The primary focus of this study was to investigate process and content opportunities that are particularly relevant to improving English Language Learner (ELL) achievement with particular attention to the relationship between opportunities to acquire academic language and ELL achievement on performance assessments.
One of the most important findings from this study points to the need for explicit instruction on academic language. The positive impact of functional grammar implementation on student outcomes also suggests that in order for ELLs to fully benefit from assessment-driven reform, teachers need the capacity to make the linguistic expectations clear to students by focusing on the linguistic elements that are characteristic of academic registers.
