Читать книгу Navigating the Common Core with English Language Learners - Sypnieski Katie - Страница 14

In 2009, an effort to develop the Common Core State Standards was launched by state education leaders in 48 states, two territories, and the District of Columbia, through their membership in the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).37 The Common Core State Standards were released in June 2010 with the intention of establishing what students at each grade level need to know and be able to do in math and English Language Arts in order to graduate from high school ready to succeed “in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live.”38

Upon their release, states began their own processes of reviewing and adopting the new standards. Public controversy over the development and implementation of the Common Core emerged, and many questions, particularly about how to effectively implement and assess the standards, were brought to the forefront by parents, students, teachers, researchers, and policy makers. Many educators worried that the national standards were being touted as a silver bullet. They questioned whether the resources to train teachers in the new standards would be there or if the training would result in any value for their students. Other concerns were raised about how these standards would be assessed and the links to big profits that publishers and testing companies were sure to make. At the same time, other educators, including the leadership of major teacher unions, voiced their support for the new standards. They supported Common Core's focus on critical thinking and deeper learning instead of drills and memorization, and felt that the standards provided room for teachers to use professional judgment in implementing them.39, 40

Despite the controversy, 43 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the CCSS.41

The remaining states are developing their own set of “college and career ready” standards that seem to be very similar in intent to Common Core, but with different wording.42 They are also similar to international college and career readiness standards, and the authors of the CCSS state that the standards are “informed by other top-performing countries to prepare all students for success in our global economy and society.”43

For us, based on our years of teaching, we would have identified many other problems facing our students and schools as higher priorities over the lack of national standards. We are all for having our students be “college and career ready,” but we're not sure that the socioeconomic infrastructure is there yet to support students, teachers, and schools in meeting the Common Core standard's definition of that state of readiness. But, we live in the world as it is, not as we would like it to be, and therefore we feel the need to develop strategies to make Common Core standards work for our students, their families, and our schools.

Common Core Assessments

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education awarded grants to two consortia of states to develop new assessments aligned to the CCSS. PARCC – Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (http://www.parcconline.org) and SBAC – Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (http://www.smarterbalanced.org) both received four-year grants to develop new content assessments that follow the guidelines below:

• Be valid and reliable

• Support and inform instruction

• Provide accurate information about what students know and can do

• Measure student achievement against standards designed to ensure that all students gain the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in college and the workplace.44

Federal law requires that ELLs participate in these state assessments annually in English language proficiency, reading/language arts, and mathematics.45

ELL students in their first 12 months of attending school in the United States are entitled to a one-time exemption from the state's English/language arts assessment, but not the math or science assessments.46 However, a number of states have sought waivers that would extend the “test-free” period to two years.47 At the time of this book's publication, Florida and Connecticut were the only states whose waivers were approved.48, 49 In December, 2015, Congress passed The Every Student Succeeds Act to replace No Child Left Behind. At the time of this book's publication, the new law's impact on these regulations was still unclear. Updated information will be available at Larry's blog under The Best Resources for Learning about the Next Generation of State Testing.50

No matter what exemptions may or may not be granted, the reality is that the vast majority of English Language Learners in this country have already taken or soon will be taking these new assessments. An important requirement of the grants to create these assessments was to include testing accommodation policies for ELLs and students with disabilities. The new assessments from both PARCC and SBAC, which were operational for the 2014–2015 school year, were mostly administered by computer and did contain technology-based accommodations, such as pop-up glossaries, audio captions, and text-to-speech and speech-to-text options. Other, nonembedded accommodations include the use of bilingual, word-to-word dictionaries, test directions being read aloud or in a student's native language, smaller testing environments, and extended time.51, 52

As teachers, we know in real life that even with testing accommodations these assessments can be a source of frustration and anxiety for our ELL students. It is important for both teachers and students to remember the “end game” – that acquiring language and content in meaningful ways is the goal, not learning how to score higher on a state test.

English Language Proficiency Standards

Common Core standards lay out the academic concepts and content that students need to know in different academic subjects. Teachers and students use language to teach and learn these subjects. In order for teachers to effectively provide scaffolds for ELLs so they can learn the academic content specified in Common Core, they must know how language develops across proficiency levels and be aware of the specific language practices students need in order to access this content. English Language Proficiency standards are one resource teachers can use to gain that knowledge.

Several major efforts have been undertaken across the United States in the past few years to develop these types of English Language Proficiency standards that align to Common Core. In terms of helping English Learners to meet the Common Core, very little guidance was provided in the original publication of the standards. Basically, it was left up to each state to determine how to best align their English Language Proficiency Standards with the Common Core.53 What follows is a good faith and nonexhaustive summary of some of these major efforts with links to more information about each one.

CCSSO

To address the lack of guidance on how to support English Language Learners meeting the Common Core standards, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) published the English Language Proficiency Development Framework, to support states with the process of aligning their ELP standards to CCSS and the Next Generation of Science Standards that were published in April 2013.54 This framework was developed by leading ELL researchers and educators and was published in September 2012.55 Many states, along with educational organizations, have looked to this document to inform their creation or revision of English Language Proficiency standards that align to Common Core.

WIDA

WIDA formerly stood for World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment, but no longer uses this as an acronym. It still uses the name WIDA, and is a nonprofit cooperative group whose purpose is to develop equitable standards and assessments for English Language Learners. In 2012, WIDA published a revised version of their ELD standards titled The WIDA English Language Development (ELD) Standards. This new edition of amplified ELD standards are aligned to Common Core and represent “the social, instructional, and academic language that students need to engage with peers, educators, and the curriculum in schools.”56 Currently, 36 states belong to WIDA (see https://www.wida.us/membership/states/ for a list) and have adopted the WIDA standards. Educators in other states and around the world find the WIDA standards – along with WIDA's Can-Do Descriptors (specific descriptions of the language students should be able to understand and produce at various levels of proficiency) – to be helpful resources (https://www.wida.us/standards/CAN_DOs/).

ELPA21

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the Understanding Language Initiative at Stanford University, and the 10 states who are part of the ELPA21 consortium (see http://www.elpa21.org/standards-initiatives/ells-elpa21 for a list) worked with WestEd, an education research and consulting organization, to develop a set of English Language Proficiency (ELP) Standards in April 2014.

These ELP Standards focus on what students do with language to accomplish content specific tasks (language functions) and on the vocabulary, grammar, and discourse specific to a particular content area or discipline (language forms) as they work to meet college and career ready standards.57

California ELA/ELD Framework

In 2012, California adopted ELD standards that align with Common Core.58 These standards recognize that ELLs have a linguistic challenge, not a cognitive challenge. The ELD standards are designed to help teachers, students, and their families evaluate ELLs' language growth as they simultaneously develop the skills set forth in Common Core.

In 2014, California released the ELA/ELD Framework,59 which provides guidance for both ELD and content-area teachers on how to integrate the ELD and Common Core standards and how to maximize the opportunities for ELLs to develop language within content practices. It is considered by many to be an innovative document that lays out a considerable amount of current research and instructional theory along with vignettes providing “glimpses of instruction” in ELA and ELD.60

New York State Bilingual Common Core Initiative

In 2012, New York, under its Bilingual Common Core Initiative,61 began developing new English as a Second Language and Native Language Arts Standards aligned to the Common Core. While the development process continues, they have released “language progressions” for their Common Core learning standards at each grade level. The “New Language Arts Progressions” are for students learning a new language (e.g., students in English as a Second Language or Language Other than English classes) and the “Home Language Arts Progressions” are for students developing a home language (e.g., students in Native Language Arts or language classes for speakers of that language).62

There's some debate about how useful all of these new English Language Proficiency standards are to teachers working day-to-day in their classrooms. However, teachers will need to familiarize themselves with the ELP standards that their students will be assessed by. These standards also offer a “shared language” that ELD and content teachers can use to collaborate on effectively meeting the needs of ELLs in all classes.

English Language Proficiency Assessments

English Language Proficiency assessments are being developed based on these new ELP standards. These tests are separate from the Common Core assessments given in each state. They will replace older versions of both diagnostic and summative assessments currently being used by states for placement, monitoring, and reclassification of ELLs. The U.S. Department of Education provided grants to two state-led consortia to develop these “next generation of ELPD assessments.”

One assessment system, ASSETS – Assessment Services Supporting ELs through Technology Systems (http://www.assets.wceruw.org) – is being developed in collaboration with WIDA and several organizations, including WestEd, the Center for Applied Linguistics, and the University of California, Los Angeles, along with 30 states. This assessment system builds on WIDA's task assessments and will include diagnostic, summative and formative assessment tools. It should be fully operational in 2015–2016.63

Another grant was awarded to ELPA21 – English Language Proficiency Assessment for the 21st Century (http://www.elpa21.org), a consortium of states led by Oregon and in collaboration with CCSSO and Stanford University. As a first step in the assessment development process, ELPA21 developed new ELP standards that we described in the previous section. Subsequently they have designed assessments aligned to these standards. Their diagnostic/screener and summative assessments are intended to be fully operational in the 2015–2016 school year.64

In addition to being “valid, fair, and reliable,” these new assessments must meet the following additional criteria:

• Be based on a common definition of English language learner adopted by all consortium states

• Include diagnostic (e.g., screener, placement) and summative assessments

• Assess English language proficiency across the four language domains (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) for each grade level from kindergarten through Grade 12

• Produce results that indicate whether individual students have attained a level and complexity of English language proficiency that is necessary to participate fully in academic instruction in English

• Be accessible to all ELLs with the exception of those who are eligible for alternate assessments based on alternate academic standards

• Use technology to the maximum extent appropriate to develop, administer, and score assessments65

Other states, including California,66 New York,67 and Texas,68 are not participating in either consortium and are developing their own ELP assessments.

Clearly these ELP assessments, as well as the Common Core assessments, will be challenging for our ELL students, especially if they are administered on a computer. We hope that the next generation of ELP assessments will deliver equitable assessments that teachers can use to inform their instruction.