title: Equitable Access for Secondary English Learner Students: Course Taking as Evidence of EL Program Effectiveness.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  EL education policy has long directed schools to address English learner (EL) students' linguisticandacademic development, and must do so without furthering inequity or segregation (Lau, 1974; Castañeda, 1981). The recent ESSA (2015) reauthorization expresses a renewed focus on evidence of equity, effectiveness, and opportunity to learn. We propose that high school course taking patterns provide evidence of program effectiveness and equity in access.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using data from the nationally representativeEducational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS: 2002), we employ multinomial regression models to predict students' likelihood of completing two types of high school coursework (basic graduation, college preparatory) by their linguistic status.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Despite considerable linguistic, sociodemographic, and academic controls, marked disparities in high school course taking patterns remain, with EL students experiencing significantly less academic exposure.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Building on McKenzie and Scheurich's (2004) notion of an equity trap and evidence of a long-standing EL opportunity gap, we suggest that school leaders might use our findings and their own course taking patterns to prompt discussions about the causes and consequences of local EL placement processes. Such discussions have the potential to raise awareness about how educators and school leaders approach educational equity and access, key elements central to the spirit of EL education policy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Curriculum & Instruction, Population Research Center, University of Texas, Austin, One University Station G1800, Austin, Texas 78712.
authors.forename: Rebecca M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Callahan
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon.
authors.forename: Dara
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shifrer