Dr. Kate Kinsella, English 3D author, once said, “Teachers serving English learners, struggling readers, and youth from under-resourced households play a pivotal role in advancing their students’ verbal and written command of advanced social and academic English.” That’s why it’s vital that teachers are provided tools and curricula that are proven effective.
HMH is committed to developing evidence-based educational solutions, and to support this goal, HMH collaborates with school districts and third-party research organizations to evaluate the impact of the programs and services on student outcomes, teacher practice, and school leadership. This article focuses on one study that displays HMH English 3D’s effectiveness in improving outcomes for multilingual learners (MLs).
A note on language: Students who are learning English do not fit neatly into a single label and have a range of cultural, linguistic, and educational backgrounds. We often use the common phrases English language learner, multilingual learner, and ELL student, but we recognize that no label is perfect.
What is English 3D?
English 3D is a K–12 English language development program that supports MLs at all proficiency levels, including newcomers and long-term English learners. The program was first designed by Dr. Kinsella in 2011 and further developed over time. English 3D helps teachers leverage MLs’ language learning experiences and cultural knowledge as assets in learning English.
One educator from Community Consolidated School District 15 (CCSD 15), a public school district in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, said the following about the program: “Dr. Kinsella’s research and curricular tool is unmatched for language development. It makes a life-changing difference for both the teacher and the students and is sorely missing in most ELA programs.”
Overview of the study
HMH partnered with Forge Research Group to analyze English 3D’s impact on seventh- and eighth-grade MLs from four of the junior high schools located in CCSD 15. In CCSD 15, the student population is very diverse, with many MLs. According to the district’s website, over 85 languages are spoken in the students’ homes.
The students were placed in English language development services based on their ACCESS 2.0 English proficiency assessment scores. The evaluation periods occurred during the 2020–2021 and 2021–2022 school years.
Higher-performing students received English 3D instruction during the 2020–2021 school year, and both lower-performing and higher-performing students received English 3D instruction during the 2021–2022 school year. An ACCESS 2.0 overall composite score of 4.8 was used as the exit criteria for both years. In both years, the students received regular 45-minute ELA instruction and 42-minute English 3D instruction daily.
Overall student outcomes
English 3D proved to be beneficial to the MLs in CCSD 15. For example, students who used English 3D achieved accelerated ELA gains compared to a national sample of initially same-scoring multilingual peers.
“Overwhelmingly, the teachers reported that [English 3D] was an effective program for our [students] as we began with Language Launch during hybrid learning and throughout the pandemic,” said one CCSD 15 educator. English 3D’s Language Launch courses focus on students who are newcomers or at late beginning proficiency levels, building on their strengths for rapid acquisition of social and academic language.
Another educator shared why they believed the program was effective for their multilingual students: “The most useful resources in English 3D are the instructional routines, including the partner and group interactions, using response frames, and setting up and monitoring tasks. All the instructional routines were critical in our students’ success as [they] truly facilitated the academic language development in the four domains of language [writing, listening, speaking, and reading].”
State-approved assessments used to measure success
Multiple assessments were used to determine the success of the district’s implementation of English 3D. We will focus on the results based on the MAP Reading and ACCESS 2.0 assessments.
The Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) is a computer-adaptive interim assessment developed by NWEA, which was acquired by HMH in 2023, that measures reading, language usage, and mathematics. CCSD 15 students completed the MAP Reading assessment in the fall and spring of the 2020–2021 and 2021–2022 school years.
Both seventh- and eighth-grade students who used English 3D demonstrated a significant overall increase in MAP Reading scores. They averaged a 6-point gain overall from fall to spring in the 2020–2021 school year and a 4-point gain in the 2021–2022 school year, regardless of demographic group. The graph below displays the overall student gains.
Students who used English 3D demonstrated a significant overall increase in MAP Reading scores.
Students also experienced gains on the ACCESS 2.0 English Language Proficiency assessment. This assessment is designed to assess students’ progress toward English language proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing English annually.
CCSD 15 students completed the ACCESS 2.0 assessment in 2021 after a full year of English 3D implementation and again in 2022 after a partial year of English 3D implementation. On average, seventh- and eighth-grade students who took the assessment improved their overall scale scores both years (see the graph below). The students demonstrated growth in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
Students who took the ACCESS 2.0 assessment improved their overall scale scores both years.
Overall, the results made it clear that seventh- and eighth-grade students in CCSD 15 who received English 3D instruction improved significantly in literacy. Read the full findings here.
Supporting a growing student population
More than 5.1 million students are classified as MLs, making up more than 10% of the U.S. student population. This growing number doesn’t paint the full picture. Many schools and districts have more than 100 languages represented among their students. This diverse group of students brings a lot to the table, and the right support for this expanding population that leverages their strengths can accelerate them toward language proficiency and success beyond school.
The achievement of the CCSD 15 students is only a part of the story. Dig into our research library to learn more about the success of English 3D in other schools and districts and how quality English language development programs like this can propel multilingual learners to growth.
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