RTI for English Language Learners: Appropriately Using Screening and Progress Monitoring Tools to Improve Instructional Outcomes

This brief provides a framework for using Response to Intervention (RTI) with students who are English Language Learners (ELL) from Hispanic backgrounds. The first section examines the characteristics of these students; defines the RTI process; and then models how students? linguistic, cultural, and experiential backgrounds can guide appropriate screening, progress monitoring, and goal setting that will help promote English literacy. Although the majority of ELLs in the United States are Hispanic and come from Spanish-speaking homes, students classified as ELL speak more than 350 languages (Ethnologue, 2009). This brief provides an example of the RTI framework for a student whose native language is Spanish; however, the same framework may be applied with all ELLs, taking into account other culturespecific factors. Teachers will find it helpful to learn more about their students? native languages to understand the specific challenges they will face based on the similarities and differences between their native language (L1) and English (L2). Finally, this brief discusses the crucial need for systems-level changes to ensure educational equity for ELLs and other diverse student groups

BiSped: Filling a Critical Shortage Area

This article is # 18 in a larger 140 page work described here: The monograph showcases professional development projects by school districts and colleges of education that train teachers to work successfully with English learners (ELs) across the nation. The papers presented in this monograph offer real-life examples of successful and innovative practices, including institutionalized mentoring programs, new classroom methodologies, best practices for ELs with disabilities, collaboration between colleges of education and school districts, and the evaluation of PD programs. This monograph contains the following articles: (1) Professional Development in Action: Introduction; (2) The National Professional Development Program (Cynthia Ryan and Ana Garcia); (3) Guidelines for Professional Development: An Overview (Judith Wilde); (4) Facts, Figures & Further Resources; (5) Coaching and Mentoring in Practice (Mariana Castro); (6) Measuring the Effectiveness of an ESL Coaching Model (Annela Teemant); (7) Coaching and Implementation Level of English Language Learner Strategies in Teacher Practice (Janet Penner-Williams and Diana Gonzales Worthen); (8) Providing Teachers with Strategies and On-Going Support for Teaching English Language Learners At-Risk (Ramona Stowe); (9) Collaborative Mentoring among K-12 Teachers: Professional Development on the Effective Instruction of English Language Learners (Susan Spezzini and Julia S. Austin); (10) Satisfying Conclusion to a Five-Year Grant (Kristin Lems); (11) Content and Language: A Critical Overview (Phyllis Jacobson); (12) The Academic Literacy for All Project: A Professional Development Model (Holbrook Mahn and Melissa Bruce); (13) Meeting the Professional Development Needs of Teachers of ELLs (Carol Bearse); (14) Math ACCESS: Building Mathematical Proficiency in Linguistically Diverse Schools (Mary Truxaw and Megan Staples); (15) Curriculum Mapping to Support the Linguistic and Academic Development of K-6 ELLs (Linda Roth, Lisa Sells-Asch and Andrea Honigsfeld); (16) Professional Development for Teaching ELLs with Disabilities (Laurene L. Christensen, Kristin Kline Liu, and Martha L. Thurlow); (17) The Role of Professional Development in Helping English Learners with Disabilities Achieve High Standards (Jana Echevarria); (18) BiSped: Filling a Critical Shortage Area (Julie Esparza Brown and Bruce Miller); (19) School-University Collaborations for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students (Socorro Herrera and Kevin Murry); (20) Collaboration is the Key to Successful Professional Development: The STEP T for ELLs Program in Maryland (Joan Kang Shin, Lori Edmonds and Christopher Browder); (21) Professional Development in Eastern North Carolina: Collaboration in ESL (Diane Rodriguez and Jane Manner); (22) Project ESOL MIAMI: Infusing the Teacher Education Curriculum to Address the Needs of English Language Learners (Martha E. Castaneda, Amy E. Fisher-Young and Bruce E. Perry); (23) Collaboration in Professional Development for ELL Content Achievement (Ye He and Kathryn Prater); (24) National Professional Development Project for Secondary Content Teachers of English Language Learners (Holly Hansen-Thomas and Pat Casey); (25) A Conversation with Thomas R. Guskey; (26) Quality Teacher Preparation for ELLs: Preliminary Findings from Florida (Maria R. Coady, Ester J. de Jong and Candace Harper); (27) Increasing Accountability in the Preparation of Teachers to Work with English Learners: The Teacher Education English Learner Survey (TEELS) (Nadeen T. Ruiz and Albert Lozano); (28) Project EXCELL (Laureen Cervone); (29) Implementing an English as a Second Language Institute in Higher Education (Maria G. De la Colina and Barbara Davis); and (30) Abstracts from 2007 National Professional Development Grantees. (Individual articles contain figures, tables, footnotes, online resources, and references.

Ethics, Equity, and English-Language Learners: A Decision-Making Framework

This articles addresses challenges related to clinical decision-making in intervention with English-language learners and their families

Partnerships to Recruit and Prepare Bilingual Teachers

To address the need for teachers with the skills to effectively teach English Language Learner (ELL) students, Portland State University (PSU) collaborated with three Portland area community colleges and 17 school districts to develop a program to recruit and prepare bilingual/bicultural teachers. This nine-year-old program provides a career ladder for education paraprofessionals. Candidates begin their work at the community colleges or at the upper division or graduate levels at PSU depending upon their backgrounds. This article describes the program, assessment of the program, and lessons learned. To date, over 190 candidates have completed the program and 99 percent have been employed in partner school districts. Candidates, university faculty, and school district leaders express great satisfaction with the program, but they offer several suggestions for program refinement

Highly Qualified Minority Teachers: Do High-Stakes Teacher Tests Weed Out Those We Need Most?

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of standardized teacher tests as demonstration of licensure competencies for diverse candidates in Oregon and nationally. The following four areas and their accompanying questions guide the development of this paper: (1) Why would a diverse teacher workforce help close the achievement gap?; (2) What are the barriers that exist to meeting the need for diverse educators?; (3) What type of research will be needed to validate alternative assessments as viable options?; and (4) What qualities in leaders produce policies for equity? At the conclusion of this paper, the author provides a compelling example of a bilingual/bicultural teacher that successfully followed an alternative assessment option available in Oregon to linguistic minority teacher candidates whose current students are not only succeeding academically but are outperforming their peers

Response to Intervention for English Learners: Big Ideas and Myth Busters

This presentation focuses on the key features of response to intervention (RTI

A Cultural, Linguistic, and Ecological Framework for Response to Intervention With English Language Learners

This article presents information on Response to Intervention (RTI) strategies for English Language Learners. The authors present a cultural, linguistic and ecological framework for RTI and suggest that RTI needs to account for each of these factors in order to be effective. They note the importance of understanding a student\u27s language proficiency in their first and second language as well as the context that they acquired those language skills in. They examine the tier approach involved with RTI and explore how to incorporate their framework into this structure

The Use and Interpretation of the Batería III With U.S. Bilinguals

Within each classroom, many children excel academically while others struggle. Some students\u27 difficulties are such that they require placement into educational programs different from grade level core and perhaps delivered outside of general education classrooms. For many, special education programs are the lifeline to reach their innate potential. For others misplaced into special education, their opportunities may be truncated. For the past 40 years (Dunn, 1968), disproportionate representation of minority children in some disability categories has been a problem. Educators commonly ask Is a child\u27s difficulties due to language differences or a learning disability? One key area of confusion relates to the cognitive assessment of English language learner (ELL) students. While it is understandable that scores generated by English cognitive tests will not reflect an ELL child\u27s true abilities, less is known about the appropriate use of native language (Spanish) cognitive assessments. This study examined the performance of ELL general education students on the Bateria III: Pruebas de habilidades cognitivas, a Spanish parallel to the Woodcock-Johnson JJI. The performance of 34 third- and fourth-grade participants, 16 who have received native language literacy development (NLD), and 18 who have received English language development, was compared to the normative sample\u27s (monolingual Spanish speakers) General Intellectual Achievement (GIA) score, subtest and cluster scores. ANOVA and t test analyses indicated both ELL groups scored significantly lower than the normative sample on GIA, short-term memory, long-term retrieval and crystallized intelligence and higher on auditory processing. Thus, the Bateria\u27s scores from these factors may underestimate the abilities of ELL students. Correlation analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between language proficiency, acculturation and performance. No significant relationships were found. The last analysis compared subtest mean scores of the ELD group to Flanagan and Ortiz\u27s (2001) predicted pattern of performance on the Culture-Language Interpretive Matrix (C-LIM) for diverse individuals when tested on the WJ-HI. The score patterns of the ELD group did not follow the predicted pattern. A new arrangement of the Bateria\u27s subtests on the C-LIM is suggested. These findings highlight the need for more research to understand how ELL students perform on Spanish cognitive assessments

Multi-tiered Support Systems and Special Education Models for English Learners

This workshop provided participants with the opportunity to: Examine the unique factors in EL students’ background and make appropriate adjustments to instruction and interventions. Choose screening and progress monitoring tools with demonstrated reliability and validity for ELs. Make decisions on appropriate growth for each EL student in consideration of their unique contexts. Determine appropriate language of intervention in English‐only and all bilingual program models (early‐exit to dual language). Apply a framework for least biased assessment in Tier 3 that systematically considers the cultural loading and linguistic demand of assessments