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<h1>Focusing on the language skills of English Learners key to boosting math scores</h1>
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<div class="gmail-article-meta-wrapper"><h3 class="gmail-tag"><a href="http://edsource.org/topic/english-language-learners">English language learners</a></h3><h5 class="gmail-date">April 16, 2018</h5><img class="gmail-thumbnail" src="https://edsource.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/ashley_hopkinson_color.jpg"><h5 class="gmail-byline"><a href="https://edsource.org/author/ahopkinson" class="gmail-author">Ashley Hopkinson</a></h5></div><div class="gmail-social-bar"><a class="gmail-twitter external" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fedsource.org%2F%3Fpage_id=595948&via=edsource&text=Focusing+on+the+language+skills+of+English+Learners+key+to+boosting+math+scores"><i class="gmail-fa gmail-fa-twitter"></i></a><a class="gmail-facebook external" target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fedsource.org%2F2018%2Ffocusing-on-the-language-skills-of-english-learners-key-to-boosting-math-scores%2F595948"><i class="gmail-fa gmail-fa-facebook"></i></a><a class="gmail-linkedin external" target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=http%3A%2F%2Fedsource.org%2F%3Fpage_id=595948&title=Focusing on the language skills of English Learners key to boosting math scores: &summary=An Education Trust–West report highlights successful strategies some California districts implemented to improve English learners' performance in math. &source=EdSource"><i class="gmail-fa gmail-fa-linkedin"></i></a><a class="gmail-donate external" target="_blank" href="https://www.newsmatch.org/organizations/edsource"><i class="gmail-fa gmail-fa-usd"></i></a><a class="email" href="mailto:?subject=Sharing Focusing on the language skills of English Learners key to boosting math scores&body=Just sharing this story from EdSource with you. https://edsource.org/?p=595948"><i class="gmail-fa gmail-fa-envelope"></i></a><a class="gmail-print" target="_blank"><i class="gmail-fa gmail-fa-print"></i></a></div> </div>
<div class="gmail-article-body gmail-standard gmail-col gmail-six"><div class="eight-five gmail-image-bg" style="background-image:url("https://edsource.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/IMG_7671_readingcoutingbook-1024x734.jpg")"><span class="gmail-credit">Credit: Ashley Hopkinson/EdSource</span><div class="gmail-caption" style="opacity:0"><span>Students
read a book about counting at a math “festival” at Allendale Elementary
School in Oakland. Developing language skills through math is one
strategy to help English learners, a new report says.</span></div></div><p>Boosting
the language development of students whose first language is not
English is critical if California is to narrow the wide and persistent
gaps in math test scores between its nearly 1.4 million English learners
and their English-proficient peers.</p>
<p>That is the recommendation in a recent report by Education
Trust–West, which highlights the successful strategies that five
California districts implemented to improve the academic performance of
English learners. The<a href="https://west.edtrust.org/resource/unlocking-learning-ii-using-math-lever-english-learner-equity/" target="_blank" class="external"> report</a>,
titled, “Unlocking Learning II: Math as a Lever for English Learner
Equity,” also identifies practices that schools and districts can use to
provide more support to English learners and recommends state-level
strategies that the California Department of Education could consider to
better support districts’ English learners.</p>
<p>The school districts highlighted in the report are Westminster School
District, Rowland Unified, Alhambra Unified, San Francisco Unified and
Kerman Unified School districts.</p>
<p>Some examples of successful strategies include schools that reduced
tracking in math classes to provide more access to advanced classes for
English learners. One school recorded morning announcements in students’
languages to help them feel welcome and one of the districts trained
550 teachers on how to integrate language development skills into other
subjects for English learners.</p>
<p>To examine what it takes to reduce the achievement gap for
California’s English learners, researchers interviewed experts in math
education and also visited schools and observed their teaching
practices. Based on this work, researchers identified four key practices
that support English learners and math education.</p>
<p>They include: upholding students’ languages, cultures and backgrounds
as assets in math classrooms; integrating more English language
development with math content; increasing professional development for
teachers, specifically around language and math; and providing academic
support in students’ primary languages to ensure equal access to math
coursework.</p>
<p>California has among the highest number of English learners in the
country, and the significant gaps in achievement between them and their
English-proficient peers in math is “concerning,” said Rachel Ruffalo,
senior practice associate with Education Trust–West and lead author of
the report.</p>
<p>According to the report, in 2017 only 12 percent of English learners
met or exceeded math standards on the California Assessment of Student
Performance and Progress compared to 43 percent of students whose native
language is English and those assessed as fluent in English at the time
of enrollment.</p>
<p>Ruffalo said even with recent changes in policy such as <a href="https://edsource.org/2017/a-new-era-for-bilingual-education-explaining-californias-proposition-58/574852">Proposition 58</a>, a law that allows school districts to open more bilingual classrooms, and <a href="https://edsource.org/2017/bilingual-education-advocates-celebrate-first-new-policy-for-english-language-learners-in-20-years/586941">the English Learner Roadmap</a>, a
new language policy guideline adopted by the State Board of Education,
“California is still underperforming,” and schools are searching for
strategies to improve the academic performance of English learners.</p>
<p>While the report draws some conclusions based on standardized tests,
it primarily focuses on findings based on classroom observations and
focus groups with district leaders, teachers and students. Ruffalo said
highlighting practices that are working is one of the key purposes of
the report so it can act as a guideline to districts that are struggling
to support and improve the math scores of English learners.</p>
<p>One of the report recommendations is that school districts adopt or
develop teaching materials for math that contain language teachers can
more easily adapt into curriculums they are already using. For instance,
San Francisco Unified School District’s K-12 math curriculum includes
math problems that take multiple steps to solve and typically encourage
students to discuss their work in order to arrive at the answer.</p>
<p>The report also recommends professional development focused on both
English and mathematics to improve the English language skills and math
scores of English learners. This should include ongoing coaching and
time for English Language Development and math teachers to collaborate
and support each other in incorporating more language into math classes,
it states.</p>
<p>At William Northrup Elementary School in Alhambra, Calif., where 40
percent of the students are English learners, the school developed a
team of three teachers and a math instructional specialist, who meet
once a month to plan a math lesson with a special focus on reaching
English learners. After the lesson is taught by each teacher, the team
meets to discuss how the lesson worked and how it could be improved. In
2017, English learners at Northrup met or exceeded the math standards on
the Common Core standardized test at nearly three times the rate of
English learners in the state, the report states</p></div>
<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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