«Back
Q&A with Jennifer Hammett-Sanchez
English Language Development Program Director
Jennifer joined PartnersSI in February 2006 to
lead our English Language Development Initiative—a three year
effort, supported by the S.H. Cowell Foundation and Morgan Family
Foundation, to improve the quality of education for English Learners
in our schools and develop best practices to disseminate to the
field. Prior to joining PartnersSI, Jennifer worked in the San
Francisco Unified School District for thirteen years, in the district
Bilingual education office and as a Spanish bilingual classroom
teacher. She has also taught CLAD certification courses through
the district and ELD and SDAIE Methodology courses through San
Francisco State University. In 2003 Jennifer earned her National
Board certification in English as a New Language. In addition
to holding a BCLAD Spanish Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential,
she holds an MA in International and Multicultural Education.
Less than 25% of English Learners in California are reading at
grade level. This statistic is mirrored in our partner schools
in San Jose and San Francisco.
What do schools and districts
need to do to improve English Learners' education?
This is an important question that we are all grappling
with. First of all we need to take a comprehensive approach to
educating ELs and recognize that no one component will address
the problem. I will attempt to answer this question as a strong
proponent of quality and "sequential" biligual education, even
though I recognize that most ELs in the state of California are
taught solely in English. The following are a list of some educational
components to improve the education of ELs:
a. Strong primary language arts instruction (literacy
taught in the primary language) where teachers focus on grade
level standards
b. Strong sequential instruction in transferring
primary language literacy skills to English literacy skills, while
continuing to develop and reinforce primary language literacy
skills
c. Strong English Language Arts instruction focusing
on grade level standards
d. Strong English Language Development instruction
geared toward students' English language proficiency levels
e. Strong content instruction (math, science, etc.)
in the primary language and in English focusing on grade level
standards
f. Strong school/teacher/parent communication by
which parents are not only informed of grade level standards but
also provided specific strategies on how to help their children
master these standards. Communication should be conducted in the
parent and student's primary language regardless of the student's
program placement, English-only or bilingual.
g. Ongoing monitoring of student progress or formative
assessments that guide teacher instruction
What steps have schools
and districts taken to meet English Learners' needs? What's missing?
The answer to this question is complicated and goes
back to the first question. Many districts and schools have taken
on some of the components to educating ELs and ignored other essential
elements, such as focusing on English Language Arts without addressing
the linguistic needs of their EL students. On the other hand,
districts and schools may have taken on well-intended "initiatives"
that don't always translate into high-quality teaching or student
achievement.
What are some of the things
PartnersSI has done through its English Language Development Initiative
to fill these gaps?
PartnersSI successfully implemented a more systematic
approach to ELD at select research and development schools in
San Francisco and San Jose to improve the quality of teaching
and accelerate EL achievement. In the first year of the initiative,
we were able to accelerate English Learners' performance, quadrupling
the state average, as a result of the new knowledge and skills
we brought to our schools.
What still needs to be
done?
A great deal of work still needs to be done! We
need to continue to increase teacher knowledge on high-quality
English Language Development and Language Arts (literacy) content
as well as instructional delivery. We also need to work with our
PartnersSI bilingual schools to implement strong and consistent
bilingual programs with the academic acceleration of English Learners
as the focus. In order to to do this, we need to work with schools
to infuse all of the essential components to educating ELs.
How will this impact PartnersSI's
partner schools and districts? Other schools and districts throughout
the state?
That's a great question! As we continue to refine
our approach to be more effective, our goal is to make gains in
student learning that translate to more English Learners reading
at proficient or advanced levels on the California Standards Test
and being successful throughout their education. If the data reflects
our expectations, then we can provide step by step guidelines
to educating English Learner students that other schools and districts
can replicate.
Articles in this issue (Sep 2007):
| |
|
