English Language Learner (ELL) students bring substantial assets such as bilingualism and biculturalism to communities and classrooms, yet their educational achievement is often lower than that of their non-ELL peers.

To address this, Beaverton School District partnered with Education Northwest to identify the English language development (ELD) program models that are most effective at improving ELL student educational outcomes and the amount of instructional time each program model requires to be effective.

The report finds that regardless of student characteristics, ELD program model, or grade level, providing more than 50 minutes of ELD instruction time without other changes to instruction is not likely to improve English language acquisition among ELL students. The report also finds that elementary ELL students in dual language and co-teaching programs made greater grade-to-grade English language proficiency growth compared to students in pull-out programs and students whose parents waived ELD services.

Download Report