Fordson High School

13800 Ford Rd,

Dearborn, MI 48126
(313) 827-1400

Supporting Educational Progress of English Language Learners:

Integrating STEM Project-Based Learning into the ELL Science
Curriculum
10th February 2022

OVERVIEW

Seen as one of the essential domains for passing the M-STEP exam, examining how students
analyze and interpret data in a science classroom has become crucial. Based on a
person‐centered approach, this research investigates the impact that the science curriculum and
assessments have on the performance of our English Language Learners on M-STEP. After
analyzing the M-STEP scores for my English Language Learners at Fordson High School, I
began to focus on the science curriculum and assessments and how each applies to newcomers
attending American schools from different countries. Throughout my career in Education, I have
found that even with all the support given to ELLs, the curriculum does not support all students.
It is also evident in our districtwide M-STEP data, that the achievement gap is growing as each
year passes. Based on my observations as an educator, and after talking to the supervisor of
assessment, research, and evaluation at Dearborn Public Schools, along with collecting data from
multiple scholarly articles, I began to focus on the following questions:
What are some essential components that need to be considered when creating a Science
curriculum, that serve our English language Learners in language learning, as well as preparing
them to be successful on state/local assessments?
How can I adapt a STEM PBL curriculum to the needs of ELLs to help them perform better on
M-STEP?
The index of social, emotional, and cultural status was also inspected. From my research I found
a similar pattern of the cultural and identity challenges ELL’'s face which is useful to how we
look at curriculum and assessment. Whether it be science or any other subject, identity and
cultural barriers to learning must be eliminated. Curriculum in general is also limited on ELL
support, whether it be academic or social-emotional. One take-away was the lack of
consideration for student prior-knowledge and learning experiences. All the articles that I
analyzed expressed a need for a curriculum with diversity in teaching methods and learning
experiences which is helpful in teaching our ELL population. My research helped me think about
accommodations that could be made in reference to assessments and how student-centered
learning goes a long way. There was much stress on formative assessments and the role they play
in guiding instruction for our English language learners. The M-STEP results indicate that gaps
in assessment are caused by “teaching to the test”. When teaching to the test, educators forget
that we are not preparing our ELLs for the content on the test, and how to be critical thinkers.
Keywords: M-STEP: The Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress (M-STEP);
the state assessment used to assess student progress on Michigan's standards since 2015.
ELL: English language learner. A national-origin-minority student who is
limited-English-proficient.
STEM-PBL: Science Technology Engineering and Math Project-based learning
Research Methodology

GOALS
1. Understand the language and cultural issues ELLs face in a STEM classroom

2. Adapt STEM PBL to the needs of ELLs

- Strategies to use with ELLs
- Plan STEM PBL for a classroom with ELLs

3. Ways that STEM PBL can meet the needs of ELLs to help them perform better on
M-STEP.
4.

M-STEP Objectives STEM PBL Objectives

❖ Help students understand subject ❖ Requires students to think

matter more deeply
❖ Learn how to think critically
❖ Apply what they have learned to
the real world
❖ Make learning more relevant in
their lives to prepare them to enter
the workplace, career education
training, and college.
critically and analytically
❖ Enhances higher order thinking
skills
❖ Provides the contextualized,
authentic experiences necessary
for students to scaffold learning
and build meaningfully powerful
science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics concepts.
SPECIFICATIONS

I am planning on designing research that includes both quantitative and qualitative data analysis
that focuses on how a STEM-PBL curriculum can help ELL students perform better on
standardized tests (M-STEP).

Defining the Domain of Research ● Instructional Material: Chromebook,

internet access
● Instructional Programs: STEM-PBL
lessons that align with NGSS
● Demographic Variables: 60 (14-15
year old) ELL Arabic-speaking
students (Level 5-6 WIDA)
● School Funding: Students receive
title I money
● Class size: 30 students/class

Moderator Variables ● Instructional Techniques:

- First Biology Section which
includes level 5-6 ELLs will be
taught the regular traditional
Science curriculum that aligns
with NGSS (No STEM-PBL
projects included). Students
will take a pre practice
M-STEP exam at the
beginning of the school year,
and a post practice M-STEP
exam at the end of the school
year.
- Second Biology Section which
includes level 5-6 ELLs will be
taught the STEM-PBL
curriculum that aligns with
NGSS. Students will take a pre
practice M-STEP exam at the
beginning of the school year,
and a post practice M-STEP
exam at the end of the school
year, and the data will be
analyzed.
● Grade level of students: High School
Grade 9 (ELL Biology)
 ● Students’ proficiency level based on
their WIDA scores: Level 5-6
● Duration of treatment: One School
year
● Reactivity of Dependent Measure:
Students are expected to perform
better on their M-STEP after including
the STEM-PBL projects in the science
curriculum

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Selection and Computation of Effect Sizes Qualitative Methods:

● Thematic Analysis
● IPA (Interpretative phenomenological
analysis)
Quantitative Methods:
● Descriptive statistics
● Inferential Statistics

Summary