Coached teachers, measurable growth for multilingual learners.

A district where nearly a third of students are learning English

Multilingual learners make up 31% of students in the Providence Public School District, far above the national share. The district partnered with engage2learn to coach hundreds of its teachers on instructional best practices for multilingual learners, and then asked whether students grew.

Coaching on best practices for multilingual learners, then an independent test

Teachers of multilingual learners and in dual-language classrooms worked with their engage2learn coach to design their own path to mastery, earning a microcredential for each competency they showed in practice. The badges they earned most were differentiation and scaffolding, assessment and formative feedback, communication, and relevance and authenticity.

Learning Experience Design (LXD) Research, a third-party evaluator, analyzed educator growth data and students’ WIDA ACCESS scores from the 2020-2021, 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years: 527 English language learners in grades 2-5, taught by 38 teachers in 10 schools, speaking 55 native languages.

Higher gains after teachers were coached

Students made significantly higher year-over-year gains on WIDA ACCESS after their teachers were coached, in the overall score, in speaking and in oral language, and were more likely to improve their proficiency.

The gains landed where each grade needed them: speaking for younger students, writing for older ones. The well-designed correlational study meets the standard for ESSA Level 2 moderate evidence.

ESSA Level 2

moderate evidence on multilingual learners’ WIDA ACCESS scores, grades 1-5

527

English language learners, 38 teachers and 10 schools in the study