Like many rural communities across the country, Chatham County, N.C., has a relatively new but rapidly growing population of English language learners. Today 12 percent of the 60,050 residents are Latino, a 21 percent increase since 2000 largely due to jobs in poultry processing.
The growth of English language learners enrolling in Chatham County’s schools is staggering. In 1987, only 15 English language learners were enrolled. A decade later there were 599, and this year 1,518 ELLs make up about a fifth of the district’s 7,800-student population. Most of these students are Latino, and most qualify for free and reduced-price lunch. Latinos are not closing the achievement gap, and Title I schools are struggling the most.
English language learners are not distributed equally across the 16 public schools in the county, which is located in central North Carolina. While approximately 75 percent of the students in Siler City Elementary School are ELLs, other schools may enroll only two or three of these students. With the exception of a handful of English as a second language teachers, most administrators and teachers have not been professionally prepared to educate this population.
That all is now changing.
Professional Conversations
Mary Lee Moore, director of federal programs for the Chatham County schools, knew building principals were hard-pressed to accommodate these changes. In spring 2007, Moore and Helen Atkins, the ELL coordinator, invited me to facilitate a two-day academy for all building administrators using the book English Language Learners at School: A Guide for Administrators, which I co-edited with Else Hamayan.
The goal was to equip these 30 school leaders with knowledge about best practice for ELLs and skills to respond strategically to the growing population. Moore and Atkins generated districtwide data on changing demographics and performance of English language learners. The administrators rolled up their sleeves, looked at their statistics and engaged in structured conversations about policies and accountability requirements, second language acquisition and critical features of effective programs. They considered the available resources and the constraints.
These questions guided their work: Who are our students? What are our goals? How are our ELLs performing relative to our goals? What supports do we have in place for our ELLs? What are our strengths? What future possibilities can we see? What challenges must we address? What action steps can we take? What resources do we need?
The principals realized it would be impossible for their ELLs to achieve academically in the academic mainstream unless mainstream teachers learned to differentiate instruction. ESL teachers simply could not do the job alone.
Principals were introduced to sheltered instruction, an approach that mainstream teachers use to make content-area instruction comprehensible for ELLs. Moore and Atkins also invited the principal and ELL program coordinator from a neighboring school district to share their experiences with sheltered instruction, which pointed to improvements in the performance of their ELLs.
Although the Chatham principals identified practical action steps to move forward, no accountability requirement existed for follow-up. Other districts have offered this professional development for credit, and the action steps become part of the school improvement plan.
Mainstream Teachers
Then Chatham County offered sheltered instruction training for mainstream teachers. The principal of Siler City Elementary School, in collaboration with University of North Carolina-Greensboro, won a five-year, $1.4 million grant titled TESOL for All to provide ESL certification for two mainstream teachers from each school annually. Yet the turnout was underwhelming for this voluntary professional training.
“It was disappointing to offer such a high-caliber professional development opportunity only to have nine teachers commit to the course,” Atkins said.
In December 2007, Title III conducted a comprehensive monitoring of ELL services. The Title III audit found a problem with the district’s implementation of professional development and required the school district to submit an implementation plan that tied staff development to student achievement.
The district’s strategic planning began with a needs assessment survey of ESL teachers, content teachers and principals regarding ESL services and professional development throughout the district and included a review of ELL student and school performance data. The district formed an ESL staff development team of ESL and content teachers that produced a data-based ESL staff development plan that will be implemented this year.
A Top Mandate
Although mainstream teachers had not volunteered for sheltered instruction training, the needs assessment found 80 percent expressed a strong desire to learn ELL strategies. Moore asked Superintendent Robert Logan if he would require two hours per teacher for professional development in ELL strategies as part of their strategic plan.
The superintendent went further, requiring every teacher to participate in at least 10 hours for credit per year for three years. This mandate ensures that all Chatham teachers develop the knowledge and skills they need to educate their ELLs.
The staff development plan includes three courses: Sheltered Instruction, Language of Literacy and Everything ESL (with information about English language proficiency standards, accountability requirements and retention). The school improvement team and the principal of each school jointly review their data to determine which courses their staff will take in what order. According to Atkins, when school-based communities of educators learn together and use their ELL performance data to inform their training, ELL instruction and achievement improve.
Moore emphasizes the support of the superintendent. “It is through the framework of this staff development plan that Chatham County’s educators will understand the needs of this growing population, learn the best practices and strategies required to ensure academic success and ultimately share the belief that each and every one of us is ultimately responsible for ELL achievement,” she says.
Sustained Training
The school district will host another two-day staff development session for administrators. The goal is to guide principals in making decisions regarding the relevance of sustained and ongoing implementation of ESL professional development directly tied to student achievement.
Says Logan: “Chatham County Schools anticipates that the implementation of this staff development plan coupled with a keen awareness of ELL progress, growth and achievement, will culminate in a sense of accomplishment and a celebration by both students and educators.”
Logan and others in Chatham County are willing to serve as a resource to other school systems. The superintendent can be contacted at rlogan@chatham.k12.nc.us.