Syntes: Valentino & Reardon (2015) — English learners in bilingual programmes keep pace with or outgrow English immersion in English reading, grades 2–7

Källa: https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373715573310 (Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 37(4), 612–637); read in the ERIC accepted manuscript ED566267

Verified content

• [full text] One large urban US district; ELs who entered kindergarten between 2001–02 and 2009–10 (13,750 ELs in the full sample; 7,729 in the preference-controlled sample), followed on the state's English Language Arts (ELA) and maths tests from grade 2 to grade 7/8 (p. 15, Table 3).
• [full text] Programmes (Table 1): English immersion (EI, 100% English); transitional bilingual (TB, 50–90% home language in K, students typically transition out by grade 3); developmental bilingual (DB, home language maintained, transition commonly at reclassification around grade 5); dual immersion (DI, 80–90% target language in K–1, 50/50 by grade 5).
• [full text] Table 3, Model 4 (student controls, school fixed effects, parents' programme preferences), ELA relative to EI: grade-2 level TB +0.076* (SE 0.036), DB −0.017 (0.044), DI −0.191** (0.059); growth per grade TB +0.023* (0.010), DB −0.022+ (0.013, p < .10), DI +0.064*** (0.018). EI's own ELA scores fall relative to the state (−0.023*** per grade).
• [full text] Text (pp. 25–26): "the rate at which the ELA test scores of ELs in TB increase is significantly faster than those of EI, while the rate for DB is not significantly distinguishable"; DI scores, well below EI in grade 2, match the state average by grade 6 and surpass EI and DB.
• [full text] By ethnicity (pp. 27–28): Latino ELs in all three bilingual programmes grow significantly faster in ELA than Latino ELs in EI and score above them by grade 7; Chinese ELs in DB grow significantly more slowly than in EI (Table 4: −0.068** per grade, SE 0.026), TB and DI not different; Latino ELs in DB grow faster than in EI (+0.056**).
• [full text] Unadjusted descriptives (Table 2): grade-7 ELA EI 0.279, TB 0.205, DB 0.059, DI −0.133 (standardised to the state).

Limits

• [full text] Not randomised; selection on unobservables possible, though estimates were stable when parental preferences were added and in a pre-K skills check (pp. 26, 34–35). One district with unusual diversity and programme variety (p. 35).
• [assessment] The only reliable lag for a bilingual programme on ELA after grade 2 is DI's, which is still in its majority-target-language phase in the early grades; DB's slower ELA growth is marginal (p < .10) overall and significant only for Chinese ELs (a subgroup result, no level test reported).

Role for C34

• [assessment] A kill-condition test of C34 ("a reliable majority-language reading disadvantage for the bilingual programmes after the children have moved on to reading in the majority language, grade 3 or later"): not met — TB and DI ELA grow faster than EI and DB is not significantly different. C34 survived (nightly attacks 2026-11-14).

Added 2026-11-14 by the project (nightly attack run). [full text] = read in the accepted manuscript; [assessment] = the project's own assessment.