|
|||||||||||||||||||
 |
NEW! Writing
a Winning Essay |
 |
NEW! February 2008
- The National Parent Teacher Association's Bring Your Family to
School Week, February 10-16 gives teachers a mid-year opportunity
to reach out to families again and welcome those who have yet to
engage the classroom community. |
 |
NEW! INCREASE
ELL PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT, CLOSE ACHIEVEMENT GAPS |
 |
CREATING
CULTURALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY RESPONSIVE INTERVENTIONS
There is a disproportionate representation of students from diverse socio-cultural and linguistic backgrounds in special education, something that has been a persistent concern for more than 30 years. Still, despite continued efforts by stakeholders to develop working solutions, student enrollments in special education range from over to under-representation, depending on the disability category and the specific racial/ethnic group, social class, culture or language of the students. A new brief from the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (NCCRESt) outlines best practices for professionals who encounter culturally and linguistically diverse students in their classrooms. The goal is to promote academic success and prevent unnecessary special education referrals. The brief also contains suggestions for how to create positive learning environments and how best to communicate with and engage families. NCCRESt goes on to highlight key elements of culturally- and linguistically-responsive prereferral interventions for diverse students. |
|
NEW! Using Informal Assessments for English Language Learners describes how teachers can use informal assessments (also called authentic or alternative assessments) to track the ongoing progress of their students regularly and often. Ongoing assessments provide continual snapshots of where students are throughout the school year and allow teachers to target students' specific problem areas, adapt instruction, and intervene earlier rather than later. |
NEW! Spanish
Early Literacy Parent-Child Activity Materials |
|
 |
Tomasito's
Mother Comes to School/La mamá de Tomasito visita la escuela
When his Spanish-speaking mother makes an unexpected visit to his classroom, second-grader Tomasito is angry and embarrassed...until he discovers that his mother and teacher actually want to get to know each other better in order to help him learn. This online storybook about family involvement at school includes a children’s story, along with an informational guide for adult family members and discussion questions. The story draws from the real experiences of one Latino boy and his family who are acculturating to the U.S. The storybook is designed to engage children, inform
and inspire their families, and help educators build connections
with families, all while supporting literacy. Developed from research
by HFRP's Ellen Mayer and full of vibrant illustrations by award-winning
children's book illustrator Joe Cepeda, this bilingual storybook
is an easy-to-use family involvement resource that can be downloaded,
viewed, and printed out for free on HFRP’s Family Involvement
Storybook Corner website. You can find the storybook and related
resources for parents and educators at the link below. |
|
NEW! EDUCATING
NEWCOMERS: |
|
"Bush
Administration Wants To Loosen NCLB Rules" The Bush administration wants to loosen the rules so that many more disabled children can take tests that are simpler than those required by No Child Left Behind. The changes would triple the number of those children who could take simplified tests. Roughly 10% of special education students -- those with the most serious cognitive disabilities -- currently can take easier, alternative tests and have the results count toward a school's annual progress goals under the law. Under final rules the administration unveiled, about another 20% of children with disabilities would be allowed to take alternative tests. The new tests are for children who are not severely disabled but who have been unable to work on grade level because of disabilities, such as some forms of dyslexia. The new tests won't be as easy as those given to the children already exempted from the regular tests, but they won't be as hard as those given to typical students. Put together, the change means 3% of all children -- or roughly 3% of all children with disabilities -- will be allowed to be tested on standards geared for them. The department said $21 million would be available to help states come up with the new tests. The administration is responding to cries from states for more flexibility in how they test special education students. |
 |
The
OELA newsline
is a weekly newsletter from the office of English Language Learners.
Visit at: http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/newsline/ |
 |
REAL
SUPPORT FOR REALLY STRUGGLING SCHOOLS Children from low-income homes are academically behind when they enter kindergarten, and they fall a little further behind each summer. To reach the same achievement level as their better-off peers, they will need to learn much more -- and they will need to learn it faster. As Antonia Cortese argues in the Spring 2007 issue of American Educator, we can help them meet that challenge by taking the following five steps: (1) Focus on teaching quality, and in particular, create the conditions and incentives that would stem the exodus of teachers from high-poverty schools and attract qualified teachers to them; (2) Improve student behavior by using effective approaches in the earliest grades to establish a positive, respectful school culture; (3) Diagnose reading problems early and intervene right away; (4) Provide a knowledge-rich, grade-by-grade core curriculum; and (5) Make sure that the schools that serve the neediest students get the extra attention, expertise, staff, time, and resources they need to meet the greater challenges they face. Most schools don't have the capacity to take all these steps on their own; they need strong district-level support. Also included in American Educator are articles on the lack of alignment between state standards and tests, how Wal-Mart’s drive to cut costs is reshaping the global economy, students’ photos of their decaying school facilities and a report demonstrating that such problems are widespread, and a plea from teacher Tom Moore for Hollywood to stop trivializing the hard work and expertise that teaching requires. Read More... |
 |
A
REPORT ON THE STATUS OF HISPANICS IN EDUCATION: OVERCOMING A HISTORY
OF NEGLECT The story of Hispanics in the U.S. is not a simple one. It is a rich, complex, and dynamic history. Hispanics are not one nationality or one culture or one race. They are a very diverse group. Some Hispanics are recent immigrants, but many others have lived here for generations. The educational achievement of Hispanic students is among the poorest of the three major ethnic-racial groups, regardless of grade level, writes Richard Verdugo for the National Education Association. The extant literature suggests that five teaching strategies have been effective in educating Hispanic students: (1) Culturally-Responsive Teaching; (2) Cooperative Learning; (3) Instructional Conversations; (4) Cognitively-Guided Instruction (teaching the skills of summarizing, self-questioning, clarification, and predicting); and (5) Technology-Enriched Instruction. Historically, Hispanic schools or schools in which a significant proportion of the student body was Hispanic have been seriously underfunded in comparison to Anglo schools. Research is also clear about the benefits of sustained high-quality professional development and early childhood programs. Chapter four of this report outlines a serious of specific recommendations for school personnel, classroom teachers, parents, policymakers, Hispanic organizations, community members, and researchers. |
 |
EDUCATION
WEEK (subscription required) "Early-Childhood Programs Urged for Hispanic Population" States should increase their emphasis on early-childhood education programs that have the potential to serve large numbers of Hispanic infants and toddlers, a report by a national task force recommends. They also should continue to build public pre-K programs toward universal access, it says, while the federal government should expand Early Head Start and Head Start to reach more children from low-income families. The report, "Para Nuestros Niños" -- or "For Our Children" -- is the work of the National Task Force on Early-Childhood Education for Hispanics. The authors also recommend that states work to increase the numbers of pre-K and primary-grade teachers who are proficient in both English and Spanish as well as the number of "second-language-acquisition specialists." |
 |
Bridging
Refugee Youth and Children’s Services (BRYCS)
is a national technical assistance project working to broaden the
scope of information and collaboration among service providers - in
order to strengthen services to refugee youth, children and their
families. Read More... |
| WHY
DO HISPANIC CHILDREN FALL BEHIND? The National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics urges that Hispanic children be enrolled in high quality education programs as early as possible in order to make more rapid progress in closing the Hispanic-White achievement gap. Hispanic children, especially those from disadvantaged circumstances, continue to lag behind non-Hispanic Whites on measures of school readiness and school achievement, including in reading and mathematics. At the same time, there is growing evidence that large state-funded prekindergarten (pre-K) programs are producing valuable school readiness gains for Hispanic youngsters who have the opportunity to attend them. Head Start also is beneficial. In addition, high quality infant/toddler programs can contribute to greater school readiness. The earlier Hispanic children have access to high quality educational programs, the better. However, despite the benefits of greater access to such programs, Hispanic youngsters continue to be un! derrepresented among children who attend pre-K for several reasons. Among them are an inadequate supply of affordable preschool seats in many Hispanic communities, a lack of information for Hispanic parents on the programs that are available, and language barriers with program operators. A great deal of emphasis should be on pursuing more effective ways to improve early language development among Hispanic English language learners from disadvantaged circumstances, owing to the importance of early language skills in predicting later success in school. Read More... http://www.ecehispanic.org |
|
|
This 15-minute
DVD by the Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) entitled "How
to Involve All Parents in Your Diverse Community"
showcases scenes from a culturally diverse elementary school to illustrate
how educators get to know parents and families in the community and
provide a welcoming environment to all. Read More... |
 |
Verizon Literacy offers free online courses for parents. A new course offering is, Engaging Hispanic Parents in Their Children's Education, more information can be found on their website. |
 |
Since 1993, Course
Crafters has specialized in designing and developing educational materials
for English Language Learners (ELLs) and their teachers. http://www.coursecrafters.com/index.html Monthly newsletter http://www.coursecrafters.com/ELL-Outlook/index.html |
|
English Language
Learner provisions are included under Title I and Title III of NCLB.
Title I outlines the state standards, assessment, annual yearly progress,
and other accountability requirements for ELL students... http://www.publiceducation.org/portals/nclb/lep/index.asp |
|
A new monthly
electronic newsletter for preK-12 educators of English language learners (ELLs) brought to you by Reading Rockets and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). http://www.colorincolorado.org/newsletter/ This resource from Colorin Colorado is excellent -- it has workshops (in Spanish and English) for teachers to use with parents of primary age children to promote literacy. http://www.colorincolorado.org/reachingout/toolkit.php |
 |
From
the Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence, this
resource explains how to teach language minority students in elementary
schools http://www.cal.org/crede/pubs/ResBrief1.htm |
 |
This web site
has frequently asked questions and answers for mainstream teachers
who are involved in second language learning and teaching. http://carla.acad.umn.edu/esl/minnetesol2000.html |
 |
Unlocking Math
for Minorities Getting minority students to tune back in, experts say, often requires changing the way parents view education, the way teachers view their students, and-above all -- the way students view themselves. Educator misperceptions are a common problem when it comes to minority students and mathematics. Low expectations by faculty contribute to the reasons that a disproportionate number of minority students are not prepared for college-level math. http://www.ascd.org/publications/curr_update/2003fall/franklin.html |
 |
The Midwest Equity
Assistance Center is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and
provides technical assistance, professional development, and information
dissemination services in race equity, gender equity, and national
origin equity to local educational agencies, including public school
districts and charter schools, in the States of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri,
and Nebraska. http://mdac.educ.ksu.edu/ |
 |
This site links
you to a collection of resources for local school districts with ready
access to materials for working with students who are not native speakers
of English. The collection contains ESOL/BE texts, content-based texts,
research-based materials, children's fiction for the support of native-language
literacy, and audio and video tapes in English and eighteen other
languages. Thanks to the availability of interlibrary loan, educators
throughout the state are able to borrow materials in the collection,
simply by requesting them from their local public library or, in some
cases, from their own school library. www.emporia.edu/libsv/esol.htm |
 |
"Breaking
the Silence?"
Vol. 85 (4), pp. 279-285 In the December 2003 issue of Phi Delta Kappan, Heather Lewis-Charp, a social scientist at Social Policy Research Associates in Oakland, California writes about a study conducted on how students in multiracial schools "relate to one another across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic differences and what roles their schools, families, and peers play in helping them cope with those differences." Lewis-Charp discusses the important challenge for educators today to engage students in safe dialogue on racial issues. To read the article, visit: www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k0312le1.htm Information about subscribing to the Phi Delta Kappan is online at: www.pdkintl.org/kappan/karticle.htm |
 |
Excellent resource
guides for educators of limited English proficient migrant students. A Kit for Primary Teachers of Migrant English Language Learners www.escort.org/products/helpkit.html A Kit for Secondary Teachers of Migrant English Language Learners /www.escort.org/products/secondaryhelpkit.html |
 |
Unlocking
Math for Minorities Getting minority students to tune back in, experts say, often requires changing the way parents view education, the way teachers view their students, and-above all -- the way students view themselves. Educator misperceptions are a common problem when it comes to minority students and mathematics. Low expectations by faculty contribute to the reasons that a disproportionate number of minority students are not prepared for college-level math. www.ascd.org/publications/curr_update/2003fall/franklin.html |
 |
This site lists
many organizations (of which most, if not all receive federal funding)
that provide information on working with diversity and general information
on parent, school, community partnerships. www.knowledgeloom.org |
 |
This site from
the Kansas State Department of Education under Title III makes a reference
to choices that parents can make in the education of ELL children. www.ksde.org This Kansas State Department of Education site has many links to other sites providing information on how to work with multiple diverse groups/populations. www.ksde.org/sfp/esol/multicultural_ed.htm |
 |
DIVERSITY:
SCHOOL, FAMILY, AND COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS No matter their race, ethnicity, culture or income, most families have high aspirations and concerns for their children's success. This is one of the findings included in the latest research synthesis from the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory's National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools. Another finding states that families from racial, ethnic and cultural minorities are actively involved in their children's schooling, although their involvement may differ somewhat from those of white, "mainstream" U.S. families. The synthesis discusses 64 research studies on the roles that families can play in improving academic achievement among minority, immigrant and language minority students and students from low-income families. http://www.sedl.org/connections/research-syntheses.html |
 |
Rethinking Schools
is an 18-year-old organization begun by teachers. They stand for a
commitment to equity and to a vision that public education is central
to the creation of a human, caring, multiracial democracy. While diversity
is an issue that impacts all of society, Rethinking Schools emphasizes
problems facing urban schools--particularly issues of race. It is
an activist publication, with articles written by and for teachers,
parents, and students. www.rethinkingschools.org |
 |
This site has
valuable information and resources for working with English Language
Learners. www.helpforschools.com/ELLKBase/index.shtml This site defines requirements under the law for the education of students with disabilities. www.helpforschools.com/medicaid/index.shtml |
 |
This site provides
information on how to work with diversity in the classroom, specifically
focusing on African American students to ensure their success. www.ceap.wcu.edu/insite/mult_div/AfricanAmer/contents.htm |
 |
This US Dept
of Education website provides information and valuable resources on
how to ensure success of Hispanic American children. www.YesICan.gov |
 |
This page, from
the ERIC Clearinghouse, has many resources and links to help educators
understand how to work more effectively with diversity and to promote
academic success in urban environments. www. eric-web.tc.columbia.edu/families/hard_to_reach/ |
| 1 2 Next |