Syntes: Steele et al. (2017) — admission lotteries show dual-language immersion raised later reading

Källa: Steele, J. L., Slater, R. O., Zamarro, G., Miller, T., Li, J., Burkhauser, S. & Bacon, M. (2017). Effects of Dual-Language Immersion Programs on Student Achievement. American Educational Research Journal 54(1 suppl), 282S–306S. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831216634463

Verified content

• [abstract] Seven cohorts of lottery applicants in one large urban district; lottery winners vs losers (intent-to-treat).
• [abstract] Reading in grades 5 and 8: +0.13 to +0.22 SD, described as 7 to 9 months of learning.
• [abstract] Little benefit and no detriment in maths and science.
• [abstract] English learners who won were 3–4 percentage points less likely to still be classified as EL by grades 6–7, more so when the home language matched the partner language.

Limits

• [assessment] Abstract only. One district; applicants are families who chose to apply; dual-language immersion includes English-speaking pupils, so not only language-minority children. Not the same model as transitional programmes.

Why it is in the library

A causal (lottery) estimate for C34, newer than the meta-analyses on file, and in the later grades where Slavin et al. 2011 could not look.

Added 2026-11-01 by the project (weekly source sweep, kind: old; read: abstract). [abstract] = from the published abstract; [full text] = read in the full text; [assessment] = the project's own assessment.