ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS

For Long-Term English Learners (LTELs) to close the achievement gap with native English speakers, they need opportunities to accelerate their learning and build on their strengths. Each year, native speakers continue to develop more complex language and academic skills, highlighting the importance of equipping LTELs with tools to achieve and exceed these benchmarks.

John Hattie’s Barometer of Influence provides a research-based framework for identifying high-impact strategies that can accelerate learning. Hattie's meta-analysis categorizes educational practices by their effect size, with an effect size of 0.4 or higher considered the "hinge point" for meaningful student achievement.

Understanding the effect size lets us know how powerful a given influence changes achievement.  Some things are hard to implement and have minimal impact.  Other things are easy to implement and still have limited impact.  Especially for students classified as LTELS, we need to look for things that significantly impact closing the gap and helping students' knowledge progress more than one year in one year's time.  By focusing on strategies with high effect sizes, educators can prioritize efforts that yield measurable results and empower LTELs to thrive.

Using research-backed approaches ensures that LTELs not only progress but excel, moving closer to equity and academic excellence.