Assessing the Socio-Emotional and Academic Performance of Emergent Bilingual Children In Early Schooling: Evidence from the ECLS-K:2011

Background and Purpose: This study investigates the socio-emotional development and academic performance of emergent bilingual children who participate in language programs during early schooling. Prior research has highlighted the strengths of bilingual children, particularly in the socio-emotional realm. Both children who speak non-English as their dominant language and those who are fully bilingual tend to demonstrate stronger socio-emotional outcomes than their monolingual peers by the fifth grade. This study extends prior work by examining whether participation in language programming, including English as a Second Language (ESL) or bilingual or dual language programs, is associated with the socio-emotional development and academic performance among children who enter formal schooling with a non-English home language. Specifically, we ask whether the combination of kindergarten teacher ratings of socio-emotional skills and participation in ESL classes is associated with socio-emotional competency and reading and math scores from kindergarten through second grade.

Methods: This investigation used longitudinal data from waves 2, 4, and 6 of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 to estimate separate fixed effects regression models of teacher ratings of socio-emotional skills, and reading and math scores from kindergarten through second grade. The analytic sample included 2,781 children who had reported that English was not their native language and who were identified as participating in an English language program in spring of kindergarten. Each child was tracked for up to 3 waves yielding a total of 7,138 person-period observations.

Results: First, the findings revealed that high teacher ratings of socio-emotional skills in kindergarten combined with participation in ESL classes was associated with sustained proficiency in self-control and interpersonal skills, and fewer externalizing and internalizing behaviors through second grade. Meanwhile, low teacher ratings of socio-emotional skills in kindergarten combined with participation in ESL classes was associated with consistently low ratings in self-control and interpersonal skills, and more externalizing and internalizing behaviors through second grade. Second, the findings revealed that kindergarteners with high teacher ratings of socio-emotional skills participating in ESL classes scored significantly higher in reading than those participating in bilingual or dual language classes. Conversely, kindergarteners with low teacher ratings of socio-emotional skills participating in ESL classes scored significantly lower in math than those participating in bilingual or dual language classes. Notably, reading performance for the low-rated kindergarteners and math performance for the high-rated kindergarteners did not differ significantly across program types.

Conclusion: This study highlights that kindergarten teacher ratings of socio-emotional skills establish persistent behavioral trajectories for emergent bilingual children through second grade. These early ratings interact with language program type to shape academic outcomes. While ESL participation is associated with a reading advantage for children with high initial socio-emotional ratings, bilingual and dual language programs serve as a protective academic context for children with lower ratings, particularly in math. These findings call for a reexamination of language program placement decisions that moves beyond linguistic proficiency alone, ensuring that the socio-emotional strengths emergent bilingual children bring to formal schooling remain valued and central to how programs are designed and evaluated.