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A decade after institutionalization: educators’ perspectives of structured English immersion

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Abstract

In 2006, Arizona ELL Task Force implemented Structured English Immersion (SEI) within its public schools to educate emergent bilingual (EB) students. Although prior research has demonstrated limitations of SEI, we investigate whether institutionalization has improved its implementation and outcomes using coordinators’ and teachers’ responses from a statewide summit. Analyses of responses for each of the research questions uncovered that SEI was viewed as providing ease of implementation, but there were several obstacles introduced: (1) limitations to curricular access and correlation to standards; (2) deficit model; (3) limited access to language acquisition; (4) limited access to high school graduation; (5) issues with language assessment; (6) classification concerns; (7) classroom segregation; and (8) lack of teacher preparation for instruction. Respondents asserted that changes were needed in SEI and standards, teacher endorsement and pedagogy, and assessment to support EB learning and language acquisition. We discuss the resulting themes against extant literature, and provide policy recommendations.

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Notes

  1. Although structured English immersion may be understood as an instructional approach (Lillie et al. 2010), in this study we use SEI model, which aligns with the language used by the Arizona Department of Education. Furthermore, SEI model also aligns with the language most familiar to EB teachers and English language development (ELD) coordinators, which was also the terminology used for this study.

  2. The Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction created the Latino Education Advisory Committee to provide expertise in issues relevant to Latino students in the state.

  3. The refinements, as referred to by Arizona Department of Education, are the states approach to incorporate more flexibility to SEI requirements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational Policy Studies and Practice, The University of Arizona, PO Box 210069, Tucson, AZ, 85721-0078, USA

    Angela Cruze

  2. Department of Educational Policy Studies and Practice, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA

    Meg Cota & Francesca López

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  1. Angela Cruze
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Correspondence to Angela Cruze.

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Cruze, A., Cota, M. & López, F. A decade after institutionalization: educators’ perspectives of structured English immersion. Lang Policy 18, 431–453 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-018-9495-1

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