Request for assistance: Example of school district-level policies promoting additive bilingualism & L1 literacy development

[McGinnis, Scott]

Responses to the inquiry should be sent directly to its originator,
Rebecca Freeman Field, at rdf5 at georgetown.edu.


The School District of Philadelphia Chief Executive Officer has asked a
group of educators to develop a language policy for the School District,
and I have been asked to facilitate this group's work.  We are planning
to have a two-day retreat when we will generate the skeleton of the
language policy and we will organize into task forces to do the work on
the different parts of the policy.  I would like to collect concrete
examples of district level policies that actively promote additive
bilingualism and L1 literacy development in other contexts that we could
use to stimulate our work in Philadelphia. Does anyone know where I
could find such examples?

My hope is to develop a language policy that includes the following:
a) a mission statement that actively promotes additive bilingualism and
biliteracy to the greatest degree possible
b) description of program models that are endorsed by the School
District (e.g. dual language education: 1-way and 2-way; heritage
language programs; world language programs;  L1 literacy programs;
content based ESL programs that encourage the maintenance and
development of the L1; school - community partnerships).  See below for
further discussion of what would be included under the description of
each model).
c) program evaluation and development plans.

My hope is that the language policy that these educators develop will be
broad enough to accomodate a wide range of sociolinguistic and school
realities that we find in a large urban district yet detailed enough to
provide a blueprint for action on the local school level.

I think that the description of each of the endorsed models should
include a clear statement of the target populations (ELLs, English
speakers, heritage language speakers), the goals and objectives of the
program for the target populations, an overview of how the prototypical
model is structured to reach those goals and objectives, the measures
used to assess student performance and development relative to program
goals and objectives, and an outline of the kinds of outcomes we can
realistically expect for the target populations in these different
models.  The description of each model would also include a clear
statement of how personnel issues are addressed, including the
knowledge/skills/credentials that teachers need to have to work in these
programs, and the district recruitment and retention plan for teachers
including professional development.

I have been reading the policy statements that were provided at the
Heritage Language conference last October in Virginia and I have been
consulting Corson's book on school language policy.

I welcome any and all feedback that anyone can provide on a) the content
of a school district level language policy, b) the process of developing
a school district language policy, and c) any concrete examples of
school district policies you may have or know of.

I really appreciate your help - this is an exciting opportunity that I
hope these educators really embrace.

Best,
Rebecca Freeman Field
Language Education Consultant