Where Crises Converge: Struggling Readers and Long-Term MLs

Isabel moved to the U.S. when she was seven. She’s now a junior — bright, polite, and responsible. She passes every class, every test, and rarely asks for help. She has a major problem--she has never reclassified. She is considered a Long-Term ML.

Last week in chemistry, she was asked to summarize her lab results. She hesitated. “Can I write it instead?” she asked.

Her report card is full of Bs and Cs and every year it is a coin flip as to whether she gets approaching or not on the annual STAAR Test (Texas Standardized Test). But Isabel hasn’t made measurable progress has consistently earned "Intermediate high" on the annual language test.

Ashley was born in the U.S. and is a native born English speaker. She’s also in 9th-grade science — and struggling. She can read the words in her textbook, but not the meaning behind them. When asked to explain her results, she says: “It just happened that way.”

Her essays lack punctuation and precision. Her teachers say she’s bright, but “doesn’t express herself clearly.”

Two students in different situations — and yet, the same problem. Both Isabel and Ashley are stuck in the quiet crisis of language stagnation.

A Growing, Overlooked Challenge

Across the U.S., the population of multilingual learners has grown dramatically, but so has the number of students who remain stuck at intermediate levels for years.

According to Laurie Olsen (2014) and the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University, long-term English learners (LTELs) now make up the majority of ELs in secondary schools. These students can pass classes and tests but continue to struggle with academic writing, reasoning, and extended discussion.

And it’s not just English learners.

The Nation’s Report Card (NAEP, 2022) found that reading achievement for all U.S. students — both native-born and non-native — has not significantly improved in over a decade. Many students read words but can’t make meaning from them, echoing what multilingual learners experience daily.

What we’re seeing isn’t just a language gap.

It’s a system gap.

The Systemic Disconnect

In most schools, the work of language learning is siloed:

• ML teachers teach “language.”

• Content teachers teach “content.”

• Data comes from annual tests that tell us who can exit, not how students grow.

Meanwhile, secondary teachers report feeling underprepared to support ELs’ language development (Edweek, Najarro, 2025).

The result?A generation of long-term ELs who are “good students” — compliant, quiet, and invisible in the data.

And right next to them, general education students are showing the same academic symptoms: weak vocabulary, shallow comprehension, and difficulty expressing complex ideas.

The Connection: Language as the Foundation of Learning

Language is not a separate skill from content — it is content.When we say a student struggles in science or social studies, we’re often describing a student who lacks the language tools to reason, explain, and compare.

• ELs struggle with academic English

• Gen Ed students struggle with academic literacy

• Teachers struggle to make time for either

This isn’t a problem of motivation — it’s a problem of structure.

The Solution: In-Class, Standards-Aligned Reading that Builds Language for Long-Term MLs

The solution isn’t more pull-out programs or interventions. It’s language learning built directly into the classroom.

That’s what ACE by AIR Language (Adapted Classroom English) is designed to do.

ACE helps schools:

• Deliver adapted, standards-aligned reading materials that integrate academic vocabulary and comprehension practice

• Support students at different proficiency levels within the same classroom automatically

• Monitor growth in real time — not just once a year

• Build teacher confidence by embedding scaffolds directly into the submission tool

When reading is adapted, structured, and leveled for real students — not just their grade band — language growth becomes measurable. And when it happens in the general education classroom, everyone benefits.

Why It Matters

English learners are no longer just newcomers. They’re long-term students in our schools, often raised in our communities, and they deserve a system that still meets them where they are.

If we fail to address this, we’ll continue seeing two groups of students — multilingual and monolingual alike — who can memorize, test, and pass… but not articulate what they know.

The Path Forward

Schools don’t need more data — they need better systems. Systems that make language growth visible. Systems that help every teacher support language learning. Systems that ensure every student — Isabel, Amari, and the thousands like them — keep growing.

That’s what ACE by AIR Language was built for.

Check out what ACE has to offer your school.