A comparison of the economic understanding of English language learners in sheltered and mainstreamed economics classes

The purpose of this study was to compare the understanding of economics concepts by English Language Learner (ELL) students who were in either sheltered-content or mainstreamed high school (12th grade) economics classes. The two groups of students were from four high schools in the Phoenix Union (Arizona) High School District. Data were collected during the Spring 2005 semester.;The instrument used for analysis as a pretest and posttest was the Test of Economic Literacy (TEL), Form A (3rd Edition), a nationally normed 40-item multiple choice test designed and published by the National Council on Economics Education for use in high schools to test levels of economics literacy. A 2 x 2 factorial design with repeated measures was utilized for the primary research question. Analysis of data was conducted using analysis of variance, t test, and item analysis.;Results showed that the scores of the mainstreamed ELL students improved over the semester on the total TEL and the fundamental economics concepts and the microeconomics sections of the TEL but did not improve on the macroeconomics and international economics sections of the TEL. The ELL sheltered-content course students showed no improvement on the overall TEL or any of the four sections. Both groups scored significantly lower than the national norm for students enrolled in high school economics courses. The improvement shown by mainstreamed ELL students, in contrast to ELL students in sheltered-content courses, warrants an examination of how ELL students are placed and educated in high school economics courses.