About NDTAC

1. Cultural and Linguistic Competency: Strategies for Establishing a Learning Environment based on Students' Needs

2. About NDTAC • Contract between U.S. Department of Education and the American Institutes for Research • John McLaughlin Federal Coordinator, Title I, Part D, Neglected, Delinquent, or At Risk Program • NDTAC’s Mission: • Develop a uniform evaluation model • Provide technical assistance • Serve as a facilitator between different organizations, agencies, and interest groups • Join our listserv at: http://www.neglected-delinquent.org/nd/forms/listserv1.asp

3. Cultural and Linguistic Competency: Strategies for Establishing a Learning Environment based on Students' Needs • Presenters: • Carlos Rodriguez, Ph.D. • American Institutes for Research • Ana Diaz-Booz • Principal, School of International Business (SIB), • Kearny High Educational Complex • San Diego, CA

4. Statement: ELLs who speak English are ready to be mainstreamed. This is a myth. • Oral communication skills are not the same as academic language skills needed for classroom success. • Gaps in vocabulary and syntactic knowledge may hinder future academic progress.

5. Statement: Most ELLs have learned English by middle and high school. This is a myth. • Among language-minority students, roughly 51% of those who spoke English with difficulty failed to complete high school, whereas only 18% of those who spoke English very well did not complete high school.

6. Cultural & Linguistic Competency Carlos Rodriguez, Ph.D. American Institutes for Research

7. ELL Students Defined • Between the age of 3 and 21 • Enrolled or preparing to enroll in K-12 • Speak a native language other than English or comes from an environment where another language is dominant • Have difficulties in speaking, reading, writing, or understanding the English language so as to deny the individual: • The ability to meet the state’s proficient level of achievement on state assessments (described in section 1111(b)(3) of NCLB) • The ability to successfully achieve in classrooms where the language of instruction is English (Source: Section 9101 of Title IX)

8. ELL Student Outcomes in K-12 • ELL placement is often associated with • Increased likelihood to dropout of high school (Kanno & Cromley, 2010) • Decreased likelihood to advance to postsecondary education (Kanno & Cromley, 2010) • Not being prepared for postsecondary education opportunities (Callahan, 2010) • If ELL students attend PSE, they are • More likely to attend 2-year colleges • More likely to enroll in non-credit earning courses (e.g., ESL courses and developmental/remedial courses) • Less likely to persist in college (Kanno & Cromley, 2010)

9. Hispanics in the US—A Rapidly Growing Population Source: US Census Bureau, Census 2000

10. ELL Education Policy • Anchored in Federal legislation, Supreme Court decisions and State laws since the 1970s • Intended to Equalize Educational Opportunity by reducing achievement barriers due to language ability of children

11. MYTH: All ELL Students are Immigrants • About 57 percent were born in the United States, while 43 percent were born elsewhere • Levels of language proficiency, socio-economic standing, academic expectations, and immigration status vary by student • No one approach or policy that will meet the educational goals and needs of this population

12. MYTH: Non-English speaking children have learning disabilities rather than problems with language acquisition • Children can be misdiagnosed as having a learning disability • Overrepresentation of ELL students in special education has been linked to the size of the ELL population as the lack of adequate language support programs • Oral language proficiency may take 3 to 5 years to develop where as academic language proficiency may be developed over 3 to 7 years

13. MYTH: Schools should provide English-only instruction because they do not have the capacity to meet the needs of all linguistic groups • ELL students need home language support over the 4 to 7 years that academic English can take to develop • Those who have had at least 4 to 7 years of dual language schooling outperform comparable students in monolingual programs • Supporting a child’s first language while teaching English would include an enrichment bilingual/ESL program that addresses the full spectrum of students’ developmental needs

14. Culturally and Linguistically Competent Educational Approaches • Professional staff need to be well trained to meet the needs of ELLs • Students with limited English proficiency are often the least likely of all students to have a teacher who is actually prepared to instruct them. • Native speakers are essential if students are non-English speakers • Programs for ELL students need to address the unique cultural characteristics of these students, their families, and their communities

15. Effective ELL Instruction • Differentiates instruction • Includes the use of the native language • Provides explicit language instruction in both languages • Prepares teachers with enough knowledge of primary and secondary language acquisition to anticipate potential barriers to ELL students’ comprehension

16. ELL Instruction Clarified • ELL Instruction is NOT simply providing translations or speaking slower and louder • ELL instruction is grounded in developing communicative competencies to develop cognitive and academic growth

17. Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Standards (CLAS) “A set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals that enables effective work in cross-cultural situations.” • Issued by DHHS in 2000 • Correct inequities that exist in provision of health care services for a diverse population • Provide the first national and uniform approach to educate primary health care providers in cultural competencies

18. CLAS Themes • Culturally competent care • Relationship between client and provider, i.e., educator and student • Language access services • Organizational supports for cultural competence • How the environment is organized

19. Cultural Blindness Culturally-blind agencies are characterized by the belief that helping approaches traditionally used by the dominant culture are universally applicable; if the system worked as it should, all people --regardless of race or culture --would be served with equal effectiveness.

20. Culturally and Linguistically Competent Educational Approaches • Engage students in challenging, theme-based curriculum to develop concept development • Draw on student’s background—their experience, cultures and languages • Organize collaborative activities and scaffold instruction to build students academic proficiency • Create confident students who value learning and themselves

21. Culturally and Linguistically Competent Educational Approaches Understand these basic concepts when working with ELL students: • Comprehension precedes production • Comprehension emerges in stages and it varies by each individual student, therefore, differentiation of instruction is required

22. Effective Strategies for Supporting English Language Learners School of International Business (SIB) Kearny High Educational Complex San Diego, CA Ana Diaz-Booz, Principal

23. School of International Business (SIB)Site Information • Located in urban San Diego • 465 Students (total students at complex - 1850) • 75% qualify for free or reduced lunch • 45% Latino, 17% African American, 14% Vietnamese, 14% Caucasian • 34% English Language Learners (ELL) • 80% of ELLs test at the “intermediate” or below level on the California English Language Development Test (CELDT)

24. Results of ELL Program • Highest Academic Performance Index for ELs in the district – 50 points higher than the average • 94% Graduation Rate

25. Strategy #1 • Know your students as individuals • with distinct needs

26. Specific Supports for ELLs • Immediate Identification and proper placement • Regular monitoring of academic progress • Engagement of parents in primary language whenever possible • Cultural awareness

27. Strategy #2 Provide the school structure to best support English Language Learners

28. Specific Supports for ELLs • Allocate more resources/personnel to the students with the highest need • Balance class sections so that ELLs have many strong models of English around them • Provide spaces and equipment that “force” teachers and students to interact • Openly discuss the need to support ELLs with all students

29. Strategy #3 Choose teachers carefully and train them well.

30. Specific Supports for ELLs • Start building teacher capacity during the hiring process • Place the most skilled teachers with ELLs • Incorporate participation strategies for daily teacher-student and student-student interaction

31. Specific Supports for ELLs • Provide staff development that explicitly teaches the “how” • Implement a curriculum that truly incorporates literacy strategies across the curriculum • Work with teachers on obtaining and analyzing individual student data