NCELA Newsletter: AccELLerate

Winter 2010 - Volume 2: Issue 2

Professional Development for Teachers of English Language Learners

NCELA announces the publication of a new edition of AccELLerate focusing on professional development for teachers of English language learners. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as reauthorized in 2001, places special emphasis on ensuring that every child has access to highly qualified teachers. Yet, despite continued federal, state, and local efforts to support general classroom teachers, professional development (PD) programs face many challenges, such as time constraints and the difficulty of identifying appropriate instructional strategies. We hope that the collection of articles in this issue, many of which were written by the recipients of National Professional Development grants, may stimulate productive discussion among researchers, administrators, and teachers about PD strategies that help ELLs meet achievement goals by improving the knowledge, skills, and practices of pre-service and in-service teachers. 

In this Issue:

• Wilde: Guidelines for Professional Development: An Overview
• Ryan & Garcia: The National Professional Development Program
• Coady, de Jong, & Harper: Quality Teacher Preparation for ELLs: Preliminary Findings from Florida
• Spezzini & Austin:  Collaborative Mentoring Among K-12 Teachers: Professional Development on the Effective Instruction of ELLS
• He & Prater: Collaboration in Professional Development for ELL Content Achievement
• Truxaw & Staples Math ACCESS: Building Mathematical Proficiency in Linguistically Diverse Schools
• Cervone:  Excellence for Connecticut’s English Language Learners
• Lier & Fregeau:  Sixteen Fundamentals for Successful Teachers of ELLs
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Also in this issue:

• Sharing Success: Christopher & Christenot and Garrison & Amaral ;
• Information on: PD for Teachers of ELLs: Facts and Figures, OELA , new publications from the  National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality, upcoming conferences, PD opportunities, NCELA staff; and
• askNCELA‘s Inbox. 

For the pdf version: http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/files/accellerate/8/Accellerate_2_2_final.pdf

For the html version: http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/accellerate/edition/8/

Education Week has just released "Spotlight on ELLs in the Classroom," an online collection of articles and commentaries about ELLs published in the newspaper over the last several years.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/marketplace/products/spotlight-ells-classroom.html

The Spotlight explores how schools and teachers are using innovative means to help English-language learners gain skills in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The cost for the online package is $4.95.

 Topics include:

• developing oral-language skills for English-learners
• using data to inform ELL instruction
• educating long-term English-language learners
• strategies for math instruction
• mixing students at varying levels of English proficiency
• online resources for English-language learners
• research on improving achievement for English-learners

 Also available from Education Week for $4.95 is a Spotlight on ELL Assessment and Teaching.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/marketplace/products/spotlight-ell-assessment-teaching.html

Teaching English-language learners is a complex endeavor that requires skill and patience. It is also a reality that more and more schools are facing. This Spotlight examines assessment and instruction in the everyday world of ELLs and their schools.

NCELA Call for Papers: Assessment of ELLs in K-12

The summer 2010 issue of AccELLerate!, NCELA's quarterly newsletter, will focus on the assessment of K-12 English Language Learners. We are soliciting contributions from ESL and content area teachers, state and local administrators, researchers, test developers, and others who work with this population.

Topics may include (but are not limited to) ELL assessment needs; comparability of assessments; design of efficient, valid and reliable assessment instruments; alignment of ELP standards with content-area assessments and with ELP assessments; test accommodations for ELLs; the assessment of specific language skills needed to learn effectively in grade-level content classes taught in English; comprehensive, summative assessment of English language proficiency; and alternative ways to assess the growth in the students’ English skills and content area achievement.

Full-length articles should be approximately 1,000 words, grounded in research, and be clearly and cogently written. Shorter articles can be of two types: Success Stories that are usually no more than 500 words share successful projects, programs or approaches, and Teachers’ Gems of Wisdom (around 250 words) share professional insights and best practices in teaching ELLS.

Please provide the name, title, and affiliation of all authors, as well as a contact telephone number and an e-mail address. Manuscripts should be submitted in Microsoft Word format by electronic mail and directed to Natalia Romanova, editor of AccELLerate!, at romanova@gwu.edu. Articles may be edited for length and/or clarity; you will have a chance to review an article before it is published. The deadline for submissions is April 12, 2010. 

Stanford University and WestEd Leadership Institute on English Language Learners Webinars

Stanford University and WestEd are excited to announce a live, e-Institute: “Leadership Institute on English Language Learners: Aligning Theory, Policy, and Practice.”

Kenji Hakuta and Guadalupe Valdés of Stanford University and Robert Linquanti of WestEd are nationally recognized experts in the field of English Language Learner (ELL) Education.  Join these engaging experts live online to learn how to most effectively support ELLs’ language development and academic achievement, with a focus on practical applications for improving local and state ELL educational policies, systems and practices.

The institute includes a series of nine webinars, Thursdays between 10:30am – 12:00pm Pacific (1:30pm – 3:00pm Eastern), from March 25th to May 20th 2010. Participants will strengthen their understanding of foundational issues in the effective education of ELLs, explore established and emerging research evidence and practices on the most challenging areas facing educators and policymakers, such as ELLs’ linguistic development; academic growth and achievement; and assessment/accountability aimed at improving educator capacity and performance, and leave with practical ideas that can inform the development of ELL master plans and school and district improvement plans.

We invite you to find out more information about the institute content, technical requirements, and cost at http://www.schoolsmovingup.net/einstitute/ellleadership . For questions about the institute content, technology, or registration please e-mail schoolsmovingup@wested.org or call (510) 302-4248. Share the attached PDF document with colleagues.

IRC Announces its Annual Dual U Summer Institute (DUSI)
 
The Illinois Resource Center (IRC) will once more offer a five-day institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from June 14 to June 18, 2010 for teachers and administrators developing and implementing dual language, two-way immersion programs.  This professional development opportunity is intended for all dual language stakeholders: administrators, teachers, parents, and school board members.  DUSI offers two strands: the first is an introduction to the foundations and research behind dual language education and the second is a trainer-of-trainers strand where participants will gain the expertise to use the Dual U curriculum as a professional development tool. 
 
Institute presenters include education specialists Cheryl Urow, John Hilliard and Karen Beeman from the Illinois Resource Center.  In addition, this year’s Special Guest is Diep Nguyen, Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Services for District 62 in Des Plaines, Illinois, who will present on issues related to cross-cultural education and assessment.  Diep is the co-author, along with Margo Gottlieb, of the book Assessment and Accountability in Dual Language Education Programs (Caslon, 2007) and the book will be included in the registration materials.

For further information please go to www.thecenterweb.org/irc, or contact Karen Beeman at kbeeman@cntrmail.org, (224) 366-8548 or Nora Sandoval nsandoval@cntrmail.org  at (224) 366-8541.

White Paper Outlines Strategies for Building U.S.  Language Capacity

Building the Foreign Language Capacity We Need: Toward a Comprehensive Strategy for a National Language Framework 
This paper describes the need for skilled speakers of languages other than English in the US and outlines the necessary components of an effective long-term national strategy to meet that need.

The Gaston Insitute of the University of Massachusetts published a report on English Language Learners in the Boston Public Schools in the aftermath of policy changes approved by referendum Question #2 adn Chapter 636 of MA Law. The report focuses  on the Boston schools and gives an insight to other school districts.

This report was published by A Research Initiative of the Campaign for Educational Equity, Teachers College, Columbia University.  The report identifies who are emergent bilingual, gives a brief history of US educational policies for emergent bilinguals and review of equity issues in the education of emergent bilingual. The authors of the report are Ofelia Garcia, Jo Anne Fleifgen and Lorraine Falchi. A copy of the report can be downloaded from the Equity Campain web site at Teachers College Columbia University

U.S. Government Accountability Office(GAO) Report On Teacher PreparationThis report, Teacher Preparation: Multiple Federal Eduacation Offices Support Teacher Preparation for Instructing Students with Disabilities and English Language Learners.... finds that "most traditional teacher preparation programs at insitutions of higher education require at least some training for prospective general classroom teachers on instructing students with disabilities and English language learners. While the majority of programs required at least one course entirely focused on students with disabilities, nor more than 20 percent of the programs required at least one course entirely focused on English language learners. More than half the programs required field experience with students with disabilities, while less than a third did so for English language learners. Despite recent steps by the majority of programs to better prepare teachers for instructing both of these student subgroups, many programs faced challenges in providing this training".   The full report can be found at the GAO website www.gao.gov/new.items/d09573.pdf