Language and Culture Career Ladder Teacher-Training Program

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Language and Culture Career Ladder
Teacher-Training Program

• Jorge P. Osterling, Ph.D.
• Sherry L. Steeley, M.A.
• George Mason University
• Fairfax, VA
• Annual VAME Conference
• October 4, 2003

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Caminante son tus huellasel camino y nada
máscaminante no hay caminose hace camino al
andar.Al andar se hace caminoy al volver la
vista atrásse ve la senda que nuncase ha de
volver a pisar.Caminante no hay caminosino
estelas en el mar.

• Caminante
• Antonio Machado

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Bilingual Paraeducator Career Ladder Teacher
Training Program

• BIPACAL

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Todays Objective

• To present preliminary research findings on
  addressing the academic needs of non-native
  English speaking bilingual paraeducators enrolled
  in a teacher education program.

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What is BIPACAL?

• BIPACAL is a federally-funded
• IHE-LEA career ladder partnership
• which trains bilingual paraeducators
• as highly qualified ESOL teachers.

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BackgroundProject Goals

• Provide local schools divisions with culturally
  and linguistically diverse teachers to improve
  the achievement, language, and cultural skills of
  all students.
• Support non-traditional, part-time, adult IHE
  students in overcoming institutional, linguistic,
  and cultural barriers to their achievement.

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Why train bilingual paraeducators to become
teachers?

• Currently, nearly 90 percent of the teachers in
  U.S. schools are of white, middle class
  background
• Over 500,000 linguistically and culturally
  diverse bilingual paraeducators with higher
  educational background work in American schools.
  

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Motivation

• Research shows that paraeducator motivation to
  teach increases in proportion to their length of
  service in schools
• (Genzuk Baca, 1998 Osterling Buchanan
  2003).

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Virginia ELL

• In 2002 nearly 50,000 English language learners
  (ELL) received ESOL services
• ELL students spoke over 120 different world
  languages from Afrikaans to Zulu.
• Spanish is the first language of 29,822 of ELL
  students followed by Korean, 2,596 students
  Vietnamese, 1,994 students and Arabic, 1741
  students.
• Source http//www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/Instruction/
  ESL/

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In Northern Virginia

• The ELL student population in BIPACALs three
  suburban Virginia school divisions is over
  31,000.
• In Arlington, 41 of the student population is
  from language minority backgrounds 4,988 ESOL
• In Fairfax, 22 20,974 ESOL
• In Prince William, 6, a low but significant
  increase in just three years 5,523 ESOL.
• In Fairfax County, the number non-White students
  has risen to 74,588 (46 percent of 162,585
  students).

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BIPACAL Student Voices

• "I always wanted to become a teacher, but never
  had the time or the money. NVCC and GMU faculty
  know their subjects and understand
  non-traditional students they understand
  students who are juggling families and jobs, and
  they are very willing to work with you if you
  need extra time or tutoring. They are very
  accommodating.

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BIPACALs Commitment Train Highly Qualified
Teachers

• BIPACAL provides high quality professional
  development to all future PK-12 teachers.

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• Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
  requires school divisions serving limited English
  proficient students (LEP) to certify that all
  their teachers working in language instruction
  educational programs for LEP students are fluent
  in English and any other language used by the
  program, including written and oral communication
  skills. (PL 107-110, 2002 -- Title III section
  3116).

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• Highly Qualified Teacher
• By the end of the 2005-06 school year, all
  public school teachers will have to be "highly
  qualified
• Have obtained full state certification or passed
  the state teacher licensing examination
• hold a license to teach in the state and
• not have had a certificate or license requirement
  waived under emergency, temporary or provisional
  conditions.
• Paraprofessionals who have instructional duties
  must have two years' of college or pass a
  rigorous state competency examination by January
  2006.

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Challenge

• Boosting the Paraeducators academic English from
  the 'intermediate plateau' towards an 'advanced
  level.'
• Prepare them for the TOEFL, PRAXIS-I tests, and
  professional daily use.

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BIPACALs Approach

• Realizing the importance of reaching a high level
  of English proficiency before students can teach
  English as a second language, the BIPACAL program
  initially focused on proficiency skills of all
  its participants.

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Initial Assessment TOEFL Scores

• TOEFL scores ranged from a low 430 elementary
  proficiency level -- to a high 660 advanced
  professional proficiency level four.
• The majority of the paraeducators tested operated
  in the Level 1 to Level 2/2 range.
• Initial results revealed an unacceptable low
  average score of 555.
• A minimum 570 score which reflects a 2 limited
  working proficiency plus level-- is usually
  required for undergraduate admission and a 600
  score which, reflects the lower end of a 3
  general professional proficiency level, is
  required to work as a graduate assistant.

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The Academic-English Question

• Which would be the best way to work with these
  fully-employed/ busy adult students to help them
• Expand their English vocabulary,
• Increase their knowledge of the grammatical
  structures of the English language, and
• Perfect their writing and reading skills
• Is there such a way that they could eventually
  become highly qualified ESL/ FL teachers in the
  United States?

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Theoretical Relevance

• The field of teaching academic-English as a
  Second Language to professional adults is growing
  steadily in both scope and sophistication.
• As academic English language instruction to adult
  learners is increasing, particularly career
  switchers or reentry students -- so is the
  knowledge of applied linguistics, second language
  acquisition and effective teaching approaches and
  methods.

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Reaching ACTFL Superior Proficiency Level

• We posit that the academic English level of all
  future or current non-native English speaking
  fully-certified ESL teachers working in American
  public schools must be, using the ACTFL
  Proficiency Guidelines, at a low superior level
  í.e., General professional proficiency.

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ACTFL Proficiency GuidelinesRevised 2001

• First published in 1986, the ACTFL Proficiency
  Guidelines are global characterizations of
  integrated performance in each of the four
  language skills -- speaking, writing, reading,
  and listening.
• The ACTFL Guidelines are based on the language
  skill-level descriptors used by the Interagency
  Language Roundtable and are adapted for use in
  academic environments.

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ACTFL Language Skill Level Descriptor
Levels are subdivided into low, mid, and high.
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BIPACALs Language Education Component

• Necessary time to learn (CALP-level) a foreign
  language and progress from
• Level "low advanced" to high advanced" 1.5 -
  2 years.
• Level high advanced" to "low superior" an
  additional year.
• Transfer issues "semantic feedback" e.g.,
  content-form issues body-language issues.
• On-going literacy development and resynthesis
  issues (entire range of constructs must be
  reassembled).

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Language support

• Virginia - standards for highly qualified
  teachers were a source of great concern to
  participants.
• Extensive academic language support and test
  preparation mitigated this perceived obstacle
  from BICS to CALP

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Changes to Initial Program

• BIPACALs initial component
• Teacher-Education
• Clearly much more training in academic English
  skills (i.e., CALP level) and mathematics was
  required for many of these adult learners
• To become fluent in academic English, both spoken
  and written, and
• To pass the State required PRAXIS-I professional
  assessment in reading, writing, and mathematics
  skills for beginning teachers.

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Modification to Original Design

• BIPACALs initial component
• Teacher-Education
• Redesign after the first year
• New components
• (1) Teacher Education
• (2.1) Language Training -- Level 0 - Level two
• (2.2) Language education -- Level 2 to Lower
  Three
• (3) School divisions commitment to release
  training/ education time.

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English Language Academic Support

• English Language Institute (Workshops or
  individual courses)
• English Writing Center (Special arrangement for
  dedicated staff person)
• ENGL 302 Advanced Composition (Adapted for
  bilingual adult learners)
• Praxis-I Preparation Workshop (48 hours of essay,
  grammar, reading skills and strategies).

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Results

• Extensive background knowledge and high
  motivation of participants accelerated the
  process of moving from low to high levels of
  proficiency.
• Group collaborative structures further reinforced
  progress.
• Academic English support programs helped achieve
  meaningful results.

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In fact

• While some candidates entered with low TOEFL
  scores, the majority have improved their language
  skills to a degree sufficient to enable them to
  meet state-mandated PRAXIS I target scores, a
  significant accomplishment in light of what
  researchers denote as cultural and linguistic
  bias of such standardized instruments (e.g.,
  Flores Clark, 1997).

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Ongoing advisory, counseling, and support service
In order to assist participants in managing
stress, balancing work, family, and academic
demands, BIPACAL provides cross cultural
counseling services to all participants. This is
available for the duration of the program.
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References

• Banks, J. (2001). Multicultural education
  programs evaluation checklist. In J. Banks
  (ed.), Cultural diversity and education (4th ed.)
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• Burant, T.J (1999). Finding and losing voice A
  preservice teacher's experiences in an urban
  educative practicum. Journal of Teacher
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• Flores, B.B. Clark, E.R. (1997). High stakes
  testing Barriers for prospective bilingual
  teachers. Bilingual Research Journal, 21,
  335-358.
• Genzuk, M., Baca, R. (1998). The
  paraeducator-to-teacher pipeline A 5- year
  retrospective on an innovative teacher
  preparation program for Latina(os). Education
  and Urban Society, 31(1), 73-88.
• Gonzalez, J.M. (1997). Recruiting and training
  minority teachers Student views of the
  preservice program. Equity Excellence in
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• Osterling, J., Buchanan, K. (2003). Tapping a
  valuable source for prospective ESOL teachers
  Northern Virginias school district/University
  bilingual paraeducator career ladder program
  (BIPACAL).Manuscript accepted for publication.

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