Closing the Achievement Gap: An ESL Reform Initiative TQE

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Closing the Achievement GapAn ESL Reform
Initiative (TQE)

• Dr. Elizabeth Franklin, MLCS
• Ms. Linda Carbajal, Cumbres
• Dr. Jenni Harding-Dekam, TE
• Ms. Anne Ramírez, District 6
• Dr. Madeline Milian, TE

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• Thank you to
• U.S. Department of Education
• Colorado Department of Education
• UNC (HSS, CEBS, Cumbres)
• District 6
• for direct funding and match to support this
  project (2002-2006).

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Project Partners

• UNC College of Humanities and Social Sciences
  (English, Hispanic Studies/Undergraduate
  ESL/Mexican-American Studies, Social Science)
  
• UNC College of Education and Behavioral
  Sciences (Teacher Education Elementary
  Education, Reading, Graduate ESL)
  
• Cumbres
• Greeley/Evans District 6
• Aims Community College
• Colorado Department of Education (Lynda Franco)

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Four Goals of the Project

• Increase the number of undergraduate/Cumbres and
  graduate students seeking and completing the ESL
  endorsement.
  
• Revise the undergraduate ESL program.
• Infuse second language content into the
  elementary and secondary education program so
  that all preservice teachers are prepared to work
  with second language learners.
• Provide professional development activities and
  coaching for teachers at four elementary schools
  in District 6.
  

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Funding

• 977,514.97 in funding
• 684,260.48 in match from UNC, District 6,
  Cumbres, HSS (Center for Language Arts
  Education), CEBS (Button, Eldridge)
  
• 507,911.49 in scholarships was given to
  undergraduate students seeking the ESL
  endorsement at UNC and Aims and graduate students
  seeking the ESL endorsement at UNC
• 324,500 in scholarships was given to 84
  different undergraduate students at UNC.
  

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• 39,535.44 in scholarships was given to 17
  different students at Aims. 11 of these
  17students have transferred to UNC.
  
• 143,876.05 in scholarships was given to 41
  graduate students seeking the ESL endorsement.
  
• 7 of these students are from District 6 15 of
  these students are from Mapleton.
  
• 153,344 was used by District 6 to support 45
  hours of ELL instruction for 80 elementary
  teachers, four coaches for 53 teachers at four
  elementary schools, and materials for ESL
  teachers working in District 6.

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• Out off the remaining 316,259.04 in the grant,
  money was spent to hire a faculty member to teach
  FL 395 Second Language Acquisition for two years,
  to provide professional development activities
  for UNC faculty, and for travel to conferences to
  present information about grant activities or for
  additional training.

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Goal 1 Increase the Number of Students Seeking
an ESL Endorsement (From 60 to 200) increase
students in Cumbres.

• Undergrad Students Enrolled (Est.)
• 2002 60
• 2003 117
• 2004 305
• 2005 300

• Undergrad Students Graduated
• 2002 13
• 2003 29
• 2004 37
• 2005 40 (Awarded May 2005)
• 2006 34 (Awarded May 2006 )

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The number of students seeking the ESL
endorsement has increased 500 in three years.

• Approximately 40 of the current ESL students are
  students of color (38 of the students in ESL
  methods during the 2005-2006 academic year are
  Latino 2 are Asian-Pacific).
• In 2002-03, 30 new students were recruited for
  Cumbres, a leadership program for students who
  want to be ESL or BE teachers in 2004-5, 84 new
  students were recruited for Cumbres.
• The retention of Cumbres students from 2003-2004
  to 2004-2005 was 92.5.
  

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• In 2004-2005, 23 Cumbres students graduated 57
  of these students were Hispanic. In 2005-2006,
  29 Cumbres students graduated 69 of these
  students were students of color.
• 83.3 of the elementary ESL endorsement students
  have passed the PLACE since 1/1/2003. 87.5 have
  passed the PRAXIS since 1/1/2003 (41 students
  passed 7 failed).
• 32 TQE scholarship recipients have taken the ESL
  PLACE 27 have passed it (84).
  

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Goal 2 Revise the Undergraduate ESL Program

• A new course, FL 395 Second Language Acquisition,
  was added to the ESL endorsement and has been
  taught six times.
  
• The ESL methods course was revised to include
  more focus on research-based practices (e.g.
  SIOP). Students complete a pre-post survey.
  
• The ESL practicum was revised with feedback from
  an advisory committee with District 6 supervisors
  and teachers. Students are now observed three
  times with the SIOP, they complete an oral
  language assessment of an ELL, and they complete
  a pre-post survey.

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Evaluation of ESL Methods Course

• On the pre-post survey given in fall 2004, there
  was an average gain of 1.2375 on a five point
  scale (27 students). Students demonstrated growth
  on every criteria.
• On the pre-post survey given in fall 2005, there
  was an average gain of .9579 on a five point
  scale (38 students). Students demonstrated
  growth on every criteria.

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Evaluation of ESL Practicum

• ESL cooperating teachers were trained on the
  SIOP.
  
• In 2004-2005, ESL cooperating teachers were asked
  to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the
  ESL practicum and the UNC ESL students. 8
  teachers responded.
• Teachers commented that the partnership is a good
  one UNC students ask a lot of questions, are
  creative, enthusiastic and caring course
  requirements are clear. This is an improvement
  from previous semesters.

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Evaluation of ESL practicum

• UNC students evaluated the ESL practicum in
  spring, 2005. 13 students completed the
  evaluation. All 13 students reported that the
  practicum was a valuable experience, that they
  liked their cooperating teachers, and that they
  learned from them.
• In fall 2005, the comparison of pre and post
  scores on 29 components on the ELL content survey
  demonstrated that the ESL practicum students
  increased an average of 1.36 on a five point
  scale (from 3.46 to 4.82)in their perceptions of
  their effectiveness in working with ELLs.

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Evaluation of ESL Practicum

• On the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol
  (SIOP) during fall 2005, the average score on the
  third observation was 5.0/6.0 on lesson
  preparation, 2.57/3.0 on building background
  2.68/3.0 on comprehensible input 4.1/5.0 on
  lesson delivery and 3.47/4.0 on review and
  assessment.
• On the oral language assessment during fall 2005,
  using 14 indicators of oral language proficiency,
  ELLs improved on 11.78 indicators.
  

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Additional Changes

• Development and assessment of cultural competence
  in MAS 100 and MAS 275.
  
• Observation of dual endorsed elementary education
  students in Block 2.
  

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Goal 3 Infuse second language content into the
elementary and secondary education program so
that all preservice teachers are prepared to work
with second language learners.

• 11 methods faculty completed 45-100 hours of
  professional development activities 45 hours on
  second language acquisition with Lynda Franco, 7
  hours on parent involvement with the Colorado
  Statewide Parents Coalition 7 hours on parent
  involvement at the Summit on Parent Involvement
  15 hours with Beth Franklin and Priscilla Falcon
  on the SIOP and critical pedagogy and 25 hours
  on the Mexican education system, curriculum and
  qualities of high achieving schools (Faculty at
  the Border).

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Results of Pre-Post Survey

• Students in the methods completed a pre/post
  survey of perceptions of knowledge about
  effective practices in working with ELLs. There
  were two different surveys given nine faculty
  completed one survey (24 items 210 students) and
  4 faculty completed the other survey (23 items
  73 students).
• On the first survey, there was an average change
  of .41 on a five point scale. On the second
  survey, the average change was .65 on a five
  point scale.

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• The biggest change (.75) on the first survey
  involved understanding how to group students for
  instruction. There was over a .50 change with
  respect to understanding the importance of wait
  time, differentiated instruction, increasing
  interaction, connecting language and content,
  language objectives, and scaffolding.
• For both surveys, there was positive growth on
  all items.
  

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Results of the Exit Survey

• A spring 2005 exit survey of 57 students who
  graduated in elementary education indicated that
  87.7 agreed or strongly agreed that they were
  prepared work with families of diverse
  ethnicities. This is an increase from fall 2004
  where 79 of the students (38 students) stated
  this.
• In the spring 2005 exit survey, 66.6 of the
  students agreed or strongly agreed that they were
  prepared to teach ELLs. This is an increase from
  fall 2004 where 57.9 stated this.

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• The cooperating teachers (63) agreed or strongly
  agreed in a parallel survey that 95.2 of Block
  2 UNC students were prepared to work with
  ethnically diverse families.
• These same cooperating teachers agreed that 89.4
  of the students were prepared to work with ELLs.

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• Of the 60 elementary students who completed Block
  1 (the literacy/science block prior to student
  teaching) in fall 2005, 90 agreed or strongly
  agreed that they were prepared to work with
  families of diverse ethnicities 85 agreed or
  strongly agreed that they were prepared to work
  with ELLs.
• The survey of their cooperating teachers
  indicated that 90 (45 teachers) agreed or
  strongly agreed that the UNC students were
  prepared to work with ethnically diverse
  families 85 of the teachers agreed or strongly
  agreed that the UNC students were prepared to
  work with ELLs.

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Results of the Faculty Survey

• On an open-ended survey, seven methods faculty
  commented that they
  
• feel more confident about answering student
  questions about ELLs
  
• understand classroom management from a Latino
  perspective
  
• developed units addressing ELL needs with respect
  to composition and literature
  
• incorporated ESL assignments
• incorporated strategies for working with ELLS

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• incorporated group and oral language activities
• became more aware of how to integrate
  modifications without watering down the
  curriculum.

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Methods Faculty Revisions to Courses

• Thematic unit lesson plans include an
  accommodation section specifically for ELLs.
  
• Excerpts from the video, Enhancing English
  Language Learning in Elementary Classrooms, are
  shown.
  
• A human graph is used to analyze empathy toward
  ELLs in the classroom and the community.
  
• UNC students seeking an ESL endorsement are
  clustered in Block 2. The Cumbres cohort model
  is, therefore, continued.
  

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• Because of the professional development,
  conversations between faculty of color and
  Education faculty have increased.
  
• Because of the professional development, faculty
  research in this area has increased (e.g.
  conference presentations, childrens book in
  press, research articles, classroom management
  book manuscript).

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ELL Survey of Faculty

• 12 faculty out of 20 completed the survey.
• Cronbachs Alpha .908, 13 items with mean42.4,
  variance67.6
  
• Survey Results
• I feel that I teach my students well to meet
  the needs of ELLs
  
• 33.3 Strongly Agree
• 58.3 Agree
• 8.4 Disagree

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Goal 4 Provide professional development
activities and coaching for teachers at four
elementary schools in District 6.

• 80 District 6 teachers at four elementary schools
  received 45 hours of workshop instruction from
  Lynda Franco by spring 2004.
  
• The course evaluations for the Franco workshops
  were strong (4.2-5.0) on a 5 point scale.
  
• On the 24 item pre and post ELL content surveys,
  teachers had an average change of .58 on a 5
  point scale. At two of the schools, the average
  change was .849 and .895.

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• During the 2003-2004 school year, 24 teachers at
  the four elementary schools were coached on their
  implementation of second language strategies. A 6
  criteria rubric measured growth in classroom
  practice.
• In 2003-2004, 15 teachers made growth on all six
  criteria. All 24 teachers made growth on some
  criteria. The average amount of change was .65
  on a 3.33 scale.

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• In 2004-2005, 29 teachers were coached. The
  average amount of change in classroom practice
  was .55 on a 3.33 scale. All teachers made some
  growth.

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Next Steps with District 6

• There is a need in District 6 for all
  teachers-not just ESL teachers-to use strategies
  that facilitate simultaneous learning of both
  language and content.
• District ESL teachers need to have strong
  backgrounds in the five components of literacy
  instruction.
  
• Teachers and administrators have asked for more
  training in the area of cultural competency.
  
• The ESL teachers hosting the UNC students in the
  practicum and learned from the experience.
  

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• District 6 would like to pursue a partnership
  with UNC to prepare more classroom teachers to
  get an ESL endorsement. Ideally, courses would
  be jointly offered.

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Next Steps at UNC

• Initiate a study group on Developing Literacy in
  a Second-Language.
  
• Summarize current faculty research around second
  language acquisition.
  
• More effectively connect the ESL endorsement to
  the teacher education programs at UNC.
  
• Pass NCATE.
• Survey graduating teacher education students
  about effectiveness of ESL infusion model.
  
• Survey ESL alumni about program quality.
• Promote study abroad.

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Needs of Teacher Education Faculty

• Initiate Brown Bag lunches with panels to address
  teaching about diverse families, ways to assess
  language and content of ELLs in the content
  areas, and ways to incorporate multicultural
  childrens literature.
• Need to develop a curriculum map or scope and
  sequence for how and what second language content
  is being infused into methods courses.