Disclaimer

This website was created during non-work hours using donated software, hardware and web hosting. It is intended for discussion, modification and eventual adoption by the Roseville Joint Union High School District (California). Until such process is completed, the opinions expressed on this website are the opinions of the author alone.

Improvement Initiatives

Alignment with District Goals

The Consolidated Programs Office seeks to support the district goals by improving the quality of instruction, parent involvement and program management.

Specific Goals

All of the district goals are important. Some are more pertitnent to English Learners than others. These are presented here. The full set of district goals can be downloaded below.

    1. Increase by 3 percentage points in every subgroup the number of graduates who complete a-g requirements.
    4. Increase by 5 percentage points the number of students achieving proficiency (C or better) in every course.
    6. Meet mandated Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) targets with every significant subgroup on 10th grade California High School Exit Exams (CaHSEE).

Download the complete list of RJUHSD Goals

See Appendix 21 for a list of goals and supportive actions.

ELD Program Alignment with Roseville High Goals

The Consolidated Programs Office seeks to support the district goals by improving the quality of instruction, parent involvement and program management, Download the Roseville High Goals

Improving Instruction

Well defined plans for improving instruction, and goals of improving state testing scores were highly correlated with improved performance on state tests (Williams 2007). It is therefore imperative that the department carefully delineate our improvement plans.

The staff of the Consolidated Programs Office and the ELD/SDAIE teachers recognize that the improving student performance is a multifaceted endeavor. We support the district goals as a magnet program housed at Roseville High School, we support the Roseville High goals.

Our efforts at improving instruction include the following:

  • Improving daily classroom instruction
  • Adopting AVID strategies in the classroom
  • Extensive training of language aides
  • Parent education as exemplified by PIQE and "Yes We Can!"
  • Improving parent involvement through community outreach
  • Improving alignment with ELD standards and ELA standards through the PLC process
  • Continued professional development with adequate follow-up activities
  • Improving program management
  • Seeking grants to reduce the "digital divide"
  • Incorporating best practices for reducing the achievement gap

In our efforts to improve instruction, the following proposals have been made:

  • Training of trainers for the SIOP instructional framework. (Download the proposal here.)
  • Adoption of Marzano and SIOP strategies through the PLC process. (Download the proposal here.)
  • Creation of a summer training institute. (Download the proposal here.)
  • Creation of a mobile writing lab based on Neo laptops.
  • Training of trainers for the Nurtured Heart approach for motivating and encouraging students

Creating Systems for Student Support

The ELD Department at Roseville High wishes to develop systems of support for the students. The initiative for improvement includes:

  • Better utillization of the lunch-time tutoring opportunity.

Improving Program Management

The English Learner Coordinator is taking steps to improve program management using the following sources:

  • Norm Gold and Kendra Kendall's workshops focused on Managing Excellent English Learner Programs workshop series (2008-2009).
  • Norm Gold's workshop on writing a master plan for English Learners
  • Consultation with managers from Hewlett Packard and Kaiser Permanente
  • Using the PLC process to improve communication and to establish a common set of program goals

Data Collection and Analysis

In line with the challenges outlined in chapters 8 and 9, the district will improve its data collection and analysis capabilities in the following ways:

a) Improve the collection of data from the clientele students and families to better assess the students educational background and L1 literacy.

b) Improve the database query capabilities to create 1:1 download records of student data. For example, a query of a student's CELDT scores could be downloaded in a way to determine each students year-over-year progress as measured by the CELDT. The current query and database capabilities do not provide this measure.

c) The district will improve its internal and external customer service orientation and delivery to eliminate the perceived bias against English Language Learners. Specifically this includes (1) responding to pertinent emails concerning English Learners, and (2) providing services to students and personnel concerning English Learners regardless of any biological, statutory or perceptually-based classification of students.

Role of Language Aides

The department is actively reviewing and redefining the role of the language aides. The traditional model has been to place the aides in ELD and SDAIE classrooms. We are reviewing the effectiveness of this role, and are taking the following improvement measures:

  • Training in educational theory
  • Training in Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English
  • Training in AVID strategies
  • Training in community outreach, including a shift in job roles to include more community outreach.
  • Training in theories of motivation
  • Training in the use of technology in an educational setting
  • Change in personnel management to ensure that all staff adhere to district and state testing requirements and expectations
  • Change in personnel management to ensure that all staff adheres to district protocols and procedures

Communication

The department seeks to improve its communication with other district entities. It proposes a district-wide expectation of responsive two-way communication.

The department also requests the district establish effective upward channels of communication that can be accessed without fear of retribution.

The department welcomes performance reviews, and has established an annual performance review by its clientele and colleagues which seeks realistic feedback and provides for honest, anonymous feedback.

Research

Research literature affirms the importance of training to promote success in administrators, teachers and staff (Howard 2007). Program effectiveness is tied to how well the faculty's professional development needs are aligned to the strategies and goals of the instructional program (Howard 2007).

The staff development initiatives we seek to promote will adhere to the following research-based features:

Features of Effective Professional Development

Professional development is aligned with goals and strategies of the program, specifically focusing on

• Language education pedagogy and curriculum

• Materials and resources

• Assessment

• Development of professional language skills in the partner language

• Educational equity (particularly with regard to high expectations for all students)

• Dual language theory and models

• Second language acquisition and biliteracy development

Staff are encouraged to

• Examine their own beliefs and practices in light of theory and the school's vision and goals

• Conduct teacher research to reflect on instructional strengths and shortcomings and to consider how strategies work in some contexts but not others

A variety of types of professional development are provided, including

• Mentoring and teacher trainers

• Partnerships with university teacher training institutions to align coursework and provide internships

• Teacher study groups

• Retreats to make decisions about the model or curriculum

• Training for non-teaching staff

• Professional development collaborations with district middle and high schools

The range of possible targeted outcomes they identify are:

• knowledge or awareness of educational theories and practices, new curricula or academic content

• positive attitude changes, for example towards their own role, different groups of children and aspects of the curriculum

• the development of skill, for example in designing and delivering questions

• transfer of training and 'executive control' - generating consistent and appropriate use of the new skills and strategies in classroom practice. This, the authors stress, is the critical point at which staff development impacts on student achievement

The coaching component of staff development can result in up to 95% transfer of new skills into practice (Hord 1994) All staff development supported by the department will be designed in alignment with the research on effective staff development (Hord, 1994).

References

California Department of Education. English Learner Instrument (Including NCLB). 2011. Accessed at www.cde.ca.gov/ta/cr/documents/el201011c.doc on 14 October 2011

Gawande, Atul. The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. Metropolitan/Holt (2009)

Hord, Shirley M. Staff Development and Change Process: Cut from the Same Cloth. Issues about Change. Volume 4 Number 2. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL). http://www.sedl.org/change/issues/issues42.html (accessed January 6, 2010).

Howard, E. R., Sugarman, J., Christian, D., Lindholm-Leary, K. J., & Rogers, D. (2007). Guiding principles for dual language education (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. http://www.cal.org/twi/guidingprinciples.htm (accessed October 21, 2009).