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<h1 class="gmail-node-title">High Teacher Turnover In Arizona English Language Classrooms</h1>
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<span class="gmail-author_label">By <a style="color:rgb(26,133,181)" href="http://kjzz.org/staff/ 281">Claire Caulfield</a></span><span class="gmail-one-off"></span> </div>
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<div style="font-size:11px;color:rgb(102,102,102)">Published: Tuesday, February 6, 2018 - 6:43am</div><div style="font-size:11px;color:rgb(102,102,102)">Updated: Tuesday, February 6, 2018 - 9:11am</div> </div>
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<div></div><p dir="ltr">An analysis of Arizona’s English Language
Learning program attributes high teacher turnover to its language policy
and low teacher pay.</p><p dir="ltr">If students in Arizona don’t pass
the language proficiency exam, they are enrolled in English Language
Development classes. These are four-hour prescriptive blocks focused
solely on grammar, vocab, reading and writing in separate classrooms
with different teachers.</p><p dir="ltr">The aim of the program is to
bring students up to proficiency in a year or two so they can rejoin
their peers in traditional classrooms. However, <a href="https://www.azauditor.gov/sites/default/files/ELL_Highlights.pdf" target="_blank">data from the Arizona Department of Education</a> shows in 2010, only 29 percent of ELL students progressed in their English proficiency.</p><p dir="ltr">“And
this means they’re in these separate classrooms longer,” said Amy
Heineke, associate professor of education at Loyola University Chicago.
She authored<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10993-016-9428-9" target="_blank"> the study examining</a>
Arizona’s English Language Learning program over the past five years.
“So they’re falling behind their peers in other subject matters or
having to take extra courses.”</p><p dir="ltr"><strong>RELATED: <a href="http://kjzz.org/node/469898" target="_blank">Arizona's ELL Classrooms Struggle With Teacher Shortages, Low Graduation Rates</a></strong></p><p dir="ltr">Arizona
implemented this program in 2008, and it stems from a ballot-initiative
passed in 2000 that made it illegal for public schools to teach in a
language other than English. At the time other states had this
“Structured English Immersion” model as well.</p><p dir="ltr">However in
2017 California and Massachusetts repealed their English-only laws and
implemented bilingual learning – leaving Arizona as the last state with
this system.</p><p dir="ltr">Heineke said this model is part of the reason Arizona English Language classrooms see such high teacher turnover rates.</p><p dir="ltr">“They’re
much more complex settings to teach in and quite frankly teachers just
don’t want to teach in them,” she said. “And to fill that districts
bring in teachers from across the country with little to no preparation
particularly for English learners. Basically findings of the study is we
have the least prepared teachers working with some of the highest need
students."</p><p dir="ltr">In her study, Heineke examined five years of ELL data and spoke with school administrators at all levels.</p><p dir="ltr">“At
the state level it almost goes unnoticed. When you talk to state
administrators, policy makers, etc. it’s not even on their radar,” she
said. “While at the local level when you talk to school administrators
and district administrators everything about this ELD model stem from
the ongoing teacher turnover rates and never really being able to build
teacher expertise is a real issue.”</p><p dir="ltr">Heineke said low teacher pay makes it harder for school districts to recruit experienced or qualified English language teachers.</p><p dir="ltr">The
Arizona Department of Education, the Arizona Office of English Language
Acquisition Services and the director of EL Accountability and Support
did not respond to multiple interview requests.</p></div> </div>
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<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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