[EDLING:348] Nevada: ESL programs: Bridging gaps from the beginning

[Francis M Hult]

Via lgpolicy...

> ESL programs: Bridging gaps from the beginning
> 
>   GERALDA MILLER / RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
> Posted: 8/23/2007
> 
> More than 16,000 students in Washoe County School District speak 52
> languages other than English as their primary language. Some can speak
> English proficiently as a second language while others cannot speak
> English and also are illiterate in their primary language. The
> challenge for Mary Ann Robinson, English as a Second Language and
> world language coordinator for the district, is to make sure that the
> 10,276 students at varying levels of English proficiency grasp the
> language and are prepared academically to graduate and achieve their
> goals.
> 
> "I want them to have the equal opportunity that others have," Robinson
> said. For English language learners (ELL) to become proficient in
> English and garner that parity, Robinson said it is going to take a
> districtwide commitment to training. Also needed, she said, is a
> commitment -- districtwide -- to teaching the students and funding to
> purchase an English language curriculum for elementary schools.
> However, Robinson will have to wait for federal funding since she lost
> 31 percent of her Title III funds, money she had planned to use for a
> structured language program.
> 
> "We need a curriculum written for English language learners," she
> said. "The school district gives me textbook funds." The first task
> she said she tackled 3½ years ago when given the position was to join
> a district initiative to focus on high schools by making sure each had
> the ESL staff it needed and developed a common curriculum. As a former
> elementary school teacher, Robinson recognized that the majority of
> English language learners attended elementary schools. She said she
> would have preferred beginning with them and moved up to high school.
> Instead, the opposite is happening. "Our high schools are set as far
> as the number of ESL teachers," she said. "And middle schools, they
> are set."
> 
> More trained teachers
> 
> Although every school in the district has English language learners,
> there are 10 elementary schools in the district that do not have
> endorsed ESL teachers. The district has 134 endorsed teachers.
> Teachers must take 12 credit hours at a college to be endorsed as ESL
> teachers.
> 
> In addition, paying attention to the current rate of growth in the
> district, Robinson estimated that she will need almost 38 more
> teachers on her staff next year and 47.98 more in 2008 to maintain the
> ideal student/ESL teacher ratio of 60 to 1.
> 
> Robinson is realizing that cannot happen, and she is planning alternatives.
> 
> "We can't have that many ESL teachers," she said. "We have to train
> our regular teachers. Our content area teachers, our classroom
> teachers, have to be trained."
> 
> While ESL teachers instruct the English language learners for 45 to 90
> minutes a day, Robinson said it is the classroom teacher who works
> with them the rest of the day that must know how to effectively work
> with the children.
> 
> If a school does not have an ESL teacher, the district will provide
> transportation for the student to attend a program in another school.
> 
> However, Robinson said at some point, that option will be unrealistic.
> 
> She has introduced two training programs for all teachers to acquire
> the skills necessary to teach English language learners.
> 
> The development programs -- Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol
> (SIOP) and Guided Language Acquisition Design (GLAD) -- also are part
> of the district's diversity action plan.
> 
> Barbara McLaury, senior director of Title I, ESL and Area V schools,
> headed the professional development committee for the diversity plan
> and stressed the importance of the training programs as a part of
> developing cultural competency.
> 
> "We really believe that they are a central part to teacher's
> understanding of the teaching strategies necessary to support ELL at
> all levels," she said. "They give teachers a really strong framework.
> It is another piece of support to deal with all of the diversity they
> have in the classroom."
> 
> About 250 middle and high school teachers have received SIOP training
> and about 522 teachers have gone through the five-day GLAD training.
> 
> Two schools where all the teachers have been trained in SIOP and seen
> positive results are Traner Middle School and Hugh High School,
> Robinson said.
> 
> This year was the first that Hug passed the Limited English
> Proficiency tests in all categories.
> 
> "He had already seen SIOP in Washington and knew that it was a
> wonderful product," she said of Hug Principal Andy Kelly. "He went in
> and said 'this is the best model I've seen and if you have another one
> that you think works for all kids, tell me. They didn't.'"
> 
> Monitoring curriculum
> 
> Robinson has been spending a great deal of time evaluating the dozen
> schools that did not pass the Limited English Proficiency (LEP) test.
> 
> She and her staff now will spend time at each school, talking with
> teachers and administrators about how to make improvements.
> 
> Robinson said she must remain positive and tell them: "We can do it!
> We're very close."
> 
> She will make certain they are following the curriculum and look at
> the individual needs of each student.
> 
> The needs of each teacher also must be discussed, Robinson said. Also,
> she said she will be strongly encouraging those teachers not trained
> in GLAD or SIOP to plan on doing so.
> 
> "We are at a critical point right now," she said. "We can't wait for
> schools to decide that they want to have training."
> 
> Evaluation
> 
> Because of No Child Left Behind requirements, the parent of every
> child that enrolls in the district must complete a home language
> survey.
> 
> The survey asks whether the child speaks a language other than English
> and if there is a language other than English spoken in the home.
> 
> If the parent answers yes to either of the questions, the district is
> required to assess the child within 30 days at the beginning of the
> school year and 10 days in the remainder of the year.
> 
> "Right now, we have over 2,000 kindergartners, and we have to give
> them our little placement test," she said.
> 
> She said she sympathizes with the children who have never taken a test before.
> 
> "I told them, 'You won't be able to do this. Next year, you'll be able
> to do a little bit," she said. "And we had two students who passed the
> English and three that passed the math, so shame on us for trying to
> protect them."
> 
> Depending upon their literacy, the students are placed in one of five
> levels from entry to proficient.
> 
> "Then, every year, we have to give an assessment -- the English
> Language Proficiency Assessment, ELPA," she said. "We have to show
> that our children are increasing. They should be increasing. We're
> doing a good job with that now with the proficiency increasing."
> 
> NCLB also requires students not only be proficient in English but
> approaching standards on the high school proficiency or
> criterion-referenced tests, state's standardized tests given in the
> third through eighth grades.
> 
> "You can't just know English," Robinson said. "You have to know math,
> science and social studies. And if you do not, then you're still in
> ESL."
> 
> http://texasedequity.blogspot.com/2007/08/esl-programs-bridging-gaps-from.html
> --