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Building Teacher Capacity to Support English Language Learners in Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants
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Building Teacher Capacity to Support English Language Learners in Schools Receiving School Improvement Grants

NCEE Evaluation Brief
Published: Nov 30, 2014
Publisher: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance
Human Services Education Literacy and Numeracy

Associated Project

The Study of School Turnaround

Time frame: 2009-2014

Prepared for:

U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences

Authors

Andrea Boyle

Laura Golden

Kerstin Carlson Le Floch

Jennifer O'Day

Barbara Harris

Sarah Wissel

Key Findings

Key Findings:

  • Few schools reported leveraging staffing strategies to improve teacher capacity for serving ELLs. Administrators in 3 of the 11 schools reported considering ELL expertise and experience when hiring classroom teachers, while respondents in 2 of the 11 schools reported that teachers’ ELL expertise and experience purposefully factored into assignment of teachers to specific classrooms.
  • Most teacher survey respondents (54 to 100 percent) in all 11 schools reported participating in ELL-related PD during the 2011–12 school year. On average, teachers reported that ELL-related PD accounted for less than 20 percent of their total PD hours.
  • Teacher survey respondents in schools that reported a greater PD focus on ELL-related topics, such as instructional strategies for advancing English proficiency or instructional strategies to use for ELLs within content classes, also generally appeared more likely to report that PD improved their effectiveness as teachers of ELLs.

The Study of School Turnaround examines the improvement process in a purposive sample of 35 case study schools receiving federal funds through the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program over a three-year period (2010–11 to 2012–13 school years). This brief focuses on 11 of these SIG schools with high proportions of English Language Learner (ELL) students (a median of 45 percent ELLs), describing their efforts to improve teachers’ capacity for serving ELLs through staffing strategies and professional development (PD).

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