms, and routines comprising shared responsibility, and recommendations for researchers to play a more active role in shaping shared responsibility for ML students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the 2015 passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the oversight of language policy in U.S. schools shifted from federal to state governance. Although the education of students officially designated as English learners (ELs) has historically been grounded in federal law, we argue that ELs' educational experiences are also largely influenced by societal attitudes toward immigrants and immigration. Using a critical policy analysis (CPA) approach, we examine how 12 states' immigrant policy contexts are associated with the EL educational policies articulated in their ESSA implementation plans. We find that states' demographic and immigrant policy contexts combine to produce four distinct approaches toward EL education, from departing to approaching equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an integrated systematic review of scholarship related to preparing preservice teachers (PSTs) to teach multilingual learners in U.S. schools. We drew from cultural-historical activity theory to investigate how teacher educators who focus on preparing PSTs to work with multilingual students attended to the linguistically responsive teaching (LRT) framework. We identified three distinct activity systems, each linked to specific LRT dimensions. The ways in which the components of each activity system integrated LRT have implications for both theory and practice. Specifically, our findings highlight the need for program-wide coherence in teacher preparation and for comparative analysis examining teacher education across diverse policy contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study how a suburban U.S. district in the early stages of demographic change developed systems of support for teachers of English learners (ELs). Using district- and school-level social network and interview data, we examine elementary teachers' EL-related professional learning opportunities, and how district and school organizational contexts enabled or constrained these opportunities. We find that the separation of language and content at the district level limited teachers' learning opportunities, yet school leaders mitigated this separation by implementing structures that fostered norms of shared responsibility and collaborative teaching. Findings highlight the relevance of an organizational perspective for understanding how suburban districts respond to demographic change, and have implications for policymakers and practitioners with respect to creating inclusive environments for ELs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While current reform efforts press for ambitious changes to teachers’ instructional practice, teachers’ instructional beliefs are also consequential in such efforts as beliefs shape teachers’ instructional practice and their responses to instructional reforms. This article examines the relationship between teachers’ instructional ties and their beliefs about mathematics instruction in one school district working to transform its approach to elementary mathematics education. Quantitative results show that while teachers’ beliefs did not predict with whom they interacted about mathematics instruction, teachers’ interactions with peers about mathematics instruction were associated with changes in their beliefs over time. Qualitative analysis confirms and extends these findings, revealing how system-level changes in the district’s educational infrastructure facilitated change in teachers’ beliefs about mathematics instruction at scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2015 federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) affords states flexibility in adopting accountability measures that assess opportunity to learn, and requires that state and district leaders use evidence-based interventions to address any inequities. For English learners (ELs) at the secondary level, one important measure of opportunity to learn is access to and completion of rigorous, college preparatory coursework. Drawing from ESSA's definition of "evidence-based," which aligns closely with requirements for EL programs outlined by Castaneda, we propose course taking as a valid and reliable statewide indicator of student success, and offer recommendations for local interventions that would support secondary ELs' opportunity to learn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on institutional theory, this study describes how cognitive, normative, and regulative mechanisms shape bilingual teachers’ language policy implementation in both English-only and bilingual contexts. Aligned with prior educational language policy research, findings indicate the important role that teachers’ beliefs play in the policy implementation process. However, findings also reveal several other dimensions of the policymaking process that contribute to the coupling of language policy and classroom practice, including district-level policy, administrative oversight, and teacher training policies. This study thus offers an institutional view of language policy implementation that accounts for teachers’ beliefs in a more nuanced and realistic way. Results from the study suggest the need to respond to both individual- and systems-level policy mechanisms—and the interplay between them—when designing school systems that address the educational needs of English language learners, whose presence is increasing in districts and schools across the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of shifting demographics and standards-based reform, school districts in new immigrant destinations are charged with designing infrastructures that support teaching and learning for English learners (ELs) in core academic subjects. This article uses qualitative data and social network analysis to examine how one district in the midwestern United States organized EL instruction. After describing the district’s infrastructure for elementary EL education, we examine how this infrastructure supported teachers’ work practice—the practices in which teachers engage with one another—as operationalized around instructional advice and information networks. Findings reveal that teachers’ opportunities to learn about EL instruction varied significantly by the school subject and that these differences were directly related to the way in which the district built its EL educational infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While few would disagree that a key component of educating teachers to teach happens on the job, research rarely explores the schoolhouse as a site for teacher education. This study thus focuses on inservice as distinct from preservice teacher education and explores how beginning teachers’ learning about mathematics and literacy instruction was supported within 24 elementary schools in two midwestern school districts. A mixed methodology was used in this exploratory study, including social network and interview data analysis, to examine beginning teachers’ advice- and information-seeking behaviors related to mathematics and literacy. Findings revealed that formal organizational structures inside schools were critical for shaping beginning teachers’ opportunities to learn about instruction, including grade level teams and formal leadership positions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents a set of recommendations that promote a more nuanced, meaningful accountability policy for English learners in the next authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The authors argue that the ESEA reauthorization must strengthen the law’s capacity-building purpose so that federal, state, and local leaders support continued attention, direction, and innovation in effectively educating ELs. The recommendations put forth in this article focus on monitoring both current and former ELs, establishing time frames for the attainment of English language proficiency, and setting expectations for academic achievement that are reflective of English language proficiency level and time in the state’s school system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]