From the Micro to the Macro: Gleaning the Discrete Elements That Contribute to Successful Student Outcomes in Dual Language Education Programming

The necessity to find a tool to aid in monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the dual language program was born at the micro level from practitioners in the field—school leaders, teachers, instructional coaches, and district support personnel—with the goal of striving to continue to ensure successful student outcomes. The purpose of the study is that the dissemination of an online survey comprised of 82 deconstructed items for three strands—curriculum, instruction, and family and community—stemming from the original Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education instrument could further aid in informing programming and implementation decisions. The research method for this quantitative study utilized principal components analysis. The null hypothesis stated that there would be no change and that all 82 discrete elements would emerge after conducting principal components analysis. The alternative hypothesis is that there would be a change and that the 82 items would be reduced by about half resulting in 40 items. The findings showed that the 82 items were reduced to 17 components; therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected in favor of the alternative hypothesis. Identifying the discrete elements from practitioners in the field at the micro level could further assist to inform the practice, policy development, and research at the macro level. First, practitioners can utilize the findings to impact the practice by setting goals and executing changes to inform programming and implementation decisions. At the macro level, policies could be enacted at the state and national level to expand program offerings. The findings could germinate further research to aid in the development of additional tools to facilitate monitoring and evaluating the program.