This volume synthesizes research on the relationships among oral language, literacy, and academic achievement for English language learners (ELLs) in the United States, from pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12. It explores how these findings have been applied in school and classroom settings and recommends areas of focus for future studies in order to improve education for these students.

Why is it important to assess what we know about the education of ELLs? The most basic reason, of course, is that we seek to provide, for ALL students, a high quality education that takes into account their individual strengths and needs. The level of academic achievement for students with limited proficiency in English in the United States has lagged significantly behind that of native English speakers. One congressionally mandated study reported that ELLs receive lower grades, are judged by their teachers to have lower academic abilities, and score below their classmates on standardized tests of reading and mathematics (Moss and Puma, 1995). According to a compilation of reports from forty-one state education agencies, only 18.7 percent of students classified as limited English proficient (LEP) met the state norm for reading in English (Kindler, 2002). Furthermore, students from language minority backgrounds have higher dropout rates and are more frequently placed in lower ability groups and academic tracks than language majority students (Bennici and Strang, 1995; President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, 2003; Ruiz-de-Velasco and Fix, 2000).

These educational facts intersect with the demographic facts to strengthen the rationale for this research synthesis.