By Matthew Wolfgram and Kiera Hook ¹1. This data featured in this analysis was collected by the members of the Paj Ntaub research team, primarily between those involved in the research between 2018-2021, which included: Lena Lee, Pangzoo Lee, Payeng Moua, Bailey B. Smolarek, Ariana Thao, Myxee Thao, Kia Vang, MaiNeng Vang, Matthew Wolfgram, Choua P. Xiong, Odyssey Xiong, Pa Kou Xiong, Pheechai Xiong, Ying Xiong, and Lisa Yang. The coding and preliminary analysis of the data was conducted by the following students in the course “Language, Politics, and Education” (instructed by Matthew Wolfgram in Fall 2023 at UW-Madison Department of Education Policy Studies): Sydney Collins, Hania Dahms, Olivia DeSautel, Lily Engel, Cormac LaLiberte, Olivia Ligman, Alayna Miller, Asha Mindich, Isabel Palomo Díaz, Mariela Sida, Courtney Snoberger, Gracie Turner, Jillian Turner and Zoe Zuleger. The authors of this blog Matthew Wolfgram and Keira Hook, who was a graduate student in the class, wrote the analysis based on the data collected by the Paj Ntaub team and analyzed by the class, and received and incorporated feedback from the current Paj Ntaub team.

The Our HMoob American College Paj Ntaub research team is a participatory action research (PAR) project that focuses on HMoob student experiences that support and obstruct success in college. This blog is a preliminary analysis of the role of English Language Learner (ELL) pullout in the K-12 educational experiences of HMoob students in Wisconsin during the early 2000s.²2. English as a Second Language education, or ESL, is also a common term employed by the students and in the research and pedagogy literature. For the proposes of this blog, we employee the term ELL to include ESL and other forms of English Language remediation. This research focus was developed by the HMoob student team members of the Paj Ntaub research team, who did autoethnographic journaling which narrated their life history and research experiences, and connected the project to their activism goals to support the HMoob community (Vang et al., 2023). The HMoob researchers documented their own ELL experiences in their journals, so the team collectively decided to include questions on the ELL experiences during K12 schooling, during our interviews with 83 current HMoob college students in the UW System. In this blog, we provide preliminary analyses of this data, addressing the research question: What are the perceptions, experiences, and consequences of ELL pullout for HMoob students in Wisconsin? The blog concludes by considering implications of the analysis for ELL policy—particularly as more immigrant youth resettle in Wisconsin and enroll in Wisconsin public schools.  

Findings: Perceptions, experiences, and consequences of ELL pullout 

Racial profiling of ELL pullout 

“…I remember very clearly that this white lady just came to my kindergarten class, pulled me out,” this is how one HMoob student in our study, Peter, explained the experience of being pulled out for ELL as an elementary school student in Wisconsin. Many of the HMoob students reported being utterly confused and mystified by the experience of being pulled for ELL, in part because the primary educational reason for the pullout–English language remediation–was rarely explained to them at the time. As one interviewee explained,  

“I found it really, as a really bad experience because throughout my elementary years, I always got pulled out of classes and I felt really ashamed. And I also didn’t understand like why it had to be me, or like, why I was in there. Because everybody else were just the same as about my level and like all, in English and like math and stuff, so I didn’t get like why like it was me, or it was like minority people.”

Several students in our sample who were monolingual in English were placed in ELL which, upon reflection, led them to be critical of the system of ELL pullout as a form of race-based profiling. Current ELL policy in Wisconsin mandates testing for youth who indicate languages other than English on the enrollment survey, but at the time, testing was either not used or was applied in a selective and haphazard manner, which gave the impression of targeted profiling. For example, this English monolingual student perceived that they were pulled out because they were HMoob and had a shy disposition:  

“Growing up I was kind of like… a really super quiet. So like, I think they automatically enrolled me to the program just because… they were afraid that I couldn’t understand anything until I had that teacher who was like, who would translate things to me in HMoob. But I… I told her that I didn’t actually really understand it [the HMoob language]. “

This kind of experience led students to express skepticism that racial profiling seemed to be a motivation behind their being pulled out of class; for example, as another student explained:   

“They look like they just came to America because they don’t look white, so teachers assume, ‘Oh, this person needs ESL, because they look like they don’t speak English.’ So, then they will forcibly put them in ESL. So that is messed up!” 

Other participants believed that, as one explained: “students are profiled based on their last name when being placed into ELL.” Many students who we interviewed in the study expressed that they were confused by being pulled for ELL because, by their own assessment, they felt that they understood and spoke English like their white peers, but yet, observed that “the majority of people who were of ethnic descent get sent to ESL classes.”  

Thus, the interviews indicate that some HMoob students perceived and experienced race-based profiling through the process of ELL pullout, which impacted belonging and entailed experiences of social stigma.

Belonging and social stigma of ELL pullout 

Partly due to the racial profiling involved in ELL pullout, for some students the ELL pullout group became a space of solidarity for students of color within predominantly white institutions. In fact, “The saddest thing ever,” according to one student who we interviewed, was testing out of ELL, “I never went to ESL after that [and] all my HMoob friends and Hispanic friends go to ESL ….” Another ELL student who had tested out explained, “All I saw was that my friends were going to a class full of fun and friendship, and I was stuck doing things what my white peers did…” The space of caring, acceptance, and belonging was so important to some HMoob students that they purposely faked their ELL challenges, as one student explained,    

“I lied to her [a teacher], insisting that I needed ELL because my English was bad. I faked that I didn’t understand some words and basic grammatical rules like capitalization and quotation marks. And then the teacher gave me a vocabulary test, and I purposely failed it […] I was back in the game.” 

Thus, for such students, the experiences of care and belonging facilitated by the ELL setting provided protection and solidarity to students feeling excluded from the school, as one student explained, “My English was good, but I stayed in ELL for as long as I could because it was the only way I could stay connected to people like me.” In some cases, ELL provided a setting for the development of cultural pride, involving “activities where they can express their culture and be proud of it” in contrast with being “surrounded by white peers and … just kind of assimilate into whatever they did.” 

While some students experienced ELL pullout as a space of belonging, many others in our study reported feelings of shame and stigma when reflecting on their ELL experiences. While ELL is not a form of “special education” to address a learning disability, some interviewees expressed those feelings of shame resulted from perceptions of a stigma of difference and disability, in comparison with their mainstream peers. One student noted that the students in ELL were put “in the same category” as students who received special education. This pathologization of ELL was a not uncommon experience, as one HMoob student explained, “I thought I was in ELL because I was stupid.” Other students experienced the ELL pullout as a sign, “that I’m… dumb or like I’m not good enough.” Another participant remembered, “When I did test out of ESL, I felt like, ‘I did it. Like, I’m not dumb anymore.’”  

Students also reported shame and stigma from their family and peers for being pulled-out of mainstream schooling, or for taking “too long” to test out of ELL, in comparison to other HMoob students. One student reported, “One of my older brother[s], he got out of ESL like really early in elementary, and [my parents] would always praise him for it, being able to get out of ESL super early.” Another participant echoed this experience, explaining that the cultural stigma associated will ELL impacted this family’s expectations for his future:    

“Many of my relatives and peers would associate [my ELL] status with being unintelligent. In turn, my parents kind of focused more on the academic well-being of my younger siblings.”

With the prestige-associations with English competency and schooling success, some students expressed shame in not learning the HMoob language, resulting in a doubly tragic cultural shaming: shamed for not knowing enough English, shamed for not knowing enough HMoob. As one participant explained:  

“A part of schools is this erasing of who we are such as the languages and traditions we have, in order to essentially eradicate anything that resembles our resistance to imperialism. Because I spoke English so much, I neglected HMoob, and began to feel ashamed for not knowing HMoob, displacing myself from my community even more.”

Some of those interviewed in the study reported teasing their HMoob peers for not knowing English, and others, for not knowing HMoob. Much more consideration of such social consequences of ELL pullout is needed by educators working with immigrant students. 

Academic tracking and consequences of ELL pullout 

HMoob students in our study who did not have strong English skills when starting school reported clear academic benefits from their ELL experience. One participant describes his journey of learning English through his ELL program:  

“The first year definitely made me feel… feel… like, I need a lot of support….and a lot of help to be able to learn in school. But after that first year, and going to finishing on second year, I started to gain a lot of English. And then, it definitely made me feel a lot more confidence talking to people. And then… going back home, helping my parents as well, because they don’t speak English. So, yeah, it definitely made me feel like I can actually… you know, I’m actually proud of myself with learning, be able to learn and understand English, considering, you know, I was already ten years old.” 

The program gave this student language skills and increased his confidence in himself, as well as gave him the skills to navigate the US academic system. In addition, other HMoob students recalled that ELL supported their academic growth in English language arts. Looking back on her ELL experience, Haley expressed, “I think because of such a heavy focus on English and grammar, that actually ended up being like one of my strongest suits through middle school and high school. And it was like my highest scored subject in…my ACT.”  

Importantly, all the students interviewed for the Paj Ntaub study and included in this analysis were those who proceeded to enroll in college in the University of Wisconsin System (many in this particular analysis are enrolled at the highly selective flagship University of Wisconsin-Madison). So, we expect there to be a bias in our sample toward those students who received such effective and encouraging ELL education, and later, effective and encouraging pre-college education. This was the case for some, but even in this sample that only includes those who succeeded in overcoming barriers to education and college enrollment, there is evidence that ELL pullout had a considerable academic tracking effect.   

Interviewees in the study expressed their perception that their ELL classes were often not academically rigorous, involving a lack of credentialed teachers, curriculum, and textbooks, and accorded a marginal space on campus. One participant explained their experience with ELL tracking, “because by putting people in classes that don’t necessarily challenge them as much and that don’t give them the skills they need to be ready for college and higher education, it’s really putting them back more than it is helping them I think.” Being pulled out for frequent testing was also detrimental to the students’ progress. “I started to quickly fall behind in classes because of [testing],” explained a student. The schedule of ELL classes also had significant educational impacts. “Because they would always pull you out of classes and kind of limits like the classes that you can take, or like certain classes you can take.”  This was also confirmed by a student in the study, Kia, who stated, “And so that means that like … you couldn’t take AP courses as fast. So, you know, you couldn’t get credits for college.” Kia also indicated that there was a lack of resources available to the ELL students. She explained, “the help, that could have helped a student go to college if they wanted to. It wasn’t, that available to students who are still in ELL I feel, yeah, like they’re already set back.” The combined factors of a lack of academic challenge, being pulled out for testing and having an academic schedule dictated by ELL classes, put barriers that made it more difficult for the HMoob students in the interviews to fully access educational opportunities. 

Conclusions and implications for future research 

ELL programs shaped the experiences of young HMoob people in Wisconsin. This is a preliminary analysis of a subset of the sample of the HMoob students who participated in the College Paj Ntaub study and who attested relevant perceptions, experiences, and consequences of ELL education during their youth. The interview participants describe a wide range of experiences in ELL, many of which included racial profiling, feelings of belonging within the program but shame and stigma from outside, and academic consequences, some positively speaking about language support, but many discussing barriers to academic success. Future research on this topic can included the following:  

The first goal of future research is to complete the analysis of the larger Paj Ntuab interview corpus, which now includes over 160 new interviews conducted in 2023-2024 (added to the 83 individuals included in the current analysis). This is a rich and expansive collection of interviews to address research questions related to ELL pullout for refugee communities such as the HMoob in Wisconsin.  

Second, there is a lack of research on the consequences of the history of refugee resettlement policy and education policy on national, state, and local levels, on the ELL experiences of refugees—particularly related to the protracted HMoob resettlement experiences starting in at the end of the US involvement in Southeast Asia in 1975 and continuing through the closure and resettlement of the last refugee encampment in Thailand in 2007 (Ngo & Lee, 2007). The history of these policies impacts the ELL approaches and resources that are provided for the education of refugee communities. Research on this history is needed to contextualize and interpret the perceptions, experiences, and consequences of ELL for HMoob students in Wisconsin.  

Third, more research is needed on the strategies and cultural assets that HMoob students and families employed in the context of the racial profiling, stigma, and tracking from ELL pullout in Wisconsin, to develop counter-stories (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002) that document and theorize how the HMoob navigate or challenge education institutions that were not designed with the education and flourishing of refugee communities in mind. 

Implications. The specific immigration, resettlement, and education policy context of HMoob resettlement in Wisconsin during the 2000’s impacted the ELL experiences of HMoob youth, so that HMoob youth were educated primary at predominately white institutions (PWIs), ELL was under-resourced, ELL testing was unevenly applied, and ELL pullout was a common practice. The analysis illustrates some of the consequences of these contexts for the HMoob youth who, in spite of barriers, persisted to college at UW-Madison and other UW Systems institutions. The analysis provides a cautionary tale for resettlement services providers and educators, to carefully consider the social and emotional consequences of ELL pullout for refugee youth—especially for those resettled into predominantly white communities. Special attention should also be given to providing culturally collective space for immigrant youth to promote experiences of belonging and positive co-ethnic engagement. 

Works cited 

Ngo, B., & Lee, S. J. (2007). Complicating the image of model minority success: A review of Southeast Asian American education. Review of Educational Research, 77(4), 415-453. 

Solórzano, D. G., & Yosso, T. J. (2002). Critical race methodology: Counter-storytelling as an analytical framework for education research. Qualitative inquiry, 8(1), 23-44. 

Vang, M., Wolfgram, M., Smolarek, B., Lee, L., Moua, P., Thao, A., … & Yang, L. (2023). Autoethnographic engagement in participatory action research: Bearing witness to developmental transformations for college student activists. Action Research, 21(1), 104-123.