The Secret Language of Success: Accessing African American Achievement in Two-Way Immersion Program

This dissertation examined pedagogical practices used by teachers in two-way immersion programs in closing the reading achievement gap for African American students. A set of common pedagogical practices were identified after analyzing nine classroom across two schools in which the percentage of African American students were performing at or above grade level in reading, based on end-of-grade tests. Drawing from the quantitative work that exists detailing African American student achievement in two-way immersion programs, this study used qualitative methods to create a holistic picture of instruction across the nine classrooms. Three forms of data were collected for the study: teacher interviews, classroom observations, and lesson plan document analysis. This dissertation complements existing research on pedagogical practices that may assist in closing the achievement gap for African American students and adds to this body of research in identifying instructional practices that are beneficial for all students but nonnegotiable for ensuring closure of the achievement gap. This study also found that two-way immersion programs make use of several high-yield pedagogical practices found in this research: clear expectations planned and set for students; explicit vocabulary instruction; graphic organizers; explicit teaching of habits for academic success; collaborative grouping of students; regular student-teacher interactions; small group support for language development; simultaneous or sequential instruction of literacy skills across languages; team planning; student access to on-grade-level text; and the use of direct instruction through what can be termed "escalating questions."...