A new study finds that an influx of English learner students into “new destination” states not only avoids harming existing students but actually boosts their academic performance, particularly in reading, offering positive insights for educators and policymakers.
A new study released today reveals that a significant influx of English learner students into “new destination” states in the U.S. South and Midwest has led to positive academic outcomes for existing students, particularly in reading. The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis by the American Educational Research Association, challenges the prevailing notion that immigrant students drain resources and hinder their peers’ academic achievement.
Conducted by researchers from the RAND Corporation, the study indicates that new English learners (ELs) can positively influence the academic performance of current and former EL students, without adversely impacting non-EL students.
“Our findings contradict the narrative that the arrival of EL students lowers student performance overall,” co-author Umut Ozek, a senior economist at RAND, said in a news release. “While new ELs may require additional educational resources initially, they do not harm the academic achievement of existing students.”
“In fact, our research suggests that incoming ELs could even improve the academic achievement of the existing current and former ELs in the first year, which might help close the gaps between ELs and non-ELs,” he added.
The study analyzed student-level data from Delaware’s public schools, covering grades 4 through 8 between the 2015-2016 and 2018-2019 school years. Over the past 20 years, Delaware has seen a seven-fold increase in its EL student population.
The influx of EL students is a nationwide phenomenon. States that had lower than the national average of EL enrollments in 2000 account for 90% of the increase in EL students across the United States since then.
This rapid demographic shift has placed a unique set of challenges and opportunities on school districts in these new destination states compared to traditional EL hubs like California and New York, which have long-established infrastructures to support EL students.
“To be certain, a large influx of any population into a school system places strain on districts, as they have to grow to accommodate incoming students,” Ozek added. “And the specific needs of incoming students can trigger a host of necessary social and academic supports. But our study should assuage concerns by state and federal policymakers that large inflows of recent immigrants may be overwhelming school districts and harming classroom achievement.”
By demonstrating that additional resources for EL students can yield broad educational benefits, this study provides critical insights for educators and policymakers. The findings could help inform more effective allocation of resources, promote inclusive educational practices and contribute to the overall academic success of students in increasingly diverse educational landscapes.