Campus Directory

Pronouns she, her, her, hers, herself

Division Social Sciences Division

Department/College/Unit Latin American & Latino Studies

Title Academic Research (Recall)
Associate Research Scientist (Retired)

Affiliation Staff

Staff Type Retired

Web Site

Primary Office Location Merrill College Academic Building
NA

Mail Stop Merrill/Crown Faculty Services

Biography, Education and Training

Peggy Estrada’s work focuses on promoting positive academic achievement and social-emotional development among culturally and linguistically diverse children and adolescents, with a special focus on English learner and Latino students. In partnership with public school districts, she answers field-, policy-, and practice-relevant questions using a sociocultural lens and mixed methods. A native of California and second-generation American, Estrada recently retired as Associate Research Scientist in the Latin American and Latino Studies Department (LALS) at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She remains active in scholarly work and retains a courtesy academic research appointment in LALS.

Dr. Estrada received her B.A. in child development and her elementary teaching credential from California State University, Chico and her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University, with a major in child and adolescent development and a minor in psychology. She began her career in education as a preschool teacher and was also a public school teacher for Migrant Education in rural northern California. 

In 2000, she co-authored (with Roland Tharp, Stephanie Dalton, and Lois Yamauchi) Teaching Transformed, which integrates sociocultural theory, research, and practical pedagogical and classroom organizational guidelines for designing instruction that can achieve excellence, fairness, inclusion, and harmony. In 2004 she produced “Engaging Students in Reading Comprehension Using Instructional Conversation,” a documentary-style video, which illustrates key pedagogical principles. In this video, a two-way Spanish-English immersion teacher models instructional conversation and sustained teacher-student dialog that enhances student comprehension of text, while instructing a small group of first-grade students in reading. Research stemming from this and other work has appeared in academic journals and as book chapters.

Four middle-school case studies of English learner educational programs led to development of the concept of Curricular Streams (placement structures that determine access to English language development courses, core content, the full curriculum, and non-English learner students) and hypotheses consequently tested in large-scale mixed-methods research.

Dr. Estrada’s current work and publications centers on K-12 students labeled English learners. Her most recent publications focus on classroom composition policy for students labeled English learners enrolled in English-only instruction, in particular the role of classroom-level segregation versus integration in opportunity to learn and achievement.

Summary of Expertise

K-12 education: pedagogy; classroom organization; sociocultural theory; linguistic, instructional, and curricular policies and practices and their consequences for core curricular access and achievement; Latino/a, students labeled English learner, and poor urban students; integration of theory, research, and practice. Mixed methods, quantitative and qualitative analyses.

Research Interests

English learner student linguistic, instructional, and curricular policies and practices and their consequences for core curricular access, achievement, and integration with non-English learner peers; pedagogy, instructional quality, and achievement in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms with a special focus on Latino student educational policy and practices; teacher-student and peer relationships and their relation to achievement and social development; the integration of theory, research, and practice in the reform of teaching and learning.

Dr. Estrada completed a large-scale, longitudinal, mixed-methods research project focusing on English learner linguistic, instructional, and curricular policies and practices and their consequences for reclassification to fluent English proficient, core curricular access, achievement, and integration with non-English learner peers (U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences Grant No. R305A110512.)

Her mixed-methods research project, English Learner Achievement in Elementary School: Classroom Composition and Opportunity to Learn (Spencer Foundation, Lyle Spencer Research Award 201700044) involved a small-scale experiment, classroom observations of elementary school English language arts instruction and surveys and interviews of teachers, principals, and instructional support staff. It focused on three questions: First, do English language arts classroom practices differ depending on classroom composition (separate 100% EL classrooms versus mixed EL and non-EL classrooms) and if so, how? Second, do classroom practices and classroom composition each predict student achievement? And finally, is any observed relation between classroom composition and student achievement accounted for by differences in classroom practices? http://news.ucsc.edu/2016/12/english-proficiency.html

Teaching Interests

No courses taught.

Awards, Honors and Grants

English Learner Achievement in Elementary School: Classroom Composition and Opportunity to Learn, Spencer Foundation, Lyle Spencer Research Award 201700044. http://www.spencer.org/english-learner-achievement-elementary-school-classroom-composition-and-opportunity-learn

Reclassifying and Not Reclassifying English Learners as Fluent English Proficient: Access and Achievement. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences Grant No. R305A110512.

Excellence, Inclusion, Fairness, and Harmony: Patterns of Instructional Activity in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classrooms. Office of Educational Research and Improvement.

The Role of Classroom Social Organization in Educational Functioning and the Development of Peer Relationships and Teacher-Student Relationships. Office of Educational Research and Improvement Grant No. R306A6001..

Selected Publications

• Estrada, P. (2022). Classroom composition policy for elementary students labeled English learner: The best of intentions gone awry and rectification, The Educational Forum, 86:1, 67-79, doi: 10.1080/00131725.2022.1997522https://doi.org/10.1080/00131725.2022.1997522

• Estrada, P., Wang, H., & Farkas, T. (2020). Elementary English learner classroom composition and academic achievement: The role of classroom-level segregation, number of English proficiency levels, and opportunity to learn. American Educational Research Journal, 57, 1791-1836. doi: 10.3102/0002831219887137 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0002831219887137?casa_token=tm5Gj-89VWAAAAAA:fIzda9Cf9EEMZU9GhKLucvmfD2kfPXnoVtUU2vxMeYYh9gbrwjj6l4GCGlOX5xNa8kchYSmlq_nl

• Estrada, P. & Wang, H. (2018). Making English learner reclassification to fluent English proficient attainable or elusive: When meeting criteria is and is not enough. American Educational Research Journal, 55, 207-242. doi: 10.3102/0002831217733543. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0002831217733543 
• Umansky, I., Reardon, S., Hakuta, K., Thompson, Estrada, P., K., Hayes, K., Maldonado, H., Tandberg, S., & Goldenberg, C. (2015).Improving the opportunities and outcomes of California’s students learning English: Findings from three school district – university collaborative partnerships. Policy Brief 15-1. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Policy Analysis for California Education. http://www.edpolicyinca.org/publications/improving-opportunities-and-outcomes-californias-students-learning-english-findings-school-district-university-collaborative-partnerships
• Estrada, P. (2014). English learner Curricular Streams in four middle schools: Triage in the trenches. The Urban Review. 46, 535-573. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11256-014-0276-7. doi: 10.1007/s11256-014-0276-7.    
• Estrada, P. (2005). The courage to grow: A researcher and teacher linking professional development with small-group reading instruction and student achievement. Research in the Teaching of English 39: 320-264.
• Estrada, P. (2004). Patterns of language arts instructional activity and excellence in first- and fourth-grade culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. In H. C. Waxman, R. G. Tharp, & R. S. Hilberg (Eds.), Observational research in U.S. classrooms: New approaches for understanding cultural and linguistic diversity (pp. 122-143). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
• Tharp, R., Estrada, P., Dalton, S., & Yamauchi. L. (2000). Teaching Transformed: Achieving excellence, fairness, inclusion, and harmony. Boulder, CO: Westview. 
• Estrada, P. (1995). Adolescents' self-reports of prosocial responses to friends and acquaintances: The role of sympathy-related cognitive, affective, and motivational processes, Journal of Research on Adolescence, 5, 173-200.
• Estrada, P., Arsenio, W.F., Hess, R.D., & Holloway, S. (1987). Affective quality of the mother-child relationship: Longitudinal consequences for children's school-relevant cognitive functioning, Developmental Psychology, 23, 210-215.

Selected Recordings

Older ELLs can face restricted learning opportunities. [Video file of interview with Peggy Estrada]. Education Week Blogs: Learning the Language. (Mitchell, C., November, 7, 2016) http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2016/11/older_english_language_learners_face_restricted_learning_opportunities.html?cmp=eml-enl-eu-news2

Estrada, P. (2004). Engaging Students in Reading Comprehension Using Instructional Conversation. Documentary-style video demonstrates the Five Standards for Effective Pedagogy. A two-way Spanish-English immersion teacher models instructional conversation, sustained teacher-student dialog that enhances student comprehension of text, while instructing a small group of first-grade students in reading.