Feng Liu

This study of the 2010 and 2011 kindergarten cohorts of Spanish-speaking English learner students in four school districts in New Mexico examined the connection between initial Spanish proficiency and English language development, as well as grade-level readiness by grade 4 or 5 in English language arts and math. Key findings include: More than 80 percent of English learner students in the 2010 cohort started kindergarten at the lowest English proficiency level, as did half of those in the 2...

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in students' perceptions of their noncognitive skills and school environments by race/ethnicity, and explore whether students' perceptions of their noncognitive skills and school environments were related to three outcomes that have been identified in the research as mattering most for a success transition to high school--grade 9 GPA, grade 9 absences, and grade 9 course failures. The study used administrative and survey data from students ...