Long Term English Learners: A Call for Change Now

1. Long Term English Learners:A Call for Change Now • Presenters • Magdalena Ruz Gonzalez • Project Director, Curriculum and Instructional Services • Maddy Zamora, Ph.D. • Consultant, Division of School Improvement

2. “...there is no equality of treatment merely by providing students with the same facilities, textbooks, teachers and curriculum...for students who do not understand English are effectively foreclosed from any meaningful education....”

3. Researchers in the field of Long term English Learners: Reparable Harm, Laurie Olsen, PhD Preventing Long Term ELs, Transforming Schools to Meet Core Standards. Margarita Calderon and Lliana Minaya-Rowe

4. Research Reviewed • Teaching children to read in L1 promotes their reading achievement in L2 (15%-20% gains on standardized tests) • There is a transfer of skills between languages • There is a positive transfer from L1 reading instruction to L2 academic achievement

5. Secondary Students with Language Needs • Immigrant English learners (ELs) with strong academic backgrounds in their home country (recently arrived=2/3 years) • Immigrant English learners with inadequate schooling in their home country (recently arrived) • Bilingual students with all or most all of their education in U.S. schools (Long-Term English Learners) • Standard English Learners (SELs)

6. Immigrant English learners (ELs) with strong academic backgrounds in their home country (recently arrived) • Have had continuous school attendance in their native country and typically have grade level academic performance in their primary language (L1) • Usually make steady progress through the sequence of ELD courses and are successful in most core academic subjects • Generally have highly developed academic skills in content-area subjects that transfer to English (L2) • Have the potential to become bilingual, biliterate and bicultural • NOTE: They are the smallest group of students identified as English Learners.

7. Immigrant English learners with inadequate schooling in their native country (recently arrived) • Have experienced inadequate or interrupted schooling in their country of origin • Have developed strong survival skills through the immigrant experience • May read in their primary language and have some degree of proficiency in English • May have reading comprehension difficulties in both the primary language and English • May write in their primary language but lack accurate use of conventions • May exhibit uneven progress through the sequence of ELD courses and grade-level content courses • NOTE: They are part of a larger group of students identified as English Learners.

8. Bilingual Students Schooled in the U.S.Long-Term English Learners • Make up the largest group of English learners in the United States (59%, in some districts in California, up to 75%) • Are second- or third-generation children of immigrants who have been in U.S schools since Kindergarten or first grade • In school 5 or more years without reaching sufficient English proficiency to be reclassified. (Usually Intermediate on CELDT, BB & FBB on CST) • Have developed strong oral language skills • Reading and Writing are weak • May have some literacy skills in their primary language

9. Long-Term English Learners, con’t. • May appear to have similar academic needs of native speakers, however: • They are still acquiring the English language: syntax, grammar, structures and vocabulary that native speakers have due to the fact that they were born into homes where English is spoken • Many are passive and do not participate in class • They lack significant chunks of background knowledge

10. Proposed Definition of Long Term English Learners • An English Learner who has continuously been in United States school for 6+ years, has not met reclassification criteria, and shows evidence of inadequate progress towards meeting that criteria. • (e.g. stagnation or loss of proficiency on CELDT, missed benchmarks two years in a tow, grade point average of 2.0 or lower, receiving two or more Ds or Fs in core academic courses, or lack of progress on the CST Language Arts or Math)

11. Underlying causes of becoming a L-TEL • Have been in districts with inconsistent programs • Have been is schools with inconsistent programs • Have not had a strong English Language Development class or no ELD class, with or without appropriate materials • Have been in a reading program in English with materials that were not developed or adapted for use with ELs • Have been immersed in English receiving little or know primary language support

12. Current Services for LTELs • Inappropriate Placement: placed in mainstream or newcomer classes • Unprepared teachers: usually just CLAD • Limited access to a full curriculum: over-assigned in Intervention or Reading Support classes • Inadequate data systems to track EL progress • Lack of monitoring by administrators

13. Recommended Program Based on Study Results • ALD/ELD along with a grade level core ELA class • Clustered placement in heterogeneous core classes • Focus on academic language in content courses (SDAIE/SIOP Strategies) with instructional rigor • Native speaker classes • Flexibility in Master Schedule • Focus on study skills and time management

14. Recommended Program Based on Study Results • 7. Data chats with students • 8. Emphasize the importance of CELDT test • 9. Opportunties for student voice and student leadership development • 10. Inclusive and affirming school climate; build relationships • 11. Explicit language and literacy development across the curriculum • 12. CELDT preparation

15. What are the implications for your work? • Discuss the key points and determine what the implications of Long Term ELs means to your work? • Questions? • Comments?

16. Resources • http://mas.lacoe.edu • Reparable Harm, www.californianstogether.org • Starlight, www.elresearch.org • www.alliance.brown.edu • Preventing Long-Term ELs: Transforming Schools to Meet Core Standards, Margarita E. (Espino) Calderon and Dr. Liliana Minaya-Rowe • Freeman, Y. S., & Freeman, D. E. (2002). Closing the achievement gap: How to reach limited- formal-schooling and long-term English learners. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.