"Double the Work"

On November 2, 2006, Resources for the Future hosted a seminar and panel discussion to mark the release of the report, Double the Work: Challenges and Solutions to Acquiring Language and Academic Literacy for Adolescent English Language Learners. Educational Leadership magazine editor Amy Azzam was on the scene, and sends this report from the field:

Double the Work was commissioned by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, written by Deborah Short and Shannon Fitzsimmons of the Center for Applied Linguistics, and published by the Alliance for Excellent Education. The title—Double the Work—refers to the fact that ELLs, in addition to learning content matter, need to develop proficiency in English.

Therefore, they have the double the work of native English-speaking students.
Demographer Jeanne Batalova, with the Migration Policy Institute, set the stage for the panel discussion by giving some background:

• Every year, there are 1 million new permanent residents in the United States.

• Illinois, North Carolina, and Colorado are seeing an explosion in their rates of ELLs. The fastest growth in the U.S. ELL population is occurring in the Southeast and the Midwest.

• Fifty-seven percent of all adolescent ELLs are natives, meaning they were born in the United States (they’re either 2nd or 3rd generation). They generally live in linguistically isolated families (the adults don't speak English). These large numbers of second- and third-generation students who continue to lag in English proficiency suggest that schools are not doing a good job of reaching and teaching these students.

• The years that an ELL student has spent in the United States and his or her generational status is less relevant to an ability to master English than other factors, such as mobility.

• Spanish is the leading language spoken by ELLs in the United States (70 percent), followed by Vietnamese (3.3 percent), French (3.2 percent), Chinese (2.6 percent), and Korean (1.7 percent).

• The trends for the ELL population are rapid growth, geographic dispersion, and great diversity in social and economic backgrounds.

Deborah Short, PhD, coauthor of the report, is senior research associate at the Center for Applied Linguistics and codeveloper of the SIOP Model for sheltered instruction. She identified six major challenges to improving the literacy of adolescent ELLs:

1. Lack of common criteria for identifying ELLS and tracking their academic performance. Potential solution: Define criteria, put programs in place that track these students' performance.
2. Lack of appropriate assessments. Potential solution: diagnostic assessments in both languages, large-scale assessments in the native language, testing accommodations, multiple measures to determine ELLs' literacy development, better reporting systems.
3. Inadequate educator capacity for improving literacy in ELLs. NCLB requires "highly qualified" teachers, but few teachers have any training in teaching ELLs. Traditional pedagogies are less effective with ELLs. Potential solution: PD that will help teachers teach content effectively to students who are learning academic English, more widespread use of literacy coaches.
4. Lack of appropriate and flexible program options. Potential solution: Flexible student pathways, reconsidering the type of exit exam required.
5. Inadequate use of research-based instructional practices. Potential solution: integrate all four language skills into instruction from the start, focus on reading and writing, teach reading comprehension strategies, focus on vocabulary development, build and activate background knowledge.
6. Lack of a strong and coherent research agenda about adolescent literacy. Potential solution: Fund and conduct more short- and long-term research on new and existing interventions and programs, and on the academic performance of these adolescent ELLs.

More on Adolescent ELL Students . . .

Short made some interesting comparisons--Adolescent ELLs are very different from younger ELLs in that they are proficient in their home language, are less risk-taking when it comes to learning English (they don’t want to look stupid in front of their peers), and they often are under great time pressures (babysitting siblings, working part-time jobs, etc.). Comparing ELL and non-ELL adolescents, she noted that ELLs had limited oral skills in English, were possibly semiliterate in both languages, generally were making slow but steady progress (there usually wasn’t a history of failure), had limited background in U.S. culture, and reacted well to choice in school assignments.

Promising Schools

Short discussed site visits to three schools that were particularly effective at teaching ELLs: J.E.B. Stuart High School, Fairfax, VA; Union City Public Schools, Union City, NJ; and Hoover High School, San Diego, CA. In the three schools, ELLs represent 20 percent or more of the population, the school or district has targeted interventions for adolescent ELL literacy development, staff development is job-embedded and sustained, and adolescent ELL student achievement is documented.

A moderated panel discussed some of these issues, with the following participants:

• Nancy Zelasko, Director, National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisitions and Language Instruction Education Programs, moderator
• Fred Carrigg, Special Assistant to the Commissioner for Urban Literacy, New Jersey Department of Education
• Delia Pomp, Vice President for Education, National Council of La Raza
• Roberto Rodriguez, Senior Education Advisor to Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

Here to Stay

Panelists mentioned that schools could no longer treat ELLs as a "blip on the screen," and that it requires informing people at the state and federal levels about adolescent ELL issues (the general feeling at those levels being "If you’ve done your job well at the K-3 level, then why do these kids exist?"). Also, there's a great need for compiling data on these students and tracking them as they proceed through the grades to see which programs have and haven’t been successful. Many ELL students should be able to take additional time to complete high school, if they need to.

When asked why it took so long to make significant change in this area, most respondents noted that conversations about this topic have historically been pretty emotional, and rarely based on solid data. Everyone needs to look at data instead of relying on outdated belief systems. As one panelist remarked, "The population is here, so we'd better develop the programs quick."

To download a copy of the report or for more information about the three schools profiled, go to http://www.all4ed.org/publications/DoubleWork/DoubleWork.pdf.

Report contributed by Educational Leadership Senior Editor Amy Azzam.

Related Post: "Catch-22 for Language Learners"