Classroom Instruction and the Mathematics Achievement of Non-English Learners and English Learners

The authors, in a nonexperimental randomized study, used national data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) to examine present instructional practices for Grade 5 mathematics classrooms and its impact on achievement for White non-Hispanic non-English language learners (ELLs), Hispanic non-ELLs, and Hispanic English language learners. The following research questions were addressed: (a) Were there significant differences in mathematics instructional practices among White non-Hispanic non-ELLs, Hispanic non-ELLs, and Hispanic-ELLs? (b) What were the effects of the mathematical instructional practices on fifth-grade mathematics achievement for these groups? Findings reveal that students' mathematics achievement in previous grades directly impacted students' achievement in future grades. Findings also demonstrated limited variance in the instructional practices used by teachers.