| A growing number of students in the United States come from homes where a language other than English is the primary language, presenting challenges to educators who struggle to meet these students' educational needs. This study, using an exploratory mixed methods design, examined how seventh grade language minority high-achieving students in a Spanish two-way immersion program differ from language minority low-achieving students on several factors, including academic engagement, English and Spanish oral language proficiency at school entry, current English and Spanish language proficiency, Spanish language arts achievement, general ability, and background factors such as SES, gender, and age. Three dimensions of academic engagement were examined: behavioral, cognitive, and relational. School records that gave information on grades in English language arts, school behavior referrals, and attendance as well as teacher questionnaires about class participation and classroom observations were used to determine the behavioral engagement of the students. Students completed a questionnaire on their perceived use of self-regulation strategies to determine cognitive engagement. In addition, teachers were asked to rate students' use of self-regulatory strategies. Relational engagement was investigated with individual interviews and focus group discussions around questions relating to perceived teacher, parent, and peer support for academic achievement. The results indicate that the high-achieving students had higher levels of academic engagement, were more likely to be orally proficient in at least one language at school entry, had a higher SES level, and were more likely to be female. The results of this study indicate classroom instructional strategies such as working in groups and structured review of information are essential to increasing students' academic engagement and achievement. Mentoring programs that foster students' perceptions that teachers care about them as individuals would also help raise the academic engagement of the low-achieving students. Results also indicate that instructional programs in kindergarten and first grade in a two-way immersion program should include a strong oral language component that will ensure all students have the language skills needed to be successful in school. |
