The purpose of this study was to investigate Spanish-speaking multilingual learner (MLL) students' long-term academic outcomes after participation in an early childhood education (ECE) program with English instruction. The study included 359 Spanish-speaking MLLs who qualified for Free and Reduced Lunch from Grade 1 to Grade 6. Participants…

Purpose: Elementary-age dual language learners (DLLs) from Spanish-speaking homes in the United States are often characterized as at risk for low vocabulary in both Spanish and English. This longitudinal study examined conceptually scored receptive and expressive vocabulary development among DLLs from Spanish-speaking, low-income homes and…

The purpose of this qualitative research study is to portray the complex language practices of multilingual children when learning mathematics. To do so, I draw on data collected as part of a three-year research study that was designed to understand the relationship between young children's language use and mathematics learning, focusing on…

Articles in this issue examine (1) the primary sources of variability in reading and language achievement among Spanish-speaking English learners (ELs) in the United States, (2) the extent to which poor performance at the end of grade 2 is identifiable in developmental trajectories beginning in kindergarten, (3) the relations among core reading…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the kindergarten, first-, and second-grade predictors of reading comprehension in bilingual children. Specifically, we evaluated the role that Spanish and English skills play in predicting English reading comprehension in third grade. Method: As part of a longitudinal study, 248 bilingual children…

The promise of access to key 21st-century skills (i.e., bilingualism, biliteracy, and global awareness) has resulted in the rapid gain in popularity of dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs in the United States over the past two decades. Despite their integrative and additive nature, concerns have been raised about lack of equity in…

This quantitative, longitudinal matched pairs study determined whether elementary Spanish immersion students performed better on reading end-of-grade exams in Grades 3-5 than their non-immersion traditional peers in the same grades. African American and Hispanic students from two Spanish immersion schools in a suburban North Carolina district were…

Grade retention, the practice of holding a student back in the same grade, has been a controversial topic in the United States for decades. English learners, a growing population in US schools, are consistently identified for grade retention more often than their English-only counterparts. The purpose of this study is to test the impact of grade…

Purpose: This longitudinal study investigated the trajectory of Spanish article accuracy in Spanish-English dual language learners (DLLs) from preschool to first grade, addressing the need for longitudinal data on the variability of Spanish grammatical skills in DLLs in English immersion classrooms. Method: Language sample analysis was conducted…

Spanish-speaking students constitute the largest subgroup of emergent bilingual (EB) students in the United States. Using longitudinal data on a nationally representative sample of Spanish-English EBs, we explore profiles of English reading trajectories and how early individual differences (i.e., early Spanish reading and English oral proficiency)…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd-grade predictors of reading comprehension in bilingual children. Specifically, we evaluated the role that Spanish and English skills play in predicting English reading comprehension in 3rd grade. Method: As part of a longitudinal study, 248 bilingual children were…

Despite much research examining whether bilingual individuals demonstrate superior executive function (EF) skills compared to monolinguals, the purported bilingual advantage remains controversial. One potential reason for discrepant findings across studies examining the bilingual advantage is the difficulty in matching monolingual and bilingual…

In this longitudinal, qualitative case study, critical pedagogical and sociocultural perspectives were employed to analyze the language and literacy strengths, challenges, inequities, and gentrification issues that characterized the first three years of a two-way, 50-50 Spanish-English dual-language (DL) program's implementation, and how the DL…

Latinos comprise a significant portion of the total school enrollment in the U.S., and an increasing share of Latinos are pursuing higher education today. However, Latino students still face many educational barriers, and research has repeatedly demonstrated that Latino children lag their peers in terms of their academic achievement. In addition,…

Background: Prosodic reading is one of the steps needed to achieve reading fluency. It is already known that English children develop their reading prosody from the earliest grades of primary school, showing the greatest improvement between first and second grade, but there are no Spanish studies of the development of reading prosody in the first…