Date of Award

1-2026

Document Type

Dissertation - University of Massachusetts Global access only

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Organizational Leadership

First Advisor

Jonathan Greenberg

Second Advisor

Timothy McCarty

Third Advisor

Philip Pendley

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this Delphi study was to identify the barriers teachers in Upstate New York perceive as hindering the academic achievement of ENL (English as a new language) students, to have participants rate the importance of these barriers, and to gather their recommendations for addressing the top five barriers identified in Research Question 2.Methodology: The Delphi approach, an iterative, rigorous procedure to achieve expert consensus on complex issues, was applied in this research. Recruitment utilized purposeful sampling of 10–12 experienced educators from five Title I school districts in northeastern New York with at least 3 years of service for ENL students. Data were collected in three cycles of online questionnaires: Round 1 collected open-ended information on barriers and supports; Round 2 requested rating and ranking of emerging themes from Round 1; Round 3 verified and validated consensus on the most critical challenges and proposed strategies. Analysis involved thematic coding supported by NVivo software, and interrater reliability tests, triangulation, and member checking were employed to offer credibility and trustworthiness.

Findings: Participants achieved consensus on five major barriers. Language challenges, lack of family involvement, inadequate teacher preparation, social-emotional needs, and structural constraints were the main ones identified. They also agreed on key strategies. This included increasing ENL instructional time, improving scaffolding and teacher training, enhancing multilingual communication, expanding social-emotional learning (SEL) supports, and strengthening staffing and scheduling.

Conclusion: This research has identified some of the interrelated factors that determine ENL student achievement, such as language skills, classroom instruction, family involvement, emotional well-being, and the system of schools. Because these areas have an effect on one another, coordinated action would be required at all levels of implementation: classroom, school, and district levels.

Recommendations: This study represents a call to increase ENL staffing and instructional time, enhance teacher training and family communication, and increase SEL support. Routinely review ENL programs. Future studies ought to focus on long-term impacts and include the perspectives of ENL students and families as well to broaden perspectives.

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