English Language Learners RTI, Referral, and Evaluation Considerations

1. English Language Learners RTI, Referral, and Evaluation Considerations Eliana Lesser, Ph.D., School Psychologist Lourdes Diaz-Frias, Ed.S., School Psychologist

2. States with the Highest Increases in Limited English Proficient Children in PK to 5th Grade,1990–2000 Sources: U.S. Census of Population and Housing, Integrated PUMS, 1990 and 2000.

3. Languages of LEP Students

4. National Center of Educational Statistics • The number of Hispanic students in the nation's public schools nearly doubled from 1990 to 2006, accounting for 60% of the total growth in public school enrollments over that period. There are now approximately 10 million Hispanic students in the nation's public kindergartens and its elementary and high schools; they make up about one-in-five public school students in the United States. • The vast majority of Hispanic public school students (84%) were born in the United States. *Pew Hispanic Center Publication 8/26/2008

5. Factors to Consider • Studies continue to demonstrate pervasive academic difficulties of students who enter US schools with a primary language other than English (over 50% score in the bottom third in reading and mathematics according to the National Center for Education Statistics, 2005)

6. Balanced Curriculum

7. Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills • Social language that is less culturally demanding • Requires a relatively low level of listening comprehension and expressive skills • May develop between 1 to 2 years

8. Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency • Involves having necessary language for cognitively demanding tasks • This would include developing a broader vocabulary and proficiency that would allow one to deal with abstract linguistic messages and develop literacy skills • It is required accelerated cognitive and academic growth • Has been shown to develop within 5 to 7 years

10. Bloom’s Taxonomy • Knowledge: arrange, define, duplicate, label, list, memorize, name, order, recognize, relate, recall, repeat, reproduce state. • Comprehension: classify, describe, discuss, explain, express, identify, indicate, locate, recognize, report, restate, review, select, translate, • Application: apply, choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret, operate, practice, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write. • Analysis: analyze, appraise, calculate, categorize, compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test. • Synthesis: arrange, assemble, collect, compose, construct, create, design, develop, formulate, manage, organize, plan, prepare, propose, set up, write. • Evaluation: appraise, argue, assess, attach, choose compare, defend estimate, judge, predict, rate, core, select, support, value, evaluate.

11. Balanced Curriculum for ELL • Development of BICS does not mean the student is no longer undergoing the process of second language acquisition • ELL students need cognitively challenging instruction and explicit modeling of cognitive strategies to acquire CALP and to continue to make progress into grade-level curriculum • Thus instruction need to be challenging and geared towards higher order thinking

12. World Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) Consortium • Shift in ESOL instruction • Curriculum with greater emphasis on CALP not BICS • Teaching “language” within the context of an academic language content for students to achieve CALP • Examples: Algebraic equations, area, volume, infer, predict, analyze, etc…

13. Changes in Student Support Process RTI Response to Intervention

15. Response To Intervention • Universal screening for early identification of at-risk students (ESOL included) • Research based effective interventions following a Tier process • Progress monitoring • Preventive rather than wait-to-fail approach

16. Difficulties with RTI • Quality of general education instruction (Tier 1) • Early identification versus over identification (particular issue for ethnic-minority, low income) • Resources for implementation of interventions with intensity and fidelity (strategies versus interventions) • Determining what is adequate progress (benchmark, growth, discrepancy slope) • Variations in populations, contextual and cultural factors

17. RTI and ESOL • Who is responsible for the interventions? • What kind of Interventions should be done? • What is the impact of language acquisition in learning? • Are criteria’s for responsiveness, non-responsiveness the same for monolingual students and bilingual/ESL students?

18. Who is Responsible? • Interventions can be accomplished in different settings depending on the needs of the student • The ESOL teacher should be involved at every step of the RTI process • The general education teacher and ESOL teacher need to work in tandem in order to insure the appropriateness and efficacy of the intervention(s). • The General education teacher and ESOL teacher need to coordinate their schedules so the student is not missing critical instruction.

19. Research is scarce, but initial finding suggest that RTI is not only appropriate but necessary in order not to increase the gap between student’s achievement and standards/benchmarks

20. When should we become concerned about the progress of an ELL student? When the student’s rate of progress contrasts markedly with ELL peers with similar backgrounds in the classroom. When the student shows an unusually slow and problematic second language acquisition process despite ESOL instruction and ELL classroom strategies.

21. When there are articulation problems in the native language and/or articulation difficulties in English that differ from an “accent.” • When difficulties are noted in Fluency (stuttering) • When the student demonstrates poor voice quality (voice is vastly different from peers).

22. Effective Instruction for ELL students • Reading, writing, listening and speaking need to be taught in an integrated manner because they have complex relationships of mutual support. • Listening and Reading are receptive while speaking and writing are productive • In a natural environment these functions are intertwined and interrelated • Practical use of each of these processes provides for the overall language development in English

23. What kind of Interventions should be done? • Interventions should be selected based upon area of most critical need. • Example: If student is struggling with Reading- What specific area of reading is the student struggling with? (Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, or Comprehension).

24. According to Gottardo (2002), both Reading and Phonological Awareness skills in the first language have been found to be unique statistical predictors of reading in the child’s second language. • Supporting literacy and language skills in 1st language provides a base for successful literacy development in the second language (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1988).

25. Particularly at the word-level reading, research indicates that direct instruction, that is explicit teaching of phonological awareness, letter-sound relationships, and decoding, are particularly effective for both ELL and monolingual students, especially when implemented in the context of meaningful experiences in engaging text (Haager, 2007). • This is true even before they have complete control of the language orally.

26. In all K-12 classrooms across the U.S., ELLs need significant opportunities to engage in structured, academic talk • Independent reading is only beneficial when it is structured and purposeful, and there is a good reader-text match

27. Reading instruction recommendations for ELL (Escamilla, 2007) It is important that teachers know something about the student’s first language, even if it is not going to be used for instruction Process approaches to learning (e.g. reader’s workshop) are less effective for ELLs than interactive and direct instructional approaches Fluency, decoding and phonological awareness are important; however, MEANING should be at the center of all literacy instruction even at the beginning levels of reading instruction

28. When teaching high frequency words, start with words that are concrete and to which meaning can be attached (e.g. dog, want) Teach ELLs to comprehend, speak, read, and write English simultaneously Literacy instruction should not be delayed while ELLS acquire oral English language Give opportunities for children to develop oral language Daily lesson plans should include language goals beyond vocabulary

29. For beginner ELLs, Language Experience Approaches (LEA) are beneficial because student’s own language becomes the basis of what is read Use the child’s native language strategically in literacy instruction as a scaffold Development of English needs to continue even for advanced ELLs who are labeled fluent speakers Teachers need to understand the difference between background knowledge and cultural schema Literacy instruction for ELLs can be enhanced by using cultural familiar text in English

30. Math Interventions • Researchers have conceptualized mathematical proficiency as having five interdependent strands each influenced by multiple factors. • Conceptual understanding: comprehension of mathematical concepts, operations, and relations; • Procedural fluency: skill in carrying out procedures flexibly,accurately,efficiently, and appropriately;

31. Strategic competence: the ability to formulate, represent, and solve mathematical problems; • Adaptive reasoning: the capacity for logical thought, reflection, explanation, and justification; and • Productive disposition: the inclination to see mathematics as sensible, useful, and worthwhile, coupled with a belief in diligence and one’s own efficacy.

32. Math Interventions cont. • Academic language is as central to mathematics as it is to other academic areas. It is a significant source of difficulty for many ELLs who struggle with mathematics. • ELLs need academic language support to understand and solve the word problems that are often used for mathematics assessment and instruction.

33. Recommendations for Serving Adolescent Newcomers (Center on Instruction) • Mastery of Academic language is the key to academic success. This includes oral language, reading comprehension, and expository writing. • Teachers need to have two objectives for all lessons: one for content learning and one for language and literacy learning. • Effective instruction requires systematic assessment of strengths and weaknesses and ongoing monitoring.

34. Vocabulary instruction should focus on both breadth (how many words) and depth (how well the students know the meanings of a word). • Students need to be taught vocabulary through explicit, systematic, extensive, and intensive instruction. • It is important to determine if a student needs to learn a new label or a new concept. • Teachers should focus on general-purpose words that are sophisticated in meaning and appear in a variety of academic texts (for example, analyze, abstract, etc.)

35. Direct teaching of vocabulary (word meanings in meaningful contexts) should be balanced with word learning strategies, such as breaking down words, using context, dictionaries, glossaries, recognizing cognates (30% of English words share common roots with words in Spanish), etc.

36. ELL students need direct instruction in reading comprehension in multiple contexts and across different types (genres) of text. • Reciprocal teaching (teacher models four critical strategies for reading comprehension: questioning, clarifying, predicting and summarizing, and slowly transfers responsibility to students working in small groups) have been found to be effective for ELLs. • Students with word reading difficulties need systematic interventions in phonics.

37. ELL students need writing instruction integrated with academic language and reading comprehension. • ELL students need to be taught the steps of the writing process (pre-writing, drafting, revising). Explicit grammar taught in isolation has not been shown to be effective. • Heterogeneous groupings, that allow newcomers to work with more advanced ELLs and English speakers are very effective.

38. Standardized Tests were not designed to measure growth in specific areas. • A successful method to measure reading growth has been shown to be Curriculum Based Assessment that measures Oral Reading Fluency and Reading Accuracy (Shinn, 1989). • Modifying the language of test questions (avoiding jargon, or unnecessarily complex sentence construction) can increase ELL performance by up to 20% (Abedi & Dietel, 2004)

39. How do we know if the student is making adequate progress? • The student should be progressing at a rate that will eventually close the gap that exists between his peers and himself. His peers should be students of similar background (ESOL student’s rate of progress should be compared to the progress of a “typical” ESOL student of similar background).

40. Tier 4 Referral Considerations • When the student shows little or no progress in school despite adequate and intensive interventions/teaching for an appropriate length of time. • When there is a history of learning problems in previous schools (including native country) and/or in the family. • When there is a history of speech and language delays/problems in the native language.

41. Data Available prior to Referral • WAPT, ACCESS (number of years receiving instruction, rate of progress, areas of weakness within profile) • GKAP-R, CRCT, ITBS, COGAT • IMI, DIBLES, DRA, RR, running records, grades • Progress monitoring • Qualitative information (anecdotal information and comments on report cards) • BACKGROUND INFORMATION

42. School Psychologist Role • Help facilitate the RTI process • Review and interpret data available during RTI meetings • Propose possible strategies and interventions • Follow-up or clarify background information • Assist teachers with implementation and data collection, as necessary

43. Evaluation process • 60 days from parent consent to eligibility determination • Observations • Obtain additional information from teachers and parents (informal and scales) • Assessment

44. Monolingual English General Cognitive Ability Achievement Processing (memory, speed, attention, etc.) Social and Emotional, as needed Background information English Language Learner Language Proficiency Cognitive Ability (Nonverbal vs. Verbal) Achievement (English and L1 when appropriate) Processing (L2 and L1 when appropriate or possible) Social Emotional, as needed Thorough background Psychoeducational Evaluation

45. Language Proficiency • Oral language development in L1 and L2 (when available) • Bilingual Verbal Ability • CALP (vocabulary, synonyms/antonyms, memory, and verbal reasoning)

46. Some helpful references • http://www.centeroninstruction.org • http://www.readingrockets.org • http://www.arisek12.com • ASCD Action Tool (2007). Strategies for Success with English Language Learners. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. • Escamilla, K. (October 8, 2007). Considerations for literacy coaches in classrooms with English language learners. Literacy Coaching Clearinghouse. • Gottlieb, M., Cranley, M.E., & Oliver, A.R. (2007). WIDA Consortium: English Language Proficiency Standards and Resource Guide, Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. • Lesaux, N.K., & Siegel, L.S. (2003). The Development of reading in children who speak English as a second language. Developmental Psychology, 39, 1005-1019. • Linan-Thompson, S., Cirino, & P.T., Vaughn, S. (June 22, 2007). Determining English language learners’ response to intervention: questions and some answers. Learning Disability Quarterly. • Peregoy, S.F. & Boyle, O.F. (2001). Reading Writing & Learning in ELS: A Resource Book for K-12 Teachers. New York: Longman. • Richard-Amato, P.A. & Snow, M.A. (2004). Academic Success for English Language Learners: Strategies for K-12 Mainstream Teachers. Pearson ESL.