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through culturally responsive leadership. There are several actions that were suggested in the literature. In the research in Wyoming districts, data revealed that school districts are doing much of what is supported in research. After coding to saturation, the data showed that the districts are working hard to provide staff and professional training, recruit qualified staff, and invest in more research based curricula that focuses on EL instruction.
Staff and Professional Training
Many of the districts listed that staff and professional trainings were one of the opportunities that districts have taken for improving the district with a growing
population of EL students. The theme overwhelming was noted as what the district is doing to address the needs with the growing population. Though respondents listed that there is a continued need to provide improved instruction for ELs, it was also noted throughout several responses that there is a continuous effort to inform staff regarding the legal demands of providing for the needs of EL students:
There are so many facets to ELL, from identification processes, to legal requirements, several program options, the exit criteria, the different evaluation requirements. … teachers need to know what it’s all about. All of our training starts with letting the staff know what we must do as a district to meet all of the needs of the EL students.
This response was one of many that insisted that teachers still need to understand the legal compliance issues that must be met by the district for EL students. Several districts reported that legal compliance is addressed by their ELL Directors or lead ELL
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teacher. During one follow up interview, it was shared that the position of director is one that is multi-faceted.
Our Title III director is in charge of all of our trainings. She participates in the WDE annual director’s meeting every winter and goes to the summer camp every August. It’s her responsibility to come back and share all the new compliance requirements with our schools. She works on all the data analysis and ELP scores and creating the language plans with the teachers. She also provides the staff development on our ELL curriculum and instruction to meet those plans. It’s a big job, but she is the one who helps train our teachers to work with the ELLs. It was interpreted throughout the data that most of the staff trainings were done at the district level.
The District Coordinator presents to staff at building meetings and also works one-on-one with teachers to implement current research-based strategies. She ties McRel strategies into research for teaching ELLs.
Some other respondents mentioned district or in-house work as to providing local training in ELL curriculum, ELL strategies, and sheltered instruction. However, there were districts that were providing learning opportunities outside of the district to increase teacher efficacy in ELL instruction:
Many professional development opportunities are provided for our ESL teachers, including CAL Institutes, What Works for English Language Learners trainings, WIDA Standards trainings. Five of our teachers have completed the CAL Trainer
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of Trainers for their What’s Different about Teaching Reading to ELLs program. They help train our other teachers in teaching ELLs.
One of the follow-up interviews shared similar information about trainings that were provided specifically for the ELL teachers:
We send our teachers [ELL] to conferences out of state. They all go to Colorado for their annual conference. This summer, we are sending them to different conference out of state. They really get lots of opportunities for PD.
A couple of the districts responded that, in addition to trainings, consultants were hired to work with teachers in order to improve instruction for ELLs. Professors Joan Wink and Jenna Shim from the University of Wyoming were utilized in the past. Additionally, one district hired an educational consultant to work with the district:
Jill Jackson has done our consulting on leadership and learning. She provided our teachers with solid instruction. She knows the reading program and how to structure it for our ELLs. Jill is great and our teachers love it.
Some responses mentioned that there were budgetary constraints that affected the amount of staff trainings that could be offered to improve outcomes for ELs. Many respondents echoed budgetary issues in what they were doing to address the growing EL population. However, though funding was not sufficient, districts noted that funds were found in order to work on improving their EL programs.
Hiring
Funding from Title III was consistently noted as a challenge for districts with growing EL populations. However, districts have been working with state and local
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funds to insure that students that are EL receive an adequate education. Throughout the data analysis, hiring additional staff was consistently mentioned by the respondents as opportunities they are using to their advantage to improve and increase qualified staff in order to address the needs of the growing population ELs.
We have provided staffing at a greater percentage than is recommended in the funding model. Our district funding provides three teaching positions and 8 assistant and/or translator positions, plus supplies and materials budget. This is above our federal funds for the program.
Other respondents shared how they are hiring specific positions that will increase the efficacy of their instruction in order to help EL students be more successful.
We have hired an ELL District Coordinator last year to help teachers with strategies specific to ELL students. She provides an ELP plan for each ELL student so that [teachers] understand the English proficiency of each student and what he/she can do at their level.
Hiring additional staff that works with all teachers to improve instruction while maintaining smaller budget limits was offered as responses as well:
We have added two staff members who work with sheltered instruction for all teachers in the district and provide support to ELL students in their classes. Some district respondents, however, significantly increased their staff to address the growing EL population. The change in how the programs run required that districts hire several new teachers. Many of the districts commented that they considered the
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need to hire additional staff as an opportunity to seek highly qualified staff, and stressed the desire to hire staff that spoke Spanish.
The whole K-12 program used to be housed at a single site. Now it is at several locations within the same grade structure as the hosting schools. That has brought about a need to hire several new employees to work with our ELLs at all the sites.
A different respondent shared similar information as to the growth in staff that worked specifically with the EL population:
The ESL program has added ESL staff, including teacher positions, an ESL Director, and paraprofessionals. We have more than doubled our ESL staff at both the elementary and secondary levels.
Some respondents shared that funds were not available to add all the staff that was needed to work with EL students. It was a general theme that, although districts were hiring in order to address a growing EL population, there was a lack of funding provided from the federal level to hire for all the positions that would benefit the EL students:
We had one ESL teacher. We have added an ELL support class in the high school. We could use more.
The interpretation of the responses, though infused with comments about funding issues, deemed information that districts were working to address a growing population. Local and state funding was overcome in order to hire and train professional staff.
Additionally, responses clearly defined that districts were addressing the growing EL population in curricular decisions.
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Curricula
The state adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) has created a need for districts throughout the state to address curriculum programs and materials that have been used in the recent past. One follow up interview addressed how the change in standards at the state level provided for a perfect opportunity to address the growing EL population while also addressing general curricular needs:
They’re [CCSS] a big change – a huge change from what we’ve had. As a district we are going to have to look at everything we’re using – what we’ve got doesn’t meet a fraction of what’s expected. We have our team working on mapping where we are and where we’ve got to be. We won’t purchase anything until the programs match the Common Core. But we will take that opportunity to get really strong programs that offer solid ESL supports and leveled support for our IEPs and ELLs.
Curriculum mapping and support programs were consistently mentioned as what districts are doing to address the growing EL population. Districts overwhelming discussed the move to curriculum mapping to align to the Common Core State Standards, as well as aligning curriculum at the K-12 level. In doing so, respondents stated that they were using this opportunity to add programs that would help ELs be more successful:
We have added replacement core reading programs, including Read 190 in the middle and high schools and Wilson Reading in the elementary have been added.
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Other district responses suggested that curriculum program decisions have focused on specifically finding curricular materials for ELs:
We have looked for ELL specific materials. When ordering a new reading series, we looked at the ELL supplemental materials.
An additional response focused on materials to be used solely by the EL students: We have reviewed and updated research-based ELL curriculum specifically for interventions and provided training in the use of the materials.
Another example of how districts have considered the EL population in curricular decisions suggested that considerations about ELs will be an on-going process:
New Curriculum that has been adopted throughout the district has leveled readers for ELLs. Our District Coordinator worked on the adoption and has been asked for input about the ELL component of future curricula in all subject areas. The purchase of curriculum programs and supplements can be expensive. Limited funds were mentioned in the responses on hiring and training, but only in one open ended response regarding curriculum. As a follow up question in the interviews, the researcher inquired as to what districts are doing for the EL populations in curricular decisions, and how funding was addressed in those decisions. Interview respondents concurred that, while the materials were not cheap, the districts had funds that were used to purchase programs and supplements. One respondent’s concise answer mirrored the sentiments of all respondents:
You know we’re lucky in Wyoming – we have money. We can get what we need and pull from lots of pots [of money]. We’d like more funding from the feds, but
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without it, we still get the job done. Our teachers and students get what they need.
Respondents generally relayed that districts were actively working to improve student outcomes by hiring more staff for the ELs, providing staff and professional training, and purchasing research-based curricular programs. Although responses to questions regarding what the district leadership was doing to improve outcomes for EL students did not reveal that leaders were addressing cultural diversity, responses about the successes districts were having did uncover that district leaders were making a concentrated effort to address cultural diversity within the schools. Actions by the districts followed several suggestions throughout the research that would impact outcomes for EL students (Figure 11).
Figure 11. What Districts are Doing to Address Growing EL Populations