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Foreword

Creating and Sustaining Equitable Schools with English Learners

Research published by the Wallace Foundation and others has shown that next to teaching, leadership is the school-related factor that most contributes to what students learn at school. Good principals serve as multipliers of effective teaching. Higher quality principals correlate to lower teacher turnover and increased teacher satisfaction, with greater impact in disadvantaged schools (2004).

As a parallel with the Wallace findings, the data about educational change and accountability in underserved EL communities paint a stark picture of the challenge facing schools today. The challenge for principals in schools with high multilingual/EL populations is not just about making good decisions, which is daunting enough. They must also manage often emotionally charged issues among faculty and community. The state of many of these schools calls for a dramatic shift in approach to EL achievement and school success. The shift must begin with a thorough understanding of the federal laws that protect the civil rights of ELs, then, build upon these to go from compliance to excellence (Calderón, 2012-19; Slakk & Calderón, 2020).

For the past ten years, I have worked with U.S.D.0.J. as an expert to help them identify issues that needed guidelines for coming into compliance. It was evident that they mostly lacked knowledge of ELs’ civil rights laws. Even after the Dear Colleague letter (USDOJ/USDOE January 7, 2015) was sent to all school districts across the country, very few became familiar with the intent of its guidelines. Fewer could figure out where to start the necessary changes.

Fortunately, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos recently announced that the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Education will launch the Outreach, Prevention, Education and Non-discrimination (OPEN) Center to focus on proactive compliance with federal civil rights laws. The OPEN Center will provide assistance and support to schools, educators, families, and students to ensure better awareness of the requirements and protections of federal non-discrimination laws. While they gear up, the field has this great book to start examining and moving toward creating and sustaining equitable schools with English Learners.

It was a pleasure reading this book that contains the basic information school principals need to support English learners. It goes through the 10 guidelines issued by the Dear Colleague letter in uncomplicated ways, offering many practical examples, scenarios and tools. The Dear Colleague letter also became the cornerstone of ESSA EL accountability. Therefore, it behooves all school leaders to become familiar with its contents and implications by discussing the chapters of this book.

The book begins with a whole chapter on student identification processes. The coverage of the cumbersome process of differentiating between proficiency levels and dually identified ELs/Special education ELs provides examples and ways to facilitate implementing this process. It touches on program models but Chapter 2 elaborates on the program models by differentiating models for special populations such as newcomers, elementary, middle and high schools. Dr. Cooper discusses approaches to scheduling in the high school to ensure that required services are offered. The chapter touches on other DOJ/DOE guidelines: staffing and staff development and parental engagement. Scenarios and checklists will help committees consider new ways of addressing compliance.

Bruce Joyce and Beverly Showers (2002) wrote about the importance of quality professional development that includes theory presentation, modeling, practice and feedback during a comprehensive initial training, followed by classroom coaching. In order to ensure transfer from training or any professional learning, collegial observations and feedback appear to have the most impact on teachers’ instructional delivery and student learning. Their work has been replicated continuously with great effects. However, most schools spend their professional development funds on the trend-of-the-day workshop or send educators to conferences of their choice. Too often, there are no systematic plans for comprehensive whole-school learning, and funds for coaching, collegial planning, co-teaching planning, and lesson development are overlooked.

It was gratifying to read Chapter 4 because it discusses how a comprehensive professional learning plan can be developed beginning with a cycle of inquiry followed by a set of action steps. Dr. Cooper goes into specifics for preparing a needs assessment. Moreover, a set of questions, examples, and scenarios guides the reader in developing the learning plan. The chapter provides good suggestions to schools that are struggling with data. There are also examples for supporting teachers that include coaching, co-teaching, common planning time, and teacher self-assessments that lead to career-long practices. Dr. Cooper recommends some traditional professional development programs but also states that it is not a comprehensive list. Therefore, the process suggested for developing the school’s learning plan promises to be more effective.

The final chapter lays out ways of reaching out to parents and sustaining their engagement. As with other chapters, it also spells out and dovetails with the requirement by DOJ-DOE. School engagement with parents of multilingual students, particularly non-English speaking parents, has been one of the most difficult challenges for schools. This chapter provides solid ideas for reaching out to parents.

Useful tools for planning or revamping a plan called “What would you do” and “Bringing it all together” appear at the end of each chapter. These sections summarize key ideas, followed by a set of questions for reflection. All in all, this is a great book for revisiting existing EL plans and making sure all are addressing compliance.

Margarita Espino Calderón

President/CEO, Margarita Calderón & Associates, Inc.

Professor Emerita, Senior Research Scientist

John Hopkins University, Graduate School of Education

References

Calderón, M. E. (2012-2019). Recommendations for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on the Delivery and Materials for Preparing Teachers and Administrators on Effective Instruction for ELLs: Reports to the United States Department of Justice. Washington, DC: USDOJ.

U.S. Department of Justice & U.S. Department of Education (2015, January 7). Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-el-201501.pdf

Joyce, B., and Showers, B. (2002). Student achievement through staff development (3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Leithwood, K. Louis, K.S., Anderson, A. & Wahlstrom, K. (2004). Review of research: How leadership influences student learning. New York, NY: The Wallace Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/pages/a-review-of-research-how-leadership-influences-student-learning.aspx

Slakk, S., & Calderón, M. E. (2020). From compliance to excellence. In D. Alpert (Ed.), M. E. Calderón, M. G. Dove, D. S. Fennter, M. Gottlieb, A. Honigsfeld, T. W. Singer, … , D. Zacarian, Breaking down the wall: Essential shifts for English learners’ success (pp. 21–45). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.