News reports keep trickling in about school districts that are moving toward having English-as-a-second-language teachers work with English-language learners in mainstream classrooms, often called “push-in ESL,” rather than pulling students out of class for special help.
The Evansville Vanderburgh school district in Indiana put in place last school year the push-in model at three elementary schools, according to a July 20 article published in the Evansville Courier & Press (I picked this up from Colorin colorado). An Indiana professor is quoted as saying that pulling English-language learners out of class is “the least effective” model for helping them.
But I’ve found that it’s hard to come up with research that backs that conclusion. And some educators who have tried the push-in approach have commented on this blog they don’t like it.