LINGUISTIC MINORITY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Funder: Center for Migration and Development

CILS is a longitudinal study designed to study the adaptation process of the immigrant second generation which is defined broadly as U.S.-born children with at least one foreign-born parent or children born abroad but brought at an early age to the United States. The original survey was conducted with large samples of second-generation children attending the 8th and 9th grades in public and private schools in the metropolitan areas of Miami/Ft. Lauderdale in Florida and San Diego, California.

Project Web Site

Investigators: Eugene E. Garcia., Lily Wong Fillmore, Maryl Gearhart (Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley)

Funding Agency: Various school districts, the University of California, the US Department of Education, and the National Science Foundation

The express purpose of this work, is to explore the link between new educational environments and local, state and federal educational policy in schools where linguistic and cultural diversity exists. The key principles are local flexibility with accountability and comprehensive services. The emphasis will be on school change and issues of diversity around (1) Pedagogy/students learning; (2) Professional development;and (3) School culture.

Project Web site

Funder: Sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the Institute of Education Sciences of the Department of Education

The research supported within this network of investigators has as its goal the development of new knowledge relevant to the critical factors that influence the development of English-language literacy (reading and writing) competencies among children whose first language is Spanish. This initiative was solicited in 1999, and grants were made in 2000. The funding period runs through 2004 (although some of the smaller projects were funded for only two years). The research is aimed at addressing three overarching questions:

1. How do children whose first language is Spanish learn to read and write in English? Specifically, what skills and abilities are required, and what types of home, preschool, child care, school, and cultural experiences and environments are most supportive of English-language literacy development at different phases of development?

2. Why do some Spanish-speaking children have difficulties acquiring English-language reading and writing skills? What specific cognitive, linguistic, environmental, sociocultural, neurobiological, and instructional factors impede the development of accurate and fluent English reading and writing skills, and what are the most significant risk factors that predict difficulties in the development of literacy skills?

3. For which children whose first language is Spanish are which instructional approaches and strategies most beneficial, at which stages of reading and writing development, and under what conditions? Also, what teacher knowledge, teaching skills, and instructional strategies are required to ensure optimal outcomes?

Project Web site:http://www.cal.org/delss/

Co-Principal Investigators: Michael M. Gerber, Judith English, Maria Denney, Jill Leafstedt & Monica Ruz (UC Santa Barbara)

Funding Agency: OBEMLA/USDOE

Project LaPatera (Literacy and Phonemic Awareness Training for English Reading Achievement) is a three-year longitudinal project to implement and investigate phonological skills training to accelerate English reading crossover by Spanish-speaking kindergartners. Project design includes a home component as adjunct to the intervention. Initial efforts included a large scale family survey of family demographics, language use, and home literacy practices.

Project Web site

Funder(s): The following is a partial list of funders (see web site for full list):

Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, The Edward E. Ford Foundation, The Francis Families Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, The F. B. Heron Foundation, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, The W. K. Kellogg Foundation

Founded in 1983, HFRP examines topics related to family involvement in education, evaluation, and continuous improvement, strategy consulting for foundations, and works to increase the professional development base of those who work directly with children and youth.

HFRP's research can be, however, placed under two categories of study: family-school-community partnerships and strategy consulting and evaluation. Specific projects are listed on the web site.

Project Web site: http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/index.html

Funder: Carnegie Corporation of New York

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) was awarded a grant to study the capacity of state education agencies and districts to improve education for English language learners enrolled in high schools undergoing reform. The CCSSO will use the grant to study state policies and practices that impact the education of limited English proficient (LEP) students in secondary schools; create a compendium of successful programs and approaches; and provide a forum for various members of the educational community to share successful strategies for serving these students.

Project Web site: http://www.ccsso.org/projects/High_Poverty_Schools_Initiative/

Investigators: Rachel A. Lotan, Elizabeth G. Cohen, Guadalupe Valdés (Stanford University)

Funding Agency: Spencer Foundation

A three-year study, collecting data in eight middle school classrooms with approx. 9-11 English-learners each, studying the relationship between the students' initial language proficiency, their classroom experiences, and the linguistic and academic outcomes of these experiences, and conducting in-depth, systematic analyses of classroom discourse.

CAL - Center for Applied Linguistics

Funder: U.S. Dept. of Education/Office of Ed. Research and Improvement

For literacy instruction to improve for language minority students, it is critical that a national panel develop an objective research review methodology, apply this methodology to search the relevant research literature, analyze the documents, develop a report based on this analysis, and disseminate the information contained in the report to practitioners, policymakers, and researchers.

To meet this need, SRI International and the Center for Applied Linguistics have been awarded a contract from -the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (U.S. Department of Education) to convene a National Literacy Panel (NLP) that will conduct a comprehensive, evidence-based review of the research literature on the development of literacy among language minority children and youth.

This 24-month study complements the scope of the study conducted by the National Reading Panel (which specifically excluded literacy development among language minority students). It is organized along similar lines, but will include quantitative experimental studies, quantitative nonexperimental studies, and qualitative studies. The 13-member panel will form five subcommittees, each of which will focus on specific topics in literacy research.

The report of the National Literacy Panel is in the final stages of preparation. An announcement about its availability will be posted in fall 2005.

Project Web site: http://www.cal.org/natl-lit-panel/

Co-Principal Investigators: Wayne P. Thomas, Virginia P. Collier — George Mason University

CREDE - Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence

Project Period: July 1996 - June 2001

Our research from 1985 to 2001 has been focused on analyzing the great variety of education services provided for language minority students in U.S. public schools and the resulting academic achievement of these students. We are the first researchers to analyze many long-term databases collected by school districts in all regions of the U.S., and we have collected the largest set of quantitative databases gathered for research in the field of language minority education. This current five-year research study (1996-2001) is our most recent overview of language minority students' long-term achievement, depending upon the type of program in which these students are placed.

This is an ongoing study. Although we are reporting the results of the most complete longitudinal and cross-sectional databases that we have collected over the past five years, the school districts plan to continue working with us as collaborative research partners, so that the results of the research analyses will inform their practices. This study thus serves two major functions-providing the federal government with an overview of effective practices for language minority students, and answering questions for more effective, data-driven decision making among the participating school districts. Most of all, this study is designed to answer major policy questions of interest to the federal and state governments of the United States.

Project Web site: http://www.crede.ucsc.edu/research/llaa/1.1_final.html

Funder(s): This study is supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) through a cooperative agreement (U10) that calls for a scientific collaboration between the grantees and NICHD staff.

The most comprehensive child care study conducted to date to determine how variations in child care are related to children's development.

Project Web site: http://secc.rti.org/home.cfm

Funder: Harvard Graduate School of Education

Directed by Susan Moore Johnson, this is a multi-year research project addressing critical questions regarding the future of our nation’s teaching force. The Project examines issues related to attracting, supporting, and retaining quality teachers in U.S. public schools.

Project Web site: http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~ngt/index.htm

Funder: Institute of World Literature, part of the Russian Academy of Sciences

This project has a large educational and cultural potential. It offers the chance for curious lay people who are interested in rural Russia and its traditional culture to participate as well as specialists and students of anthropology, art, history, sociology and Russian studies. The project is a non-traditional trip into traditional Russia. The project will take place in rural Russia and participants will all have the opportunity to be acquainted with the hospitality of Russian villagers, their customs and traditional way of life.

The project has a regular free Newsletter. If you subscribe you will read about the scientific results of our regular expeditions, stories from the field, opinions and impressions of our team members and authentic folklore texts in English.

Project Web site:http://www.russianexpedition.net

The website was designed in order to help students and teachers of Slavic languages and literatures as well as the Slavic community to search for information that they need.

Co-Principal Investigator and Co-Director: Joshua Fishman (Yeshiva University) and Guadalupe Valdés (Stanford University)

Principal Research Assistant: Rebecca Chavez

Funding Agency: Spencer Foundation

Description: The language heritage initative is currently studying successful Latino professionals in California, their use of Spanish in professional settings, and the teaching of Spanish as a heritage language in California

Project Web site: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/SUSE/Spencer_PRproject/

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

The most comprehensive child care study conducted to date to determine how variations in child care are related to children's development. This study is supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) through a cooperative agreement (U10) that calls for a scientific collaboration between the grantees and NICHD staff.

Project Web site: http://www.nichd.nih.gov/od/secc/index.htm

Funder: Consortium for Policy Research in Education

The Study of Instructional Improvement (SII) is a program of comprehensive research that seeks to understand the impact of school improvement programs on instruction and student performance in elementary schools. Over a six-year period, researchers at the University of Michigan are folowing schools involved iwth one of three leading school improvement programs - Accelerated Schools, American's Choice, and Success For All. The study is tracking the implementation of these improvement efforts in schools, and investigating the impact on teachers, students, and schools.

Project Web site: http://www.sii.soe.umich.edu/

The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD)

Texas Schools Project is a multiyear research project whose goals are to obtain a better understanding of the determinants of student performance with the long-term objective of providing a knowledge/research base to improve the performance of public schools. In spring 1999, the project broadened its scope to include an extensive program of research on minority access to Texas public colleges and universities

Project Web site: http://www.utdallas.edu/research/tsp/Index.htm

Funder(s): Social Science Research Council (SSRC); also, The Lumina Foundation for Education is providing support for this effort.

This project focuses on postsecondary transition and retention successes and failures associated with America's disadvantaged youth. Launched in Fall 2003, the project's goals are: 1) To bring together and clarify what we know about the shift from high school to college from the various streams of social science research that have looked at transition; 2) To frame and structure an agenda about what we still need to research and learn about this crucial bridge to gainful adulthood; 3) To link that agenda to policy and practice.

Project Web site: http://edtransitions.ssrc.org/home.aspx

Co-Principal Investigators: Ron Gallimore and Leslie Reese (UCLA) and Claude Goldenberg (CSULB)

The UCLA Latino Home-School Research Project began in 1989. One hundred and twenty-one Latino kindergartners were chosen randomly from two Los Angeles County school districts. All had been classified by their school as Spanish-speaking. Since, 1989 we have listened and talked to the parents in their homes and on the telephone. The original goal of the project was to understand what family factors were associated with academic outcomes.
In 1999, we began listening and talking to the youth themselves, who are now 15 years old. Over the next five years, we will be visiting them many times at home and school, on their jobs and in the community. We hope to gain the perspective of these young people as they move into young adulthood and begin to make life and career choices.

The quantitative data files of the Latino Home School Longitudinal Project are now archived and available for secondary analyses in the Murray Archives. The Archives are housed at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, located at Fay House, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02318. Phone 617-496-8185 (www.radcliffe.edu).

Project Web site: http://cultureandhealth.ucla.edu/latinohsproj/

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education have launched a research program on the development of English literacy in Spanish speakers that addresses three questions: 1) How do children whose first language is Spanish learn to read and write in English? 2) Why do some Spanish-speaking children have difficulties acquiring English-language reading and writing skills? 3) For which children whose first language is Spanish are which instructional approaches and strategies most beneficial, at which stages of reading and writing development, and under what conditions?

To date, the following seven studies (listed below) have been funded.

Investigators: David J. Francis, University of Houston

The objective of the program is to identify the factors and conditions under which children who speak Spanish develop proficient literacy skills in English and Spanish. The investigators propose a core longitudinal study from K-G3 of children in urban Texas, border Texas and urban California. These children will be from classrooms representative of one of four language program models: (1) English language immersion; (2) early exit; (3) late exit; and (4) dual language.

More information: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/delssc.html

Investigators: Diane August, Center for Applied Linguistics

This research program will investigate the ways in which cross-linguistic, intralinguistic, and developmental factors affect the acquisition of English literacy skills by native Spanish-speaking children. The investigators will describe the ways in which specific aspects of early experience at school and, to some degree, at home predict development of literacy skills in English for bilingual children whose first language is Spanish.

More information: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/delssc.html

Investigators: Franklin Manis, University of Southern California

A two-year longitudinal study of literacy development in Spanish-speaking children. The primary aim is to determine whether literacy difficulties in English among Spanish-speaking children in the second and thrid grades can be predicted from a cognitive test battery given in Spanish at the beginning of kindergarten and in English at the end of first grade.

More information: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/delssc.html

Investigators: Carol S. Hammer, Pennsylvania State University

This study examines the language acquisition, literacy development, and home environment of 100 children of Puerto Rican descent who attend Head Start. Fifty children acquiring Spanish and English sequentially and 50 acquiring the two languages simultaneously will be studied from the ages of four to six years. The results of the investigation will inform us of (a) the patterns of bilingual language acquisition that result in better literacy abilities; and (b) specific factors that should be targeted in interventions to facilitate better outcomes.

More information: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/delssc.html

Investigators: Mark S. Innocenti, Utah State University

This project will test language and emergent literacy outcomes of a Bilingual Early Language and Literacy Support (BELLS) Program which will include both early English immersion and home language literacy support. The multi-site, naturalistic, longitudinal study will be conducted in Utah, where the Hispanic population is increasing at a rate that stands far above Florida, Texas, New York and California.

More information: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/delssc.html

Investigators: Alexandra Gottardo, Grand Valley State University

This study proposes to examine longitudinal predictors of English reading skill in children who speak Spanish (L1). An extensive battery of standardized and experimental tasks will be administered to the children in Spanish and in English. The children will be tested as prereaders and then followed through the process of initial reading acquisition.

More information: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/delssc.html

Investigators: Marjorie F. Orellana, Northwestern University

This project explores how a key experience in the lives of many bilingual immigrant children-their work as "language brokers' or translators between their families and the English-speaking world-relates to their English literacy development and success in school.

More information: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/delssc.html