9/18/2024

North Carolina Is Bridging the Gap: Strengthening the Home-to-School Connection With Lexia English and Core5

The Importance of Multilingual Learner Family Engagement

Given the growing number of multilingual learners throughout North Carolina, encouraging the school-to-home connection is more critical than ever. Research connects family involvement to better student outcomes, reduced dropout rates, enhanced social skills, and improved overall well-being. 

Across the state, districts like Henderson County and Kannapolis City Schools have demonstrated the value of intentional family engagement in supporting multilingual learners. Integrating Lexia English Language Development™ alongside Lexia® Core5® Reading can help educators build strong connections between home and school with more culturally sustaining pedagogy around language and literacy learning, an asset-based approach to home languages, and multilingual resources for parents/guardians. 

By utilizing Lexia’s adaptive learning platforms and ensuring consistent communication with families, North Carolina districts have built a model that strengthens the support system for multilingual learners at home and in school.

Key Strategies for Building Connections

• Understand language needs: Schools should assess parents' language needs and provide appropriate support, including competent interpreters and translators familiar with educational terminology. Effective communication helps parents fully participate in their children's education, whether guiding language activities or engaging in meaningful conversations in their native language.
• Integrate cultural traditions: Incorporating students' cultural practices into the curriculum creates an inclusive atmosphere for students and families. Engaging families as partners and encouraging activities like reading together reinforce home-school connections and integrate cultural backgrounds into education.
• Create welcoming environments: Establishing a welcoming school community is crucial. Schools should provide multilingual information to ensure parents feel valued and included. Lexia’s programs offer culturally relevant content that celebrates diversity and helps every family feel connected.
• Utilize technology: Technology bridges communication gaps and enhances engagement. Schools can use translation apps, messaging platforms, and learning management systems to provide real-time updates and multilingual notifications that keep parents informed and connected. 

Lexia English can help districts engage with families as partners to strengthen the school-to-home connection along with helping students master academic English. With its cultural awareness and technology designed to accommodate various accents, Lexia English offers personalized learning experiences that respect and integrate the cultural backgrounds of multilingual learners.

Supporting Language at Home Leads to Literacy Growth

Supporting a child’s heritage language at home is crucial for literacy development in any language, including English acquisition. Multilingual learners who maintain their first language alongside English often achieve better academic outcomes and stronger linguistic skills in both languages. This dual-language approach enhances comprehension and academic success.

Lexia English capitalizes on the transferable knowledge students gain from their first language, such as phonemic awareness and vocabulary, which makes English literacy acquisition more effective. Coupled with an asset-based model, Lexia English provides deliberate, adaptive instruction that helps students transfer their skills in phonemic structures and cognitive flexibility from their native language to English. This approach accelerates language acquisition and fosters bilingualism, enhancing proficiency in both languages.

This evidence-based approach, supported by key research findings, highlights the importance of leveraging a child’s first language as a foundation for English learning. Studies show that maintaining and supporting heritage languages at home strengthens cognitive abilities and enhances the overall process of acquiring English literacy.

Key research findings:

• Engaging in heritage language activities at home supports English literacy by enhancing cognitive flexibility and linguistic structures (Tatter, 2018).
• Knowledge from a child’s first language, like phonemic awareness and vocabulary, is transferable to English, making literacy acquisition more effective (National Academy of Sciences, 2017).
• Frequent progress updates can help teachers build strong relationships with the parents of multilingual students, which can have pedagogical benefits for students (Ferlazzo, 2016).

How Lexia English Enhances Family Engagement Through Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy

Lexia English’s culturally sustaining pedagogy makes learning inclusive for multilingual learners. North Carolina districts like Henderson County and Kannapolis City Schools have effectively leveraged Lexia English to foster deeper family engagement for multilingual learners. During a recent webinar, educators shared how they integrated culturally sustaining practices to create a more inclusive environment.

• Henderson County emphasized using home language resources and culturally relevant materials to bridge the gap between school and home.
  • Takeaway: This approach bridged communication gaps by providing materials in families' native languages, empowering parents to engage in their students' education and supporting learning at home. This increased family engagement, resulted in better student outcomes, and built stronger school-to-home connections.
• Kannapolis City Schools highlighted the use of Lexia’s visual guides and multilingual communication tools that enabled parents to participate actively in their children’s education.
  • Takeaway: These resources improved family engagement by providing clear, accessible resources transcending language barriers. This enabled parents to stay informed and support their children’s progress, fostering better home-school communication and a more inclusive learning environment.

Characters in Lexia English reflect diverse family structures, offering students a mirror to their own lives and a window into the experiences of others. For example:

• Nadia lives with her single mom and grandmother.
• Rami and Sasha live with extended family.
• Ximena’s father passed away, and she is being raised by a single mother.
• Klaus’ father works part time and takes care of him after school.

Collection of the Lexia English characters

This diversity within Lexia English’s content supports cultural inclusivity and affirms students' identities, helping to build a more compassionate and engaged classroom community. Social-emotional learning is a bridge builder to honor this diversity within the classroom, propelling learners’ progress.

By integrating culturally relevant content and tools, Lexia English empowers districts like Henderson County and Kannapolis City Schools to strengthen family engagement and foster inclusive environments. These practices not only affirm students' cultural identities and encourage family engagement, but also lead to improved learning outcomes for multilingual learners.

Lexia English Supports the School-to-Home Connection

Lexia English provides educators, students, and their families with a variety of resources to support learners’ achievement and ongoing learning at home.

• Home use letters: Like Core5, Lexia English offers home use letters. Available in five languages—English, Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, and Vietnamese—the letters explain how students can log in directly to the program at home.
• Informational video: Closed captioning in English and Spanish provides students and their families with details on how to access and learn about Lexia English.
• The Visual Guide for Parents and Guardians: Educators can share this two-page resource, available in 21 languages, with parents and guardians to provide an overview of Lexia English and highlight easy ways families can support their children at home. Alongside multilingual communication tools, the visual guide empowers parents to transcend language barriers and actively participate in their children’s learning.
• Progress reports and achievement certificates: Lexia English also provides data reports that teachers can use to relay in-depth information at home or during parent-teacher conferences, bridging communication gaps. The achievement certificates in multiple languages feature “I Can” statements, offering parents clear examples of student progress thanks to their at-home practice. Teachers can share these certificates via email or school platforms like Google Classroom, or by printing them to send home.

By providing these accessible tools and resources, Lexia English ensures that families can actively participate in their child's learning journey, regardless of language barriers. This strong school-to-home connection fosters a supportive environment that enhances student achievement and engagement inside and outside the classroom.

Success Story: From Zero to Grade Level

“I saw him go from no English usage to being at or above grade level. In his third year, he’s on grade level. From zero to grade level is HUGE.”
—Kathleen Brinson, Craven County Educator

Lexia English is making a difference in North Carolina. One Craven County educator shares an example of a second grade student who arrived from Honduras in 2021 with no English experience. The student and his parents dedicated evenings to learning, working through Lexia English and Core5. This effort led to remarkable progress, elevating the student to grade level by his third year—a testament to the effectiveness of Lexia’s programs.

Connecting Lexia English and Core5 Resources

Adding Lexia English to Core5 usage can extend and align district goals by improving student outcomes, supporting equity, and effectively leveraging existing resources.

• Enhanced literacy and language instruction: Integrating Lexia English with Core5 enhances literacy and language instruction for multilingual learners. 
• Science of reading alignment: Lexia English and Core5 are grounded in the science of reading, reinforcing the district's commitment to evidence-based education. 
• Real-time progress reporting through the myLexia® platform: Both Lexia English and Core5 utilize the myLexia platform, which provides student performance reports at the individual level that can be shared with parents/guardians. 
• Improved educational outcomes: Integrating Lexia English with Core5 has improved educational outcomes, as seen in a recent study. 
• Comprehensive literacy solution: By using Core5 and Lexia English together, districts can offer a more robust and comprehensive literacy solution that meets the diverse needs of multilingual learners, thereby supporting district goals of equity and inclusion.

The family resources for Lexia English and Core5 share similarities, ensuring consistent support as students transition from language acquisition to broader literacy development. Both programs offer comprehensive Family Resource Pages that include:

• Tips for parents on supporting learning at home.
• Multilingual materials that respect and incorporate linguistic diversity.
• Real-time updates on student progress that allow parents to monitor their children's achievements.

How Craven County Implements Lexia English and Core5 for Success 

Craven County School District has been facing a steadily increasing number of multilingual learner students, many of whom arrive from other countries speaking little to no English. These students are often overwhelmed by trying to learn a new language in a new school, and they don’t have the background, experiences, or word-recognition skills to be able to read. 

In Craven County, newcomers start with Lexia English, easing into listening and speaking to build a foundation for later reading proficiency. The program provides a runway that eventually leads to Core5. 

“Lexia English provides a softer entrance,” explained Taylor Stewart, one of the district's K–5 ESL teachers. 

Using both products allows educators to meet a broader range of needs across the board. 

“By using both, we’re giving our students everything they need. Not just phonics, not just vocabulary—they need an opportunity to practice listening, reading, writing, and especially speaking independently, and then have lessons to build those skills,” added Kathleen Brinson, a local multilingual teacher and refugee school impact coordinator. 

Once students are ready, the district layers in Core5. Students typically start in Level 1 Lexia English, progress to Level 2, and then add in Core5 at Level 3, using both programs on alternating days of the week. Students continue to move up as they progress, supported by both products.

Final Thoughts: Lexia English and Core5: A Seamless Path to Literacy Success

For schools using Core5, integrating Lexia English alongside supports a comprehensive literacy and language development approach. While Core5 focuses on English literacy skills, Lexia English specifically addresses oral language practice in academic English, providing complementary but distinct support that can be used before or concurrently with Core5, depending on the learner's needs.

Family engagement is essential to academic success, particularly for multilingual learners. Lexia English fosters this engagement by offering culturally responsive resources, bridging communication gaps with technology, and honoring each student’s linguistic and cultural assets. Lexia English and Core5 work together to complement a student’s learning journey. 

Take the next step: Empower your district to close the literacy opportunity gap for multilingual learners by integrating Lexia English with Core5. Discover how this powerful combination can accelerate language acquisition, improve literacy outcomes, and support your district’s goals for educational equity. Explore how Lexia supports North Carolina student outcomes with language and literacy for all.