ABSTRACT

Efforts to understand disparities in educational outcomes between students designated as English Learners (ELs) and their monolingual English-speaking peers have focused on factors that limit ELs’ access to college, including quality of high school preparation. Central to quality high school preparation are schools’ curricular structures—the course sequences and programs through which schools deliver curriculum and instruction. This article presents findings from a study of curricular structures at three comprehensive high schools, examining factors that influenced school leaders in the design of structures. The study found that, while principals articulated sociocultural views of language learning that emphasized ELs’ integration and engagement with English-speaking peers in rigorous content learning, the schools’ curricular structures limited ELs’ access to such opportunities. Two key themes emerged that help to explain the misalignment between the principals’ beliefs and the structures they put in place: conflicting goals for their students and concerns with teacher staffing.

摘要

努力理解被指定为英语学习者（EL）的学生与其说英语的同龄人之间在教育成果方面的差异的努力集中在限制ELs进入大学的因素上，包括高中准备的质量。高中课程准备的核心是学校的课程结构，即学校通过其提供课程和指导的课程顺序和程序。本文介绍了对三所综合性高中课程结构的研究结果，研究了影响学校领导者在结构设计中的因素。这项研究发现，尽管校长表达了语言学习的社会文化观点，强调了英语学习者在严格的内容学习中的融入和参与，学校的课程结构限制了ELs获得此类机会的机会。出现了两个关键主题，可以帮助解释校长的信念与他们所采用的结构之间的失调：学生的目标相互矛盾，以及对教师配备的担忧。