Study on Rise of ELLs

English-language-learner enrollment in K-12 schools has increased by more than 1 million students since 2000, according to a new report. There are now an estimated 4.9 million children in U.S. public schools learning the English language. These students are in classrooms in most school systems—and enrollment is surging in states across the South and Midwest that had almost no English-learners at the turn of the century. California has the greatest number and percentage: 20.2%.
Office of English Language Acquisition. (2020). English learners: Demographic trends. Washington, DC: US Department of Education.
https://ncela.ed.gov/files/fast_facts/19-0193_Del4.4_ELDemographicTrends_021220_508.pdf 
and
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "Local Education Agency Universe Survey," 2000–01 through 2016–17. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_204.20.asp?current=yes

Common Core Reading and Writing Status

Nationally, teachers in grades 4-10 have shifted practices dramatically on vocabulary and assigning nonfiction, but they've struggled with some of the other shifts in those standards—most notably the tenet of having students of all reading abilities to grapple with grade-level texts. Most teachers now teach new words in the context of reading and conversation.Teachers continue to choose reading-level, not grade-level, texts. Evidence-based reading is common, but writing lags. Fiction reading is on the decline. To help ELA teachers, the report recommends organizing lessons around "text sets," or groups of texts on a theme or topic that are scaffolded in difficulty for students and help build background knowledge.
Griffith, D., & Duffett, A. (2018). Reading and writing instruction in America's schools. Washington, DC: T. B. Fordham Institute. https://edexcellence.net/publications/reading-and-writing-instruction-in-americas-schools

ELL language learning and achievement

The earlier that English-language-learner students are reclassified as English-proficient, the more likely they are to graduate high school. The researchers found that the graduation rate gap between students who were reclassified as English-proficient in elementary school and students who are still ELLs in high school was striking, the latter less likely to graduate.
Huang, M. et al. (2016). English learner students' readiness for academic success. San Francisco, CA: WestEd.
https://www.wested.org/resources/english-learner-students-readiness-for-academic-success/

Audiobook research

This paper reviews the literature on audio delivery of content to three participant groups: adolescents with visual impairments or learning disabilities, adolescent second language learners, and typically developing adolescents. Findings from the studies of audio delivery of content are mixed, and great variability in outcomes have been reported, depending on the characteristics of the groups studied. Numerous gaps exist in the research surrounding adolescents’ use of audiobooks, including examinations of the effectiveness of commercially produced audiobooks and explorations of adolescents’ listening preferences.
Moore, J., & Cahill, M.  (2016). Audiobooks: Legitimate ‘reading’ material for adolescents? School Library Research, 19. http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aaslpubsandjournals/slr/vol19/SLR_AudiobooksLegitimateReading_V19.pdf

English learner instruction research

Research on teaching English learners found that the most common types of instructon include: pullout/push-in tutoring, sheltered English instruction, and bilingual instruction.  English-learners in bilingual programs had language arts and math scores that grew as fast or faster than those of ELLs in sheltered English immersion, but students in developmental bilingual programs showed slower growth in math than those in other types of bilingual and sheltered-English instruction.Effective strategies for teaching academic content to ELs include:

  Teach a set of academic vocabulary words intensively, over several days and a variety of activities.

  Integrate instruction in spoken and written English into content-area teaching, such as using science laboratory reports to teach writing in English.

  Provide ongoing, structured chances to develop writing skills.

  Provide small-group interventions for students struggling with specific problems in literacy or language development.

Sparks, S. (2016). Teaching English-Learners: What Does the Research Tell Us? Education Week (May 11).

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/05/11/teaching-english-language-learners-what-does-the-research.html?r=1304688368&cmp=eml-enl-tu-news2-RM&preview=1

Student tech and engineering proficiency study

     Forty-three percent of students scored proficient on the National Assessment of Educational Progress's technology and engineering literacy test. Data show girls outperformed boys on the exam by three percentage points. The test was designed to measure students’ abilities in areas such as understanding technological principles, designing solutions and communicating and collaborating. Girls were particularly strong in the latter.
     There also were large racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps, mirroring results on standardized tests in other subjects. Just 25 percent of students who received free and reduced-price lunch scored proficient, compared to 59 percent of more affluent students. Eighteen percent of black students and 28 percent of Latino students scored proficient, for example, compared to 56 percent of white and Asian students. The test was particularly difficult for students learning English as a second language: Five percent of them scored proficient. And 60 percent of private school students were proficient, outperforming their public-school peers, 42 percent of whom were proficient.
National Assessment of Educational Progress. (2016). The nation's report card: Technology and engineering literacy. Washington, DC: NAEP.
https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2016119 

Independent reading and English improvement research

An analysis done by Nation (2014) leads to the conclusion that readers in English as a foreign language can gain about one-half a point on the TOEIC test for every hour of independent English reading. A statistical analysis of progress made by seven adult acquirers of English living in Japan was performed to confirm this conclusion: All were intermediates, but there was considerable variation, with TOEIC scores ranging from 220 to 705. All engaged in self-selected reading,  and took pre and post TOEIC tests. Hours spent reading was shown to be an excellent predictor of gains on the TOEIC, and the rate of improvement was shown to be nearly exactly the same as that reported by Nation.
Krashen, S., & Mason, B. (2015). Can Second Language Acquirers Reach High Levels of Proficiency Through Self Selected Reading? An Attempt to Confirm Nation's (2014) Results. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching 10 (2): 10-19.
Available at: ijflt.com  OR http://sdkrashen.com/articles.php?cat=2