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December 2006
New approach for English learners
Posted Thursday, December 28, 2006
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — Marta left Colombia at 8 where she was a good student and was consistently promoted based on her grade level achievement. She reads and writes well in Spanish and enjoys school. She has never studied English.
What sort of bilingual or English as a Second Language program should Marta receive? In the past, that question would have been difficult to answer. But now, the Providence schools have developed a set of guidelines that spell out the half-dozen or more different kinds of English language learners and the appropriate course of study for each child.
The Providence School Department has just revised its policies for English language learners, a document called Language Instruction for Transition. The document defines specific standards of excellence for students in the process of learning English. It sets out what the department wants these students to be able to do as a result of their participation in this program.
In a recent interview, Providence Supt. Donnie Evans said that the district will not be able to meet the standards set by No Child Left Behind unless it significantly improves the performance of special needs students and English language learners.The latter group comprises 25 percent of the city’s school-age population. More than two-thirds of the city’s students come from homes where English isn’t the primary language.
English learners are the fastest-growing segment of the student population nationwide and a similar trend seems to be taking place in Providence, according to Deputy Supt. Frances Gallo. The district has no choice but to figure out how to get these students speaking and reading English as quickly as possible.
“Every year,” Gallo said, “we get reports that we will be getting a wave of refugees in late January. Last year, the families came from Somalia.”
Immigrant children arrive in the United States with a wide array of literacy skills. Some are literate in their own language, but have no knowledge of English; others aren’t literate in their native tongue. Some students have received little or no formal schooling because of famine or civil war and have been traumatized by the violence they have witnessed.
In the past, the guidelines that defined the various kinds of English learners were vague. The new document is much more specific about what kind of instruction the student needs. It also maps out the student’s entire journey through the English learner program, from the initial assessment to the end of the program.
Along the way, the document outlines in great detail what each English learner should be learning from kindergarten through sixth grade.
Aziza attended school in Somalia for one year when she was 8 and then stayed home to help her family. At 14, her family went to a refugee camp where she learned some basic English. At 16, her family came to the United States and she enrolled in high school in Providence. Aziza is struggling with her adjustment to school, English and her other subjects.
Under the new guidelines, Aziza would be classified as a newcomer English learner. This is a student who has significant gaps in schooling, a child who hasn’t developed basic literacy and math skills in any language. This is also a student who is three to four years below grade level and someone whose primary language is oral.
Gallo said that the updated definitions give teachers and principals a lot more information to help them place students in the best program.
Literate English learners, for example, have a strong academic background and well-developed literacy skills in their native language. They are reading at or above grade level in their native language, such as Spanish, and their education has not been interrupted. These children typically earn English within three to four years and would be the most successful of English learners because they come in with the most skills.
If these types of student enter the school system in kindergarten, they should be introduced to oral English while continuing to develop Spanish language skills. During second grade, the teacher should phase out Spanish and concentrate on English language skills. By the end of third grade, the student should be ready to leave the bilingual program.
Both the type of instruction and the length of time spent in a transitional program varies, depending on the students’ original skill level and the grade in which they enter the Providence schools. A child with Aziza’s profile who comes here in sixth grade will have a completely different literacy plan than the student who enters in kindergarten.
“We found it was tough for kids to transition out of this program,” Gallo said. “It might take five or six years for a child to leave it.”
The goal now is to get students into a regular classroom in three to four years.
A new task force comprising educators and community representatives will now evaluate what works in the current English language learner programs and what needs to be tweaked. It will look specifically at the curriculum and professional training for teachers.
Last year, Evans abolished the English language learner program as a separate department and placed it under the umbrella of regular education. Now, the directors of elementary, middle and high school are responsible for monitoring the success of English language instruction in their areas.
R.I. plan to certify teachers gains OK
Posted Thursday, December 28, 2006
By Jennifer D. Jordan
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — After several revisions, the federal Department of Education has approved Rhode Island’s plan to ensure that all teachers are “highly qualified,” a cornerstone of the federal education reform law, No Child Left Behind. Now the Rhode Island Department of Education will turn its attention to helping all teachers attain “highly qualified” status, as an estimated 10 percent of the state’s 12,000 educators does not currently meet the requirement.
The plan highlights several weaknesses in Rhode Island’s education system that must be addressed, including:
•Low-income students in urban school districts are more often taught by inexperienced teachers than are students in suburban communities — 24 percent compared with 15 percent.
•Of special education teachers, 34 percent fail to meet the “highly qualified” standard, even though they make up just 6 percent of the teacher population statewide.
•High poverty schools have a higher rate of teacher turnover and a higher rate of new teachers than do wealthier, suburban schools.
ALL STATES WERE required to submit a plan by summer of this year, but only nine states were immediately approved. The rest had to submit more explicit and thorough proposals in September, and Rhode Island provided the federal education department with additional information it requested in November. On Dec. 14, the Rhode Island Department of Education received a letter from Henry J. Johnson, assistant secretary of education, approving the 82-page plan.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that the federal education department never extended the deadline it set requiring states to have 100 percent of teachers “highly qualified” by June 2006. The department will have to work to help about 1,200 teachers meet the highly qualified provision as soon as possible. But education officials caution that some of the changes, such as working with teacher unions to ensure that highly qualified teachers do not transfer out of challenging urban schools or restructuring special education so that more students are integrated into mainstream classrooms, will take time.
“There has been no relaxation at having 100 percent of teachers highly qualified by last June, so from this point on, everything we do has to explain how we’re going to get there,” said Paulajo Gaines, director of educator quality and certification at the Rhode Island Department of Education.
Gaines also said the state wants to work with teachers struggling to attain “highly qualified” status.
“Now that the plan has been approved, in those areas where the numbers of inexperienced teachers are overrepresented, we’ll enter into a plan with the district to get those teachers the experience they need,” Gaines said. “It’s not punitive. It’s about how we are going to get there together.”
The state Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education will review the plan next month and will then schedule public hearings.
“We want all constituents — teachers, parents, unions, superintendents — to provide feedback, because this needs to be a living document,” Gaines said. “This plan gives us a template for what we need to move forward and figure out how we are going to improve education in our state for all of our students.”
IN ORDER TO BE CONSIDERED “highly qualified,” the federal government requires that teachers have a bachelor’s degree, are certified and can prove they know the subject that they teach. The federal government allows each state to decide how teachers meet these goals.
In Rhode Island, new and veteran middle and high school teachers who majored in the subject that they teach (for example a math major teaching geometry and algebra) automatically meet the first and last requirement. A graduate degree or national board certification also fulfills the requirement. New elementary school teachers must also pass a state exam to demonstrate their competency.
Veteran middle and high school teachers who are teaching a different subject than the one in which they majored in college, or who are teaching in more than one subject area have several options to prove they meet the highly qualified definition, called a HOUSSE plan, including: prior teaching experience, course work, professional development and awards they have received.
The state plans to phase out HOUSSE in 2008, as all veteran teachers will have been given an opportunity to earn the “highly qualified” status by that time, Gaines said.
STUDIES SHOW that an effective teacher is the single biggest factor in determining a student’s success in the classroom. By focusing on the issue of teacher quality, the federal law exposes weaknesses in the education system. In Rhode Island, two problem areas came to light in the highly qualified teacher report: equity and special education.
Students in the poorest urban centers such as Central Falls, Pawtucket, Providence and Woonsocket, are more likely to have inexperienced, new or out-of-their-subject teachers than are students in suburban districts. The state Department of Education also believes that teachers transfer out of challenging urban schools at a higher rate than suburban schools.
“We don’t know exactly what our rate of teacher turnover or new teachers is in our urban districts, but this document now requires that we collect that data,” Gaines said. The department has a new computer system designed to collect and analyze such data and Gaines said she expects to begin processing information this summer.
In addition, the “highly qualified” teacher issue will also spark changes in the state’s special education system, particularly at the middle and high school levels.
Ken Swanson, director of special populations for the state education department, said many students who should be in mainstream classes instead spend most of the day in self-contained classrooms, where they do not always receive the same rigorous curriculum as their peers.
“We continue to have a number of environments where a single special education teacher is teaching all four content areas,” Swanson said. “More kids should be serviced in a general education setting with supports and accommodations. I think there will always be a need for self-contained classrooms for certain students. But currently in Rhode Island there is an overreliance on self-contained settings to deliver services to students with disabilities.”
Rhode Island’s plan calls for two possible solutions. One is to convert special education into consultative positions, where a special education teacher collaborates with a regular classroom teacher who is the “teacher of record” in a particular subject area, such as English, math, science or social studies. Another is to require subject area tests for special-education teachers in each subject that they teach.
The plan also calls for more mentoring for new teachers, recognizing that they need support and guidance during the beginning of their careers.
Nathanael Greene is a leader in digital technology
Posted Thursday, December 21, 2006
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — Nathanael Greene Middle School is among the first middle schools in the state to train its students to create digital portfolios of their work.
The school recently received a $76,000 grant from the Rhode Island-based Champlin Foundations to purchase the technology, including digital whiteboards and software, and train teachers to create a curriculum that uses the technology.
Keith Lang, the executive director of the foundation, said Greene and Perry Middle School in Providence competed against 26 other middle schools to win one of six grants. Champlin awarded between $400,000 and $500,000 to public schools and universities this year.
“Providence should be commended,” Lang said yesterday. “What we look for is a school that is working in unison. They have to convince us that this is a program they’re serious about.”
At Perry, the $70,700 grant will be used to update and expand the school library, including research materials available in Spanish.
“The idea,” said assistant principal Jeremy Chiappetta, “is to update the collection with modern texts that engage the kids’ interests, to Spanish-language texts and to bring technology into the collection. The current collection is dated. The whole idea is to use the library in the 21st century.”
Perry Middle School will add approximately 900 books to its collection. As Principal Fran Rotella said, “What may have been interesting to students 15 or 20 years ago is no longer interesting to them today.”
During his interview with Greene faculty, Lang said he was struck by how the school’s proposal “came from the heart,” adding that the top administrators seemed committed to bringing this program to students and teachers alike.
The technology will enable the school to create a digital portfolio system that allows students to save, scan and photograph examples of their learning, which are then loaded onto a computer. The goal is to create a digital record of student achievement.
What makes the project particularly timely is that the state Department of Education has incorporated digital portfolios into its new high school graduation requirements. Starting with next year’s graduation class, high school seniors must demonstrate that they have mastered specific skills in at least two ways, including a portfolio of their best work. Introducing this system at the middle school level should give students a head start, according to Elliott Krieger, spokesman for the Education Department.
The money will be used to buy something called smart boards, which allow the user — the student or teacher — to manipulate images using a hand or a special pointer. Not every child is a conceptual thinker. Imagine being able to explain geometry by actually showing the angles on a digital whiteboard. According to Cathy DiPietro, chairwoman of the math department, the possibilities are endless.
“How many times have we said, ‘Imagine this,’ and we know not everyone is getting it,” DiPietro said. “Now they will able to imagine it because we can present it visually.”
Say, for example, that a teacher is introducing a history unit on Western expansion. With a digital smart board, she could display and manipulate the rugged terrain or track a wagon train’s progress across the Great Plains. If a science class is studying plate tectonics, the teacher can display how one continent “dives” under another. And in a writing class, a teacher can post a five-paragraph essay on the board and ask students to correct the grammar, rework the structure or diagram one of the sentences.
The beauty of this technology, DiPietro said, is that the students will be able to use it to add depth to Power Point presentations and other public presentations.
The training will begin with 15 teachers, but the instruction will quickly expand to include all of the staff. RM Educational Software, based in Marstons Mills, Mass., will provide the training and the technology, which includes whiteboards, LCD projectors and desktop computers. The grant will also be used to buy several digital cameras.
A happy day at Hope
Posted Tuesday, December 5, 2006
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
Milenne Guzman, left, Victoria Reyes and Arianna Price, right, preview a list of classes during an assembly on Monday at Hope School, where they are studying in the Leadership Academy.
The Providence Journal / Kris Craig
Scott Sutherland, right, principal of Hope’s Arts Academy, meets Monday with colleagues Wayne Montague, left, head of the Leadership Academy, and Arthur Petrosinelli, principal of the Technology Academy.
PROVIDENCE — On his final day at Hope High School, special master Nicholas C. Donohue gave each of the three principals a gift that symbolized the roles they played in leading the students and faculty to the Emerald City.
Arthur Petrosinelli, the Lion in Donohue’s version of The Wizard of Oz , received a sheriff’s badge because he restored order to a building that was once considered chaotic, even dangerous.
Wayne Montague, the Tin Man, received an emerald heart because he always spoke from heart, telling his students to behave with class and dignity.
And Scott Sutherland, the Scarecrow, was awarded a bust of the Greek philosopher Socrates because he represents the brains of the outfit, the principal who has instilled higher standards for faculty and students.
Over the past 18 months, progress at Hope has been “enormous,” Donohue wrote in his fourth and final report to state Education Commissioner Peter McWalters, who chose Donohue to be his representative at the school.
“The staff,” Donohue wrote, “has responded heroically. The three lead administrators have handled a Herculean effort well and continue to learn and grow. The students demonstrate seriousness about school and a sense of belonging.
“While parent participation is lower than most would like,” he said, “the creation of deep, meaningful community partnerships with a number of local institutions of higher education has exceeded expectations. By any reasonable measure, progress overall at Hope has been excellent.”
Yesterday, McWalters had nothing but praise for the profound changes wrought by Hope’s principals and teachers: “These people have done an extraordinary amount of work. Hope is where we want it to be.”
In March 2005, McWalters hired Donohue to monitor Hope’s compliance with his intervention order, which included breaking the 1,200-student population into three smaller learning academies: arts, technology and leadership. This was the first time that McWalters had ordered a school to make specific changes or else face a takeover by the state. It came after persistent low scores on standardized tests and an unrelentingly high dropout rate.
During the first year alone, Hope transformed itself from a building that many outsiders were afraid to enter into a school where students were orderly, the hallways quiet and fights were the exception, not the norm.
The 2005-2006 school year began with three new principals who were given the authority to hire their own staff. For the first time, teachers had to commit to the school’s goals in writing. Since then, the transformation has been nothing short of miraculous, the staff says. The school has created a palpable sense of belonging, where there once was none. Each academy is developing its own identity and has created a curriculum from scratch.
In an effort to make a large high school feel less impersonal, Hope has created advisories, which assign each student to a teacher who monitors their progress and helps them prepare for graduation. Last year, Hope was one of the first high schools in the state to develop an individual learning plan that spells out each student’s career, academic and personal goals.
And there is evidence that the reforms are starting to pay off. For the first time, the Leadership Academy has been classified by the state as a moderately performing high school, which means it met all 37 of its academic targets in standardized tests. Hope’s other two academies, Arts and Technology, missed only two or three of their academic targets and are considered improving schools.
Hope High School is now aiming for the gold ring: getting full accreditation from the prestigious New England Association of Schools and Colleges. The school is currently on NEASC’s warning list, but the organization has hinted that Hope is on the right track toward accreditation.
Donohue, who this month became chief executive of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation in Massachusetts, also praised Hope’s partnerships with area colleges. Johnson & Wales University has helped the school’s Technology Academy write a new curriculum. Rhode Island College is training high school faculty. And the Rhode Island School of Design is allowing students to take after-school classes on its campus.
“We feel deeply engaged and very welcome within the school,” said Paul Sproll, dean of RISD’s teacher education program. “It’s really extraordinary.”
But, Donohue said, much work remains to be done. The physical condition of Hope remains “an embarrassment,” he wrote. “If this was your place of business, you’d be looking for another job,” Donohue said. “I regret that I wasn’t more forceful. Those folks have been let down by the conditions of the building.”
Hope’s principals, however, said that the district spent almost $1 million last summer repairing the auditorium, fixing the roof and updating the electrical system.
The two biggest challenges facing Hope have little to do with the good work being done by teachers and staff. The first, Donohue said, is the lack of preparedness of students entering the high school. Hardly any freshmen arrive capable of performing at grade level in English and math.
The other major challenge is the persistent tide of new students arriving at Hope long after the school year begins. “Kids are constantly being assigned to the building,” Donohue said. “That means the school is constantly revisiting the norms for expected behavior.”
But the single greatest impediment to progress, not only at Hope but at the city’s other large high schools, is the School Department’s lack of capacity at the administrative level. This is not a criticism of the quality and dedication of the School Department’s staff, Donohue said. Rather, he said that the central office doesn’t have enough people to help individual schools analyze testing data or train a new a cadre of principals. Unless the School Department can add more skilled professionals at the administrative level, the district will be able to manage only its most basic responsibilities, Donohue said.
“This, in turn,” he said, “will leave the Providence schools – and Hope – to fend for themselves and struggle with the district rather than learn from it.”
Other stubborn issues continue to thwart the school’s progress:
• Attendance: Donohue said it hovers around 80 percent. The real problem is that large numbers of students attend class only part-time. If that continues, Donohue said, it will be impossible for Hope to achieve sustained success.
But the principals said that the latest attendance figures are closer to 88 percent. They say that Hope is addressing the truancy problem on several fronts: Guidance counselors are going to students’ homes, honor roll breakfasts are held every quarter, attendance awards are handed out to the top 175 students. And Hope has reintroduced pep rallies and student dances to reinvigorate school spirit.
• Parent involvement: Hope has made great strides in this area, Donohue said, but much more needs to be done. Beginning next summer, the school should expect teachers to make contact with every one of its families.
Again, the principals underscored the school’s success stories: parents are active on the PTO, more than 250 attended a parent meeting two weeks ago and 30 parents are taking free English as a second language classes on Mondays at the school.
• Leadership: Hope wouldn’t be where it is today without the passion and commitment of its three principals, but Donohue said that the school now needs to build a wider circle of leaders. Again, Hope’s principals say this is already happening with more responsibility being given to teachers.
“We live this job 24-7,” Petrosinelli said, “but we’re here to build a foundation. We want this to last after we’re gone.”
“These people have done an extraordinary amount of work. Hope is where we want it to be.”
Peter McWalters
commissioner of education Report highlights
What’s been accomplished
•The school is safe and orderly
•Hope has been divided into
three learning academies
•A strong leadership team
has been created
•A community of highly trained
teachers has been hired
•Student advisories are in place
•There are partnerships
with local colleges
What’s still to be done
•Increase student attendance
•Share leadership among staff
•Increase parent involvement
•Make major repairs to the building
•Raise student performance
“These people have done an extraordinary amount of work. Hope is where we want it to be.”
Peter McWalters
commissioner of education
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