Learning the Language

Book Aims to Make Research on ELLs Accessible

2010-02-09T17:40:15Z

If you liked the article that researcher Claude Goldenberg wrote a couple of years ago about how teachers and administrators can apply research on English-language learners in the classroom, you might like the new book he's co-authored that has the same goal. In Promoting Academic Achievement Among English Learners: A Guide to the Research, Goldenberg, an education professor at Stanford University, and co-author Rhoda Coleman aim to provide an "accessible account of the research base on English-learners." Coleman is a senior research fellow at the Center for Language Minority Education and Research, which is housed at California State University, Long Beach.

The book is scheduled to be released in April by Corwin Press and is expected to sell for $31.95 in paperback.

As was true of Goldenberg's article back in 2008 in the American Educator, his new book spells out what research does, and doesn't, say about ELLs. I believe that's one of the greatest strengths of the book, which focuses on interpreting the results of two comprehensive research reviews on English-learning (here and here) for regular folks like me.

I read the first chapter in the book, which argues that teachers and administrators need a guide to research because they aren't relying enough on research to decide what kinds of programs and practices to implement with ELLs. I also read the fourth chapter, which focuses on what research says about teaching oral language, which is receiving renewed attention in the field. Research studies show, for example, a correlation between strong speaking and listening skills in English and strong reading skills in the language. "Most surprising," write Goldenberg and Coleman, "is how little research there is examining the effects of different approaches to oral English-language development."

The chapter on oral language concludes with some concrete recommendations, such as that teachers should emphasize academic language, not just conversational language. Another recommendation says that English-language learners should have a separate time block in the day to focus on developing their English sklls. That last recommendation is backed with research on young children, but the authors said they didn't know of any studies that had looked at whether middle and high school students also benefit from a separate block of time for English-language development.

The book drives home how many gaps still exist in the research base on what works best for ELLs. For example, the authors say that researchers know "remarkably little" about the effectiveness of various approaches to teaching a second language, such as whether the "natural approach" or "audio-lingual method" is better. The authors conclude on this point that "we believe that direct, or explicit, teaching methods should be given serious consideration, primarily because of how critical academic language proficiency is."

For the time being, it seems then that a lot of decisions about instruction for ELLs will have to be made based on beliefs rather than proof of what works. The message from Goldenberg and Coleman is that teachers and administrators should at least apply the research findings that the field's got.

Oregon Officials Say Portland Programs for ELLs Are Still Lacking

2010-02-08T16:51:56Z

The Oregon Department of Education continues to keep Portland schools from receiving some of its federal funds, saying the district must fix its programs for English-language learners.

A story published Feb. 7 in the Oregonian says that Oregon officials have sent a letter to the Portland school district saying it has fixed some of the problems spelled out in an audit last year but laying out other new issues that need to be resolved. One of the new problems reportedly is that ELLs are being exited from programs without proof that they have learned English.

The article says that the chairwoman of the parent advisory council for Portland's English-as-a-second-language department has filed two complaints with the U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights concerning the district's programs for ELLs.

As you can tell from my last blog post, some people in Massachusetts would like something similar to happen with Boston public schools: for federal funds to be withheld until the school district would meet certain conditions for improving its services to ELLs.

Feds Asked to Withhold Race to Top Funds From Boston

2010-02-08T16:30:07Z

Latino advocacy groups asked U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan last week to ensure that the Boston school system doesn't get any Race to the Top funds until it brings its programs for English-language learners into compliance with federal laws. The Boston school district would stand to receive federal stimulus funds if Massachusetts gets its application for such funds approved.

Lawyers from Multicultural Education, Training, and Advocacy, Inc., an advocacy group for ELLs based in Somerville, Mass., sent a letter to Secretary Duncan on Feb. 3 expressing "deep concern with the ongoing history of violations of the basic civil rights of Latino and other English-language-learner students in the Boston Public Schools." The letter was also signed by representatives of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Latino Justice, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and the National Council of La Raza.

The letter asked Secretary Duncan not to transfer Race to the Top money to Boston schools unless it improves its programs for ELLs in several ways, which were spelled out in an attached letter that had been sent to Massachusetts Education Commissioner Mitchell D. Chester on Dec. 30. Among the points for improvement are that the school system would ensure that all ELL students who haven't been receiving special help to learn English would be identified and receive such instruction by a certified English-as-a-second-language teacher by September of this year. Another point is that Boston should hire no fewer than 120 certified ESL teachers over the next three school years, starting with 30 ESL teachers this school year.

A state review of the programs for ELLs in Boston two years ago found them to be seriously lacking. See the Boston Globe's take on the situation in a story published last Friday. Back in April 2009, I blogged about a study that showed the dropout rate for ELLs in Boston's public schools increased significantly from 2003 to 2006.

Boston public school officials sent me a statement on Friday saying that the school system is making "significant investments" in students who are learning English and is committed to providing services to such students. The statement said that school district officials hope that Race to the Top funds will help the school system to accelerate student achievement. "Advocating for Boston not to receive Race to theTop funds puts future investments for all of our students at significant risk," it said.

A spokesman for the Education Department sent me an e-mail message saying that Secretary Duncan had received the request from Latino advocacy groups and that the Education Department's office for civil rights "will carefully review the request."

Arizona Lawmakers Consider ELL Bill

2010-02-04T17:08:05Z

A bill is making its way through the Arizona legislature that would permit some schools to opt out of the state's required program for English-language learners, the Arizona Capitol Times reported this week. So far it's been approved by a House committee in the state legislature.

In 2007, state legislators approved a law that required schools to teach all ELLs in separate classes focused on English skills for four hours a day. Some schools would like to use alternative programs for ELLs that they believe are more effective.

Tom Horne, Arizona's Superintendent of Public Instruction, has argued consistently that the four-hour program is working because the rate that school districts are re-classifying English-learners as fluent in the language has increased since they've put it in place. It's interesting that the story in the Arizona Capitol Times quotes a state education official, John Stoller, who says he is open to working with school districts so they have more flexibility.

The story doesn't mention the fact that the effectiveness of the four-hour program mandated by the state is also being considered by a federal U.S. district court judge in the long-running court case, Horne v. Flores. In that case, parents from the Nogales Unified School District argue that programs for ELLs aren't adequately funded in Arizona. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. district court had not adequately considered "changed circumstances" regarding ELL programs in the state, and sent the case back to that court for re-examination.

I hope soon to take a closer look at the four-hour program for ELLs in the pages of EdWeek.

How Does a Parent's Arrest and Deportation Affect Children?

2010-02-03T17:10:32Z

Within the first six months after immigrant parents are arrested, their children's study habits tend to slip and their academic performance starts to suffer, says a study released this week by the Urban Institute (hat tip to ImmigrationProf). But in the long run, children show both positive and negative changes in school, the study says, as some seem to benefit from the routines of school, which contrast with the uncertainty of their home lives.

The 80-page report, "Facing Our Future: Children in the Aftermath of Immigration Enforcement," relays in detail how children in 85 families responded to their parents' arrest in six communities. Most children experienced emotional distress. Six months or less after an immigration-enforcement action, more than half of children in the study cried more often and were more afraid that previously. About two thirds of the 190 children in the study experienced changes in eating and sleeping habits.

In the short run, school performance also tended to slip for such children. A 2nd grader in Miami, for example, whose father was arrested in their home and deported, wasn't doing his homework five months after the arrest, the report says. But in the long run, some children whose parents were arrested were doing okay in school, the researchers found. The report tells about a 4-year-old attending a preschool program who was well adjusted in school one year after her immigrant mother was arrested.

The report calls for changes in immigration laws so that the circumstances and interests of the children of immigrants, particularly those children who are U.S. citizens, are taken into account. The report says that minor children who are U.S. citizens should be able to petition for their parents to attain legal permanent status. Among other recommendations, the report says federal immigration authorities should give family members greater access to arrested immigrants during their processing and detention.

Human Rights Watch released a report late last year saying undocumented immigrants who are detained are often transferred to remote jails in Texas or Louisiana, far from lawyers who can help them and from family members.

New Book: Teaching Language and Content at the Same Time

2010-02-03T15:15:26Z

The ASCD has published a book with practical guidance for how teachers can help English-language learners increase their knowledge of English while they're also learning content. I've skimmed the copy of the book that arrived at my desk here at EdWeek and see it's not a book that cites the research base for the strategies it promotes. Rather, it gives classroom examples of how various teaching strategies can work with ELLs.

For example, the book tells how in a 5th grade social studies class, when a student didn't know what a blockade was, the teacher selected a student to wear a sign that said "British ship" and another student to wear one that said "Union ship." The student with the "British ship" sign stepped outside of the classroom. The teacher then asked the student with the "Union ship" sign to show he was blocking his peer from reentering the classroom and explained that the Union ships created a blockade to keep British ships from bringing food to the Confederate states during the American Civil War.

Hey, whatever works!

Judie Haynes, a teacher of English-as-a-second-language for 29 years and a co-author of the book, put a link on Twitter that permits one to access some of the book's chapters for free. She's also written a description of the book here.

Groundhog Day's Edition of the English-Learning Carnival

2010-02-02T17:05:06Z

Lots of folks saw the groundhog's shadow today, and are predicting six more weeks of winter. One way to pass the time while you're cooped up, avoiding the cold, is to browse the new edition of the English-learning carnival, just posted at Teacher Reboot Camp. As usual, it has lots of posts on how to improve instruction for ELLs.

Phila. District Offers Callers a Language Hotline

2010-02-02T14:25:34Z

When I called the Philadelphia school district recently, I heard a message on the voice-mail system saying that if I wanted to speak with someone in a language other than English or Spanish, I could "press 1 for a language hotline."

That was the first time I learned of a school system having a message on its voice-mail system telling callers that interpreters are available in languages other than English or Spanish. It occurs to me, though, that the message may not be as useful as it seems, given that a caller has to know enough English to understand the gist of the message to get to the hotline.

I asked Fernando Gallard, a spokesman for the 161,000-student district, for more information about the interpretation services. He said district headquarters has in-house interpreters for Spanish, Chinese, Khmer, Nepali, and Russian. Otherwise, the office of translation and interpretation services oversees telephone interpretation for services in nearly 180 other languages.

Formalizing translation and interpretation services is one way that I've seen school districts improve over the years in making connections with parents who are immigrants.

Ed. Department Pays for Creation of Test in Spanish for ELLs

2010-02-01T15:37:20Z

A couple of new research projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences indicate that the Obama administration may be more active than the George W. Bush administration was in exploring how schools can draw on students' native languages to help them to learn English as a second language. Many people working in the field of English-language acquisition have observed that the Bush administration steered away from funding research or disseminating information that supported the use of students' native languages. Russell Gersten, a researcher who headed up a panel that produced a practice guide for the education of ELLs commissioned by the Bush administration, for example, said the panel deliberately avoided a discussion about bilingual education in the guide, which I noted in Education Week. But education officials did host one conference toward the end of President Bush's presidency that featured several presentations about the educational method.

In March, the Institute of Education Sciences awarded researchers at the University of Virginia a $1.6 million grant to create a test in Spanish that can be used to gauge the early literacy skills of English-language learners. Marcia Invernizzi, a professor of reading education at the University of Virginia who is working on the project, told me that she interprets the grant as a sign that the federal government has become more open to supporting education tools in students' native languages that can facilitate the acquisition of English. "A few years ago, it wasn't politically acceptable, but now we're coming around," she said.''

In the round of grant awards given out by IES in March, the Education Department also funded a project called ESTRELLAS (which means "stars" in Spanish), which includes the use of Spanish translation as one aid for adolescent English-language learners to read electronic texts in English.

At a conference of the National Title I Association late last month, Invernizzi and Karen Ford, a research scientist at the University of Virginia, described how use of the Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening, or PALS, test that they are developing in Spanish will help teachers to tailor their reading instruction for Spanish-speaking ELLs. They explained that the test in Spanish is intended for children in grades K-3 who are being educated in both bilingual and English-only settings, and it can be administered by teachers who don't speak Spanish themselves.

The aim is to identify early literacy skills in Spanish that teachers can build on with individual students. Teachers of reading in English, for example, can start some ELLs at a higher level of reading instruction if they know that the students have already acquired certain skills in Spanish. The researchers said that many of the existing tests in Spanish for assessing ELLs' reading skills aren't adequate because they are translations of English tests and haven't taken into consideration differences between the languages. Invernizzi mentioned that some of those translated tests, for example, assess reading fluency by giving children the same amount of time to read a series of words in Spanish that they would have in English. That doesn't make sense, she said, because Spanish words have more syllables on average and thus more time is needed to read the same number of words in Spanish than in English.

The IES grant for the PALS test is for $1.6 million over four years.

Thelma Melendez Talks About When She Was an English-Learner

2010-01-29T16:50:59Z

Thelma Melendez, the assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education for the U.S. Department of Education, had teachers who understood her academic potential and others who underestimated her knowledge and ability, she told educators attending a conference of the National Title I Association last week.

Melendez added her personal story about starting school as an English-language learner during a presentation about reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act, which didn't focus on ELLs and stuck to the Education Department script on priorities for a revamped law. (My colleague Michele McNeil has already written about how Melendez tends to adhere to the Education Department's script).

She showed a photo of her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Silverman, and said that "she never made me feel any less important than any other child." But Melendez said she had a bad experience in 1st grade, when her teacher put her in the lowest reading group, and she was forced to review the alphabet all year long. Her parents were concerned about the placement and told the principal that Melendez could already read in Spanish, but the principal said she belonged in the lowest-level group. Her parents transferred her to another school where the educators recognized her ability and put her in the second-highest reading group, she said.

As a high school student, Melendez had a dream of attending the University of California, Los Angeles, and she asked a high school guidance counselor if she could succeed there. Melendez recalls that the counselor sized her up and said "absolutely not."

Melendez attended California State University, Los Angeles, but she didn't give up on her dream of going to UCLA. At Cal State, she asked her political science professor, "Do you think I could make it at UCLA?" The response, she got, Melendez says, was "absolutely."

Melendez transferred to UCLA and graduated with a degree in sociology.

At the conference session, she didn't say much to interpret her story to the educators in the audience, except to say, "I graduated from UCLA cum laude and almost didn't get to go," implying that they have a job to do in encouraging students to reach their educational dreams, not discourage them.

Melendez was superintendent of California's Pomona Unified School District before being tapped by the Education Department for her post.

The Education Department sent Supreet Anand, who oversees grants from Title III, the section of the No Child Left Behind Act authorizing funds for English-acquisition programs, to the conference to talk about use of federal funds for ELLs. The Obama administration has not yet appointed anyone to head up the office of English-language acquisition in the department, which traditionally has been the person devoted to federal policy issues concerning ELLs and the public voice on matters affecting such students.

Mexican Government Helps Mexicans Integrate into the U.S.

2010-01-28T17:00:16Z

The Mexican government makes a concerted effort to help Mexican immigrants become integrated into U.S. society, according to a paper I received in my e-mail inbox today. The paper describes the work of the Institute for Mexicans Abroad (Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior, or IME), which is a department in Mexico's ministry of foreign affairs, to aid Mexican immigrants with health care, education, and financial literacy.

I've heard Mexican officials talk over the years about how they give free Spanish textbooks to Mexicans living in the United States and facilitate opportunities for Mexicans to finish their high school degrees through distant learning after they've moved to this country. But the paper, published by the Migration Policy Institute, is the first comprehensive description I've seen of what services Mexico's government provides to Mexicans who leave their home country for the United States.

The paper mentions the LUCHA program, a partnership between Mexico's ministry of public education and the University of Texas at Austin, that provides high school students with online courses in Spanish. LUCHA, which I wrote about for EdWeek last school year, also helps U.S. high schools get student transcripts from Mexico and analyze them. It also mentions agreements Mexico has with some states to provide teachers to U.S. schools, which I've also written about for EdWeek.

But the paper has a lot of information that is new to me, such as that Mexico gives grants of up to $15,000 to organizations that provide adult education to Mexican immigrants in the United States or that it has an initiative to educate Mexicans to use the formal banking system in the United States.

EdWeek's 'Spotlight' Shines on ELLs in the Classroom

2010-01-27T13:47:27Z

Education Week has put together a set of articles as part of its Spotlight series that focus on English-language learners in the classroom. It contains four articles, a chat transcript, and three commentaries that were published by Education Week or edweek.org over the last few years.

One aspect that I really love about my job is observing in classrooms and trying to convey to readers what schooling is like for an individual English-learner, particularly when it's in a classroom where the instruction seems really effective. I usually ask to "follow" a couple of ELLs around their school for at least half a day whenever I have a chance to visit a school district (I learn as much about a school district when I follow kids around as when I tag along with administrators.) Two of the articles in the Spotlight collection are based on classroom visits. Others focus on research-based strategies or tools, such as technology, that can be used in the classroom to reach ELLs.

The online package costs $4.95. EdWeek previously put together a Spotlight on teaching and assessing ELLs.

Will U.S. Schools Receive an Influx of Haitians?

2010-01-26T14:10:23Z

Since the earthquake in Haiti, some educators in Florida have been preparing for the possibility that they could receive a large number of Haitian students who are trying to flee the devastation in their country, according to stories by news media in Florida (here and here).

Whether schools in the United States receive an influx of refugees from Haiti depends on what U.S. immigration policies will be for Haitians. Already we're reading in newspapers about how processing for some adoptions of Haitian children were sped up after the earthquake for the well-being of the children. The Washington Post reported this week that the federal government is receiving pressure to change immigration policy so that other survivors of the earthquake can come to the United States. The Post also recently reported that at least 75 percent of schools in Port-au-Prince were destroyed (Update: CNN reports today that 90 percent of the city's schools were destroyed.)

Janet Napolitano, the U.S. secretary of homeland security, has announced that Haitians who were living illegally in this country before the earthquake can stay in this country for 18 months. But she's also said that Haitians coming to the United States without documents after the quake will be turned back.

It will be interesting to see what decisions the Obama administration continues to make regarding this matter.

The Migration Policy Institute has released a profile of Haitians living in the United States. The country has about half a million Haitian immigrants. More than 70 percent of Haitians live in Florida and New York.

Readers Weigh in on RTI and English-Learners

2010-01-25T17:20:37Z

Readers have posted thoughtful critiques of a story I wrote about the implementation of "response to intervention" with English-language learners in the Chula Vista Elementary School District in California that edweek.org published on Friday.

Chula Vista educators believe that response to intervention, an approach to providing extra help to struggling students with the aim of reducing referrals to special education, has helped to dramatically increase test scores for ELLs in the school district.

I didn't cite in the article the numbers for the climb in test scores. In 2009, 47 percent of English-learners in the district scored "proficient" or above on California's English/language arts test, up from 20 percent in 2004. In 2009, 60 percent of English-learners scored proficient or above in math, up from 31 percent in 2004. The achievement gap between ELLs and all students in the district remained about the same for much of that time period, but narrowed from last year to this year. For example, the gap between the percentage of ELLs and all students scoring proficient or above in math decreased from 14 percentage points to 8 percentage points from 2008 to 2009.

Stephen D. Krashen, a professor emeritus of education at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, suggests in a comment that Chula Vista may have some English-language learners in programs who should not be in the category. He's certainly right that test scores of ELLs aren't very meaningful unless we also have information about how a school district identifies students as ELLs and what criteria it uses to move students out of the category. In California, district officials have discretion to create their own criteria for deeming students fluent in the language, and thus the criteria can differ between school districts or from school year to school year in the same school district.

The reader who calls himself or herself "Curious" makes an observation that the story is missing information about the school district's regular program for English-language development. I write in my article that "teaching language through academic content" is a big part of schooling in the district, but I don't give details about the training educators who work with ELLs have received or say much about specific lessons ELLs get in English-language development in Chula Vista.

California requires any of its teachers who have ELLs in their classrooms to have received training to work them. I should have mentioned that in the story.

The two schools in Chula Vista I visited set aside blocks of time each day for ELLs to receive lessons in English-language development. The point I was trying to make in the article is that Chula Vista educators have worked hard to improve regular classroom instruction for ELLs through response to intervention. For some background information about RTI and ELLs, refer to a research brief published by the Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English-Language Learners.

This isn't the last you'll hear about RTI and ELLs. At a session about ELLs at a conference of the National Title I Association last week, U.S. Department of Education officials were pitching a Power Point presentation they've posted on how to use various streams of federal funds for response to intervention. The presentation tells how money from Title III, the section of the No Child Left Behind Act authorizing money for English-language-acquisition programs, can be used for the educational approach.

Resource: A Ning for Teachers of English-Language Learners

2010-01-20T14:31:47Z

Lydia Breiseth, the manager of the Colorin Colorado bilingual resource site hosted by the public radio station WETA, has started a Ning for teachers of English-language learners. So far it has 15 members, and I bet you can guess who at least one of them is: Larry Ferlazzo who keeps up on the latest technology that can be used to support the education of ELLs.

A Ning is a type of social networking site. I learned something about the potential of a Ning to reach a lot of people when I was seeking teachers who read aloud to middle- or high-school students on the English Companion Ning, which has 10,755 members. I put a post on that Ning asking for teachers who read aloud to contact me, and I received more than 250 responses.