Closing the Proficiency Gap for English Language Learners - Literature review Example

Policy Topic 15 April Closing the Proficiency Gap for English Language Learners through Assessment Policy and Practice Introduction The English Language Learners (ELLs) has recently been reported to be the fastest growing segment of public school population. In the last decade and half, the number of English Language Learners has almost doubled to about 5 million, and by 2015, it is prospected that ELL enrollment in the U.S schools will probably reach 10 million; and by the year 2025, one out of every four U.S. public school students will an English Language Learner (Capps, Murray, Passel, & Herwantoro, 2005). Contrary to these assumptions, native-born U.S. citizens dominate in the ELL student population, with 76 percent in elementary school and 56 percent who are in secondary school being predominantly native-born Americans. In addition to this, more than half of the English Language learners in government public schools are either second or third generation U.S citizens. Out of these, it can be noted that two thirds of the ELL students come from low-income families, and three out of four English Language Learners are Spanish-speaking students. The troubling fact is that those students tend to have a low academic performance rate (Capps, Murray, Passel, & Herwantoro, 2005). The rate at which the ELL student population is growing within the U.S schools is reason enough for the U.S educators and the government policymakers to try to understand the education needs of this kind of students better. The alarming concern is the out of control achievement gap between ELL students and their English-proficient peers (Capps, Murray, Passel, & Herwantoro, 2005). The growth in the number of ELL student’s gap highlights an important missed opportunity that undermines both these students’ futures and the American competitiveness as a country, a matter that the education policy must address. Factors that have contributed to this scenario in the U.S’ public school include education policies set by the government education sector, public school leadership, teacher preparation and professional development, assessments carried out in public schools, and accountability aspect of the public schools coupled with their governing systems (Capps, Murray, Passel, & Herwantoro, 2005). The purpose of this discussion is to examine the factors that have lead to rising gap in ELL in the U.S, the state efforts to curb the proficiency gap through new standards and aligned assessments, and educator preparation and professional development changes in school- and district-level practice amongst others (Capps, Murray, Passel, & Herwantoro, 2005). Background on Policy Issue Academic English, which is different from the conversation English, involves a variety of skills such as the vast use of vocabulary commonly in academic texts but not widely used in normal conversations, the knowledge to arrange sentence structures, use of complicated vocabularies and grammar, and using paragraphing styles (Francis, Rivera, Lesaux, Kieffer, & Rivera, 2006). The ability to apply these skills is important for ELLs to perform at the same level academically with their non-ELLs counterparts. For one to comprehensively learn this type of English one has to take a period of at least four to seven years; but contrary to this, the ELLs students, particularly older, middle and high school students are unable to afford the time to acquire the required standard before they can access higher level of education. This is even made worse as few or no schools and districts have a vigorous coursework that can assist the ELLs to learn and improve English. They neither do have systems to support students who need extra time to meet the graduation requirements (Callahan, 2005). August & Shanahan (2006) indicate that strong oral mastering and literacy skills in an ELL student’s first language can help him/her in learning and developing proficiency in English language. The aspect of an ELL’s student having ability to fluently use his/her first language vocabulary skills assists them to translate those ideas into meanings in English word of which some might be similarly spelt in the first languages, as well as in literacy skills like reading comprehension, spelling English and writing English words. In a scenario where adolescent ELLs are having such skills, they might have an advantage over the younger ELLs who have not yet developed most of those skills in almost any language (Short & Fitzsimmons, 2007). Short & Fitzsimmons (2007) reiterate that for ELLs, most immigrant students who enter middle or high school with no basic knowledge of both oral and literacy skills in either English or their native language get disadvantaged. With their education experiences being disrupted in their country of origin, those ELLs students end up taking a longer period of time to master English language as they initially lack background knowledge of proficiency in both their native and the new English language(Short & Fitzsimmons, 2007). Another unique challenge that face the older immigrant students of ELLs is that, they have an obligation to adapt to a new type of school culture, learn a new language, and maintain academic standards to catch up with their non-ELLs students as they prepare for college within a short period of time, hence disadvantaging them more (Short & Fitzsimmons, 2007). Impact on Education (by scope) ELL influences education among all students that go through the system in the US. However, there are challenges that have to be overcome in order to realize achievement. Poor quality schools attended by the U.S-born ELLs and the tendency of their families to move and change school frequently may make them to face similar challenges as the immigrant ELLs in the quest to learn proficient English. However, even United States-born ELLs may face similar challenges if they attend poor-quality schools or if their families move and change schools frequently. It is common to find children in several U.S states such as California being identified as ELLs; this is a result of poor quality language development support, the use of rudimentary curriculum that is inefficient for the teaching of ELLs, and limited access to ELLs courses offerings. Olson describes that this consequently leads to students becoming long term ELLs (Olson, 2010). Lack of high-quality language-development support, use of curricula that is inefficient for ELLs and limited access to course offerings contribute to the likelihood of a student becoming a long-term ELLs (Olson, 2010). Before the Reagan Administration, the state entrusted most of the policy implementation and strategies structuring to public education system to local districts and public educators. Educators were considered experts with valuable opinions about education policy (Fowler, 2012). However, with the new policy environment, the state government has interfered with the education systems of public schools by creating policies, which are not consistent with the school curriculum and the present education system (Fowler, 2012). The Federal authorities and districts have formulated these policies without involving the stakeholders such as the public school educators, teachers, and principals, to have input in the implementation and creation of strategies to improve the education systems of those districts; in the contrary, they have sought the help of think tanks and business-minded solutions. They have rather relegated the educators as part of the problem bedeviling education system in the US, with less chance of them showing their accountability (Fowler, 2012). Another contributory factor to the ELL gap is that the majority of ELL students are native Spanish speakers; there has been an existence of an overlap between the academic challenges facing ELLs and those facing Latino students. Both the Latinos and the Spanish-speaking students lack appropriate participation in their early childhood education, unbalanced access to effective teachers, and generally poor academic preparation (Callahan, Wilkinson, & Muller, 2010). The language diversity of the other ELLs makes it hard for schools and districts to provide individualized interventions for students who speak little or less common languages like the Spanish and the Latino ELL (Callahan, Wilkinson, & Muller, 2010). The impact of the proficiency gap for the ELL students on the U.S. education system has led to the decrease of the U.S. competitiveness in on the global stage. In the beginning of the 20th century just after the era of colonization and balkanization, English became the universal language used across the world six continents. Every continent has strived to include English as a subject in their curriculum to enable their citizens to be able to interact and compete with other nationals globally either through business, scientifically, or other innovations, the increasing proficiency gap is alarming and in future, it may cause a major problem (Olson, 2010). Graduation rates in the U.S have recently been unbalanced, as students from Hispanic backgrounds, poor American families and other immigrants have recorded a low number to their ability to complete schools to the level of graduation. In relation to this, the rate of dropouts among the same students is at alarming high level compared to the best-suited non-ELL students. The illiteracy levels in the disadvantaged groups have also increased coupled with the dropouts and inability to graduate (August & Shanahan, 2006). Recommendations for Educators/Administrators/Policymakers Several recommendations have been brought forward to try to close the achievement gap for ELL students in the U.S. One of them is to incorporate strategies for improving vocabulary and other reading literacy skills. Students need a strong reading skill that eventually will enable them to access new concepts and develop knowledge across a variety of content areas. The English Language Learning students normally find it hard in their quest to acquire such skills, as they are getting to adapt to a new language. In spite of this, it has been researched that a good reading instruction for the no-ELLs is also as effective to them as it is to their counterpart ELLs (Short & Fitzsimmons, 2007). ELLs need a consistent, focused and an early introduction to develop and improve their vocabulary and other important skills in the English language; they need this more than the non-ELLs do in order to boost their proficiency. Schools and educators should find new methods to involve more instruction targeted at developing vocabulary and other proficiency skills in order to assist both the ELL students and non-ELL students who find it difficult to master academic vocabulary (August, D., & Shanahan, 2006). Improve Access to High-Quality Academic Assessments for ELLs is another initiative that school districts should focus on, and should develop structures to enable them track ELL’s progress regularly and review the data consistently. School should use variety of assessments such as formative classroom assessments to every English Language Learning students who is enrolled in advanced classes and graduation rates. Francis, Rivera, Lesaux, Kieffer, & Rivera (2006) have recommended that the U.S government should allow a standardized testing to be done in the student’s native language. The high test for short people should be stopped as it makes the ELL students to lag behind; the government should implement the new ELL’s collaborative recommendations on AMAO (Francis, Rivera, Lesaux, Kieffer, & Rivera, 2006). The State should administer assessment to a new ELL student in mathematics other than make them do the traditional reading, while schools and district should be made accountable for this. This can only succeed if there is improvement to the current state of assessment which is not comprehensive enough (Francis, Rivera, Lesaux, Kieffer, & Rivera, 2006). There should be adequate educator preparation and professional development. Effective educators should be trained on how to work with a diverse student body, with emphasis on ELLs. Capps, Murray, Passel, & Herwantoro (2005) note that teachers should be trained on instructional approaches, knowledge, and skills designed to make academic content accessible to ELLs; they should all undergo training in Sheltered English Immersion certification (SEI). It has been recommended that it will be a condition that will be required to be fulfilled by teachers in order to enable them renew, extend, or advance their licenses (Capps, Murray, Passel, & Herwantoro, 2005). During layoffs, districts should take it as their responsibility to shelter those teachers with Sheltered English Immersion certification. Teachers should also receive an ongoing professional development, which is based on differentiated instruction, shelter instruction, use of data assessment, and support of the acquisition of new language (Capps, Murray, Passel, & Herwantoro, 2005). Conclusion In conclusion, the closing the proficiency gap for English Language Learners through assessment policy and practice due to poor education systems and policies among others in the U.S. can only be reduced or even eventually closed if the state applies appropriate assessments and consults education stakeholders before it implements its education policies. As noted in the above discussion, the demand for ELL is increasing the US as more and more immigrants enter the country and as the world becomes a global village. Therefore, proper policies should be put in place to ensure that the gap between the ELLs and non-ELLs is reduced significantly. Educators should be well trained and developed to cope with diversity of population seeking English language proficiency. It is worth noting that majority of ELLs are non-native Americans, especially the Spanish and Latinos who find it difficult to communicate in English. Therefore, it would be important to enhance their native language acquisition and proficiency as a stepping-stone to developing competence in English language. All in all structure in education system should allow standardization in order to ensure ELL students have a fair learning environment just like their non-ELL counterparts. Educators should also use standardized assessment procedures that not only provide quality academic review but also are convenient to every ELL student. References August, D., & Shanahan, T. (2006). Developing Literacy in Second-Language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth. NJ, USA: Erlbaum. Callahan, R.M. (2005). Tracking and High School English Learners: Limiting Opportunity to Learn. American Educational Research Journal, 42(2), 305–328. Callahan, R., Wilkinson, L., & Muller, C. (2010). Academic Achievement and Course Taking Among Language Minority Youth in U.S. Schools: Effects of ESL Placement. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 32 (1), 84-117. Capps, R., Murray, F., Passel, J., & Herwantoro, S. (2005). The New Demography of America’s Schools: Immigration and the No Child Left Behind Act. Washington, D.C, USA: The Urban Institute. Fowler, F. C. (2012). Policy Studies for Educational Leaders: An Introduction. NY, USA: Pearson publishers. Francis, D., Rivera, M., Lesaux, N., Kieffer, M., & Rivera, H. (2006). Practical Guidelines for the Education of English Language Learners: Research-Based Recommendations for Instruction and Academic Interventions. Portsmouth, NH, England: Center on Instruction, RMC Research Corporation, Olson, L. (2010). Reparable Harm: Fulfilling the Unkept Promise of Educational Opportunity for California’s Long Term English Learners. CA, USA: Californians Together. Short, D., & Fitzsimmons, S. (2007). Double the Work: Challenges and Solutions to Acquiring Language and Academic Literacy for Adolescent English Language Learners. 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