Research

Projects

Acquiring Literacy in English
The National Institutes of Health, with co-funding from the Department of Education, awarded CAL a grant to study the acquisition of English literacy by children who speak Spanish as their native language. In a 5-year program of research, the Center and its collaborators, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Miami, sought to improve understanding of the factors that predict success as Spanish-speaking children learn to read and write in English. Learn more about Acquiring Literacy in English.

Academic Literacy Through Sheltered Instruction for Secondary English Language Learners
CAL is working intensively with middle and high school educators from the Clifton (NJ) Public Schools to investigate the relationship between professional development and student achievement by collecting and analyzing data on the implementation of the SIOP (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol) Model for sheltered instruction in order to determine if the academic performance of secondary ELLs improves under the instruction of SIOP-trained teachers.

Adolescent ELL Literacy Policy
The Carnegie Corporation of New York has funded CAL to convene a panel of researchers to examine issues related to literacy development in adolescent English language learners and to prepare a policy document on promising practices. Learn more about CAL's work on this project.

Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE)
CAL partners with several institutions in the Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE), a National Research and Development Center for English language learners. CREATE conducts a program of research designed to address specific challenges in the education of English language learners in the middle grades (Grades 4-8). Learn more about CREATE.

Enhancing Secondary Education in the Central Valley: Success and Access for English Language Learners
CAL is conducting a project aimed at improving instruction and preparation for post-secondary education in Central Valley high schools with high enrollments of language minority students whose achievement does not keep pace with that of other students. The project will also develop mechanisms to guide more of these students into post-secondary education and help them succeed there. Learn more about this project.

Implementing High Learning Standards with English Language Learners
CAL helped to facilitate monthly professional development sessions with teachers from four linguistically and culturally diverse urban middle schools. CAL staff served as researchers and professional development advisors as teachers collected and analyzed student work that gave evidence of standards implementation.

Language Learning and Academic Achievement Synthesis Team
The goal of this project is to summarize the empirical research and seminal works that offer rich data on oral language development, literacy, and academic achievement for preK–12 English language learners in the United States.

National Literacy Panel
CAL partnered with SRI International on a contract from the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences to convene a National Literacy Panel to conduct a comprehensive, evidence-based review of the research literature on the development of literacy among language minority children and youth. The project's final report, including the review and analysis of current research in this field, are now being disseminated to practitioners, policymakers, and researchers around the country. Learn more about the National Literacy Panel.

National Survey of Assessment of Foreign Language Teachers
CAL is conducting a national survey of state certification boards, local school districts, and teacher preparation programs to determine how the foreign language competency of elementary and secondary school teachers is being assessed.

Newcomer Conference and Pilot Study
This project organized a national conference for educators of newcomer students and aimed to identify and document effective literacy and assessment practices in programs for newcomers.

Newcomers: Language and Academic Programs for Recent Immigrants
This project sought out, profiled, and examined programs for recently arrived students to U.S. secondary schools and studied their program design and implementation.

The Benchmark Study of Title VII Programs
This 5-year research project looked at nearly 400 schools receiving grants under the Comprehensive School Grants program of the U.S. Department of Education. The study documented the process and content of reform in these schools over time and analyzed its impact on the education of language minority students.

The Effects of Sheltered Instruction on the Achievement of Limited English Proficient Students
This project is working with teachers to identify key practices for sheltered instruction and to develop a professional development model that would enable more teachers to use sheltered instruction effectively in their classrooms.

Transfer of Reading Skills from Spanish to English: A Study of Young Learners
Researchers investigated how reading skills learned in Spanish can transfer to the reading of English.

Two-Way Immersion Education
This 5-year study of two-way immersion education investigated the language development and academic achievement of students, the professional development of teachers, and the articulation of programs from the elementary to the secondary level. Learn more at CAL's Two-Way Immersion Web site.

View our complete list of current projects.