To Truly Serve English Learners, Start With Curriculum — and Don’t Stop There

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Walk into any Rhode Island classroom, and you will meet a growing number of students who speak a language other than English at home. The state sees this as an opportunity, not a deficit.

Over the past five years, Rhode Island has deepened its commitment to ensuring all students, including multilingual learners, have access to rigorous, high-quality instructional materials and that teachers have the necessary training to implement them. While overall gaps still exist in the state, students who recently exited multilingual-learner status are now outperforming peers who are native English speakers on statewide exams.

Multilingual learners — who now comprise more than 15% of the state’s K-12 student population — represent one of Rhode Island’s fastest-growing and most vibrant communities. In fact, Rhode Island saw the largest percentage growth of any state in the nation between 2010 and 2020. Over the last 10 years, enrollment of multilingual students in many school districts has risen between 100% and 400%. In Providence, the state’s largest city, multilingual learners currently make up almost 40% of all students.

To ensure that these young people received high-quality, inclusive instruction — with materials that reflected their diverse cultural and linguistic experiences, supported English language development and connected with what all students in the state’s classrooms were learning — the Rhode Island Department of Education partnered with the nonprofit English Learners Success Forum in 2021. The goal was to create a cohort to help district leadership teams follow through on the state’s Blueprint for Multilingual Learner Success by better addressing the needs of these students in core instruction, school design and programming.  

Districts now choose from several high-quality curricula, which cannot get that designation unless they are designed from the start with multilingual learners in mind. The department encourages district leaders to identify their instructional vision and consider the demographics and needs of their students before reviewing and selecting curricula. Districts must also plan initial and ongoing professional development to ensure teachers are prepared to properly implement the new materials.

High-quality curriculum by itself can drive student growth, but its impact can be greater with proper professional learning and skillful implementation. That’s why the department’s partnership with the forum didn’t stop at curricular materials; it also prioritized the people who will actually be using them.

When educators complete their professional development sessions, they come away with a clear understanding of what rigorous instruction looks like. Principals and other school leaders are challenged to ask: How do we know this curriculum works for our multilingual learners?”  Teachers learn to go beyond providing basic help and use methods that make challenging material understandable for every student. This includes providing regular opportunities for students to discuss topics and clear goals for language learning.

When teachers know how to provide the right support and understand how students develop language skills in different subjects, young people rise to the challenge and often exceed expectations.

Rhode Island’s commitment to strong instruction with high-quality materials, following the department’s blueprint and strategic plan for multilingual student success, form the foundation of this work. Together, they create consistent instructional expectations and invest in ongoing professional development to support the academic success of all students. The state is also implementing new regulations for multilingual learners to better align with federal requirements, best practices,and the state’s commitment to providing a high-quality education.

The results are very encouraging. Nationwide, Rhode Island ranked 14th in math recovery and 13th in reading between 2019 and 2024, according to Harvard’s Education Recovery Scorecard. This year’s scorecard also noted that Rhode Island leads all New England states in academic recovery.

This improvement is not just happening in urban hubs; there is a growing commitment to these students in rural and suburban communities that have historically had little exposure to non-English-speaking populations.

For other states to see similar progress, they must follow two simple but critical steps: adopt rigorous instructional materials that meet the needs of all students, and provide consistent, high-quality professional development for teachers, principals and other school leaders.

There is no perfect curriculum. But with the right approach, even great materials can be made better. The key is starting with a strong foundation, giving educators the tools to teach their new curriculum effectively and then continuing to offer professional development long after they’ve started using the new materials. Surveys show that many teachers simply haven’t received the training they need to implement new materials effectively. That has to change. Professional learning must be continuous and available during the regular workday, encouraging teachers to keep improving their classroom skills. 

Rhode Island’s progress is a testament to what’s possible when state leadership, district teams and national partners work together with one shared goal: creating a system where multilingualism is seen as a strength, not a barrier, and where every classroom reflects the rich diversity of all students.

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