Report: STEM education for English learners
A shift is needed in how science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects are taught to students in grades K-12 who are learning English, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Educators should recognize the assets that English learners (ELs) bring to the classroom and understand that student performance is affected significantly by access to adequate program models and instruction. Opening avenues to success in STEM for the nation’s ELs offers opportunities to students and their families, and confers benefits to society, the report says.
“All students, including English learners, should have opportunities to participate in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics learning,” says David Francis, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor at the University of Houston and chair of the committee that wrote the report. “Organizing schools and preparing teachers so all students can reach their full potential in STEM can transform the lives of individual students as well as the lives of teachers, schools, and society as a whole.”
According to the federal definition, an English learner is a student who is aged three through 21; enrolled in an elementary or secondary school; whose native language is a language other than English; and whose proficiency in speaking, reading, writing, or understanding the English language may be sufficient to deny the individual the ability to successfully achieve in classrooms where the language of instruction is English. These students are taught under a variety of different program models - including English as a second language approaches as well as bilingual approaches - intended to support both language and content learning. English learners comprise a diverse and multi-talented pool of learners that is persistently increasing, both in absolute size and as a percentage of the U.S. school population, the report says.
About the Author
Alexis GajewskiAlexis Gajewski
Senior Content Strategist
Alexis Gajewski is a manufacturing writer and editor with nearly 20 years of experience covering the people, practices, and technologies that keep industrial facilities running. For more than a decade, she served as Senior Content Strategist for Plant Services, creating content for plant managers, engineers, and maintenance professionals on a variety of industrial topics.
During her tenure, Alexis worked to develop the brand’s digital strategy and helped launch and produce Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast. She also created The Lighter Side of Manufacturing, a weekly blog that explored the inventive and sometimes humorous side of the industry.
Alexis co-founded Influential Women in Manufacturing, a recognition program that honored 49 women in its first two years, earned an industry award for Best Product Launch, and received a proclamation from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and a commendation from U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth.
She also led newsroom operations and development at a large media company where she set editorial standards, developed training curriculum, and helped support AI adoption for more than 150 editors across 80+ brands spanning manufacturing, industrial processing, automation, and more.
Additionally, Alexis works as a freelance writer and editor, and her areas of interest include continuous improvement, the skilled workforce, and the role of emerging technology on the plant floor.
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