Alignment of Academic standards with ELL Proficiency Standards - Essay Example

  Alignment of Academic standards with ELL Proficiency standards   Alignment of Academic standards with ELL Proficiency standards The standard based reform began with the release of a report called “A Nation At Risk: The Imperative for Educational Change or Reform”. The commission was formed to investigate into the American education system in order to identify why the American education system was failing and that students could not simply perform jobs that the Nation needed to be done. The commission knew that the government played an important role in the education of the minority, gifted, poor, and disabled and language minority. President Reagan was looking at scrapping education department but the commission rallied on by arguing for its expansion. The state and federal government have provided money to aid in the education of students with disabilities (Arizona Department of Education, 2008). President Bush in 2000 proposed what is famously known as “No Child is Left Behind,” which needed all students to meet or attain set strict standards. The federal policy stated in the no child is left behind that ELL students be included in State assessments and measure or assess the language proficiency of students with reliable, valid assessments in areas reading and writings skills and oral language. In addition, the educators were to consider comprehension, reading, writing, listening and speaking skills of students. These assessments were to help students gain academic achievements as required by States. The main objectives of these assessments were to be designed to assess academic English. Under the no child is left behind act, it was stated that all students had the ability to reach their minimum competency level as long as the teachers were committed to their work. According to Arizona Department of Education (2008), in most cases standards are defined they are applied as a sieve and expectations are lined on the individual. In public education sector there is the notion that intelligence can be taught in that if the student fails to meet the requirements, the teacher or school is blamed for dismal performance of the student. The state and federal government want to attain standards at all cost but in real sense do not. Arizona department of education states that the main objective is to ensure that high school graduates in the country have rough knowledge and skills they require for a career or college. The converse of this objective should be that those students who do not have skills and knowledge for a career or college would not graduate high school. For instance, if there two tests for certain things and the two tests distinctively; both or one tests are ignored. A single test is an ideal indicator high school graduate can reason from. The TESOL lays out the standards and goals to students from K-12, which is the standard for ESL. Through understanding the whereabouts of students, where they should be and should go, teachers effectively cater for the materials that deal with the level of the individual’s proficiency in English. For instance, a student who can afford to range in the third grade may just be an English proficient to the first grade. The teacher can only realize through standards that the learner scoops. Therefore, the teacher can in an artistic manner incorporate a second grade to boost the low performers and review the previous topic in class. The trailing students can be boost through administration of extra homework to sustain the pace the in–class pace. Programs such as the Students Accountability for the Information System developed in Arizona allows the teachers to store information that is relevant to the academic progress of education department in Arizona. Furthermore, teachers can create portfolios for the students to help keep the work sample for future review. The teachers can then create a flow chart due to the clear standards laid progressively (The SIOP Institute). Therefore, the SAIS system and the introduction of portfolios ease the process of checking progress. This helps the students to realize their weak points and how to improve it. They can do this through acquisition of reviews, which contains relevant resources that can boost their struggling nature. Due to the presence of the different standards, teachers have a varied choice for their specific subject matter. Most ELL students learn English at the elementary years where a teacher is squarely responsible for all the subjects because other students tend to learn English and at the same time with the specialized teachers. If teachers are allowed to focus on some standards, they can serve the students better without taking away from the standards of the content required. In this regard, English standards, which may cause problems to the students, can easily be resolved by different varieties of English. The teacher can easily help a student learn and master relevant and particular skills instead of dealing with irrelevant materials. In education, standards are very vital as they define the necessity for the students to learn particular academic levels and language acquisition. Those students with ELL learn two aspects at the same time; academic and language (The SIOP Institute). The two tracks have independent standards, which can be easily mixed and matched basing on the individual needs of the students. Fear to fail and money are the limiting factors to maintain high standards of education. Due to the high set standards of the government, it may not be easy to acquire these standards considering academics and language offered in a short time frame. Relatively, 100% graduation is significant as compared to the high academic standards. In conclusion, the standard based reform revolutionalized American education system in that the plight of all students was put into consideration thereby improving proficiency level. In addition, the TESOL system lay standard for ESL in that through comprehension of learner’s ability, teachers were in a position to provide materials that catered for students needs thus improving English proficiency. SEI is not a method; it is a program that exists in Arizona and Illinois. This paper has dealt with sheltered instruction methods to support the learning of English learners and simultaneously support teachers in best meeting the needs of a new demography or students. Although high stakes testing carries much weight, for educators there are possibilities to meet federal and state regulations by cautiously and consciously planning lessons that provide students with multiple opportunities to be successful and apply language in content context. References Arizona Department of Education/Standards and Assessment Division. (2008). Arizona academic standards. Retrieved from http://www.azed.gov/standards- practices/common-standards/ Arizona Department of Education. (2008). Office of English language acquisition services. Retrieved from http://www.ade.az.gov/oelas/ The SIOP Institute. Retrieved from www.siopinstitute.net Read More