Leadership Project

As an educator for over thirty-two years, I have had the privilege and honor of teaching brilliant students from kindergarten through eighth grade. Teaching in the inner city, most of my students come from low socio-economic status. Some of my students are children of immigrants or immigrants themselves. Some of my students have been identified as Gifted. Others have special needs. Most are English Language Learners (ELs). As an English Learner myself, I have always been interested in working with English Learners. I am well aware how this population of students is often marginalized and underserved by the current school system. My leadership goal for working with ELs is to deeply examine how instruction is provided to our ELs, to identify how instruction leaves ELs behind, and to engage stakeholders in being rigorous in the implementation of instruction for ELs.

When I entered school in the 1970’s I experienced what my students encounter today: having to learn the core subjects while acquiring a new language. This, by no means, is an easy task.  As a social justice leader, I am aware of the equity issues that English Learners face. So, I began my journey into English Learners by looking at data and digging in. As I looked at the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) and at the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) data at Loreto Street Elementary, I saw the gap that continues to exist between ELs and the rest of the students. The SBA data in ELA and SBA data in Math indicates that ELs are lagging behind when compared to ALL students. In SBA ELA, over the course of three years, there is an equity gap of an average of 34 points when focusing on ALL students and ELs. In SBA Math, over the course of three years, there is an equity gap of an average of 24 points when focusing on ALL students and ELs. Additionally, Summative ELPAC shows that students are not moving up in their English Language Development (ELD)  Levels. The percentage of ELs at Levels 1 and 2 is 52.36% while ELD Level 4 is 13.98%. I would like to address the equity gap faced by English Learners in terms of their academic progress. My goal and guiding question for Reciprocal Learning Partnership (RLP) was: How can high impact instruction affect English Learners? 

My leadership goal in this fieldwork was largely based in the collaborative facilitation of my meetings, through a "Reciprocal Learning Partnership" (RLP), a learning space where every member had a voice and everyone was engaged. Each member's positionality was valued and affirmed, and every member took an active role in the work around English Learners. When I first met with my leadership team at Loreto, I shared the data that I gathered from SBAC and ELPAC. Once we agreed that addressing ELD instruction was our problem of practice we were ready to dig into the work. Each member gave input based on their positionality and identity. The Title One Coordinator for Loreto felt that students with special needs are the ones being impacted the most. As a former RSP teacher, she is aware that many ELs are also RSP students. The Primary Promise Teacher who works with primary grades felt that EL students with disabilities are the ones being marginalized. In working with his students, he sees first hand how a handful of ELs are also in special education. The upper grade intervention coordinator explained that she sees that our upper grade students are the ones who are most affected. She has seen how much upper grade students struggle with ELPAC and SBA. I, myself, agreed with the Intervention Coordinator. I have seen how my students in the upper grades struggle in school, both in learning the content and in acquiring the English Language. Furthermore, in my experience, upper grade students have a difficult time with reclassification, which is often seen as the  major goal for English Learners. After much discussion, our team agreed to do this work while focusing on English Learners who are also identified as having special needs (SPED).

At this initial conversation, we decided to take an active role as advocates for our English Learners. The Title One Coordinator said she would create a bulletin board on EL Reclassification and also plan a professional development for teachers on the reclassification process. Additionally, she said she would meet with individual students to set goals for their language acquisition. The Primary Promise Teacher stated that he would be working with SPED kids in his group and would monitor their progress. The Intervention Coordinator stated she would work with upper grade English Learners who are also SPED, and she would monitor their progress. I made a commitment to providing professional development on English Language Development for the staff  and also providing some model lessons for teachers. Additionally, my role would be to check in on the progress of our team. I was also interested in participating in the school’s  Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle of improvement in writing. There would be a special focus on writing as seen through the lens of English Learners. This is something that would come later in the school year, and I wanted to join in this endeavor. The goal for all of this work was for improving the instruction of English Learners to empower them to gain the skills necessary for achieving reclassification and also for having them improve in their SBA testing. We anticipated short term goals of improvement in student’s scores in the district’s literacy assessment, known as the “Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills” (DIBELS).  We all agreed that using progress monitoring in both the lower grades and upper grades would be our way of measuring improvement in our English Learners. We expected students to move up in their ELD levels and we also expected an improvement in the reclassification rate at this school, which was 5.9% for the 2021-2022 school year. (LAUSD Open Data). The long term goal was to improve Einstruction and to make it rigorous for our ELs, thereby impacting them in a positive way on their road to reclassification and beyond.

After our initial meeting, I worked with teachers, staff and parents, in addressing the academic needs of our English Learners. The first step was to provide professional development (PD)  for the teachers and staff. Our professional development was presented in two parts. The Title One coordinator delivered the first professional development on English Language Development. Her PD  was on the reclassification process and on the different English Learner student profiles. This helped teachers see exactly what students needed in order to reclassify.

The professional development that I delivered was on incorporating constructive conversational skills and academic discourse with English Learners. The intention with this PD was to provide teachers with a starting point for focusing on Designated ELD that incorporates the four domains present on the ELPAC test: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. The hope was that having this high impact instruction would positively affect English Learners.

Every member took an active role in the work around English Learners. While the Title One Coordinator and I provided professional development for the teachers, the Primary Promise Teacher and the Intervention Coordinator created a progress monitoring schedule for the English Learners. All of the team members followed through on the work we set out to do. I also spoke directly with the principal on numerous occasions, asking for input on the needs of Loreto teachers. By taking these action steps, I continued to address the equity issues faced by EL/SPED students. 

At our second RLP meeting, I asked team members to bring back data on the results from focused work with English Learners who also have special needs.The results were very positive. All students showed growth in their DIBELS progress monitoring. The students made steady gains, and even though at times the gains were small, students continued to move up closer to benchmark as indicated by their scores. As team members presented their data, we discussed the results. These conversations allowed for members to explain the work that contributed to the positive results. The Primary Promise Teacher explained that he worked with individual students, and he incorporated different learning modalities with his students. He also used “Orton Gillingham” to provide a systematic, specific, goal-oriented approach, and he involved the teachers in the creation of goals for his students. The Intervention Coordinator explained that she used “Orton Gillingham” and Total Physical Response(TPR) with her students. She worked with individual students and informed them of their progress. The data results showed we were on the right track. By being explicit with goals and by being intentional with lessons, we were, indeed, addressing the needs of our English Learners with special needs. We were excited to see that our work was impacting our students and also addressing the District's Literacy Goal. 

Another part of my field work was to model some lessons in second grade classrooms. These lessons were an extension of the professional development that I provided for Loreto. These lessons incorporated constructive conversations and academic language. The intention with model lessons was to aid teachers with the implementation of Designated ELD that is impactful to students.

In doing these lessons, I purposefully used “Talking Chips”, a KAGAN strategy to encourage English Learners to participate in constructive conversations. Here, too, the results were positive. Using “Talking Chips” held all students, including English Learners, accountable for participation in the conversation. In the first classroom, 4 out of the English Learners participated in conversations with 3 or more exchanges. In the second classroom, 5 out of the 7 English Learners participated in 3 or more exchanges. This conversational piece is important as Listening and Speaking are two of the domains tested on the Summative ELPAC, which is given to students as one of the criteria for reclassification. 

After a few weeks of doing this work, our team reconvened again to revisit our goals and to see the progress of our students. By now, we were at the end of the school year and teachers were giving the DIBELS End Of the Year (EOY) assessment. The final DIBELS data for ELs/SPED showed growth for ALL students who were tested. The targeted instruction given to these English Learners with special needs proved to work. Our team had met the first goal of building the students capacity in their literacy skills. We had yet to see the results of reclassification.

As I look back on my field work project, I see that the work was sometimes “all over the place”.  As the team facilitator, I tried targeting instruction from many angles: from providing professional development to teachers and staff, to doing model lessons, to having a team that provided targeted instruction for the students and monitored student progress on a regular basis. Additionally, I met with the principal numerous times and also provided parent workshops as a way to engage parents as advocates of their children. The challenge I faced with doing this work was maintaining a cohesive structure to the project due to my multiple school site responsibilities. Because I provide support to seven schools, and I also assist at the Early Education Centers, it was challenging doing this work while also making sure that I continued to visit the schools assigned to me as a Kindergarten Readiness Instructional Coach. I often felt like I was playing “catch up”. The process seemed “choppy” to me. I would visit Loreto, work with the team, and then I was off doing my other duties with the Kindergarten Readiness Team at my other schools. At times, I felt that the plan was not coming together in a cohesive way.

Our equity actions and ideas around English Learners changed in that we were not able to accomplish all of our implementation goals, and we had to accept that some of the work would have to be executed in the next school year. We were able to address the Listening and Speaking Domains through professional development and through the model lessons. The Reading Domain was addressed in the work done by the Primary Promiste Teacher and the Intervention Coordinator.  However, we did not have time to work on the Writing Domain. In speaking to the principal, writing was something that the school was already focusing on, but it is also something that we were going to address in the field work.  Yet, we ran out of time. There simply weren’t enough weeks to go through an improvement cycle in this area.  It was decided that writing through the lens of English Learners is something that Loreto Elementary will continue to focus on next year. 

If I could do this work differently, I would create a year-long schedule with preset dates for our RLP conversations. I would also set mini goals for each meeting, and I would organize my work a bit more. Because I was not at Loreto on a regular basis, it was hard to do the work in a way that seemed cohesive and focused.  Often, I had to “jump in” to do the work, but then would have to stop and spend time finding out where everyone was at. This meant that our meetings sometimes felt a bit “disjointed”. Getting our group together was also a challenge, because everyone is so busy with their own duties at the school. Yet, even with what seemed “all over the place”, our work speaks to the positive change that was created with our targeted group of students, both in kindergarten and upper grades. All students improved in their DIBELS, both in the progress monitoring that occurred every two weeks, and in the DIBELS End of the Year (EOY) assessment.

Something to consider for the future is a more focused look at English Learners in terms of what is already available to them. I would like to look at the instructional materials that the school has adopted and take a deep dive into how the adopted program already addresses the needs of English Learners. Then, I would search for what is missing and spend time with other teachers creating materials and lessons that would benefit our students. Since programs last about seven years, it is important for educators to be aware of the instructional materials available to the students and to make the necessary adaptations in order to address the needs of our diverse learners. 

Having a strong group of individuals in this field group project is what created the positive change for our students. The team members all brought their expertise, their drive, and their positionality to this space. Because each one was already invested in working with English Learners, each member was eager to work on this project. The Primary Promise Teacher has direct interaction with ELs in TK, K, 1st, and 2nd grade. His perspective on ELs and their developmental needs was critical in supporting the educational focus of English Language Development. The Intervention Coordinator educator has direct interaction with ELs in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. Her perspective on ELs and their developmental needs were critical in supporting English Language Development. The Title 1 Coordinator works very closely with the principal on the implementation of the EL program at this school. She plans PD, monitors EL progress, conducts ELD lesson observations, provides model lessons, and helps oversee the administration of the ELPAC. She also holds meetings with teachers of English Learners and meets with EL students to set goals for their acquisition of the English language. The Title 1 Coordinator also oversees the English Learner Advisory Committee (ELAC) made up of parents and teachers. Her perspective on ELs and their developmental needs was critical in supporting the educational focus: ELs and their struggles with English Language Acquisition. In my community of practice, I brought thirty-two years of teaching experience both as a teacher and as an out of classroom support person. I brought my expertise of working with students from kindergarten to eighth grade. I brought my passion for working with English Learners, and I also brought my own personal experience of being an English Learner when I began my schooling as a kindergartener. By having the personal experience of being an English Learner myself, I had the sensitivity to understand what our English Learners go through as they maneuver the school system. This positionality kept me focused on the work that needed to be done to positively impact our English Learners.

The principal, too, brought a lot to the table.  As a Latina woman who is also bilingual, the principal saw the benefit of this leadership project, and she was always a strong proponent of the work. The principal’s positionality helped drive the work, and many times I was given the Instructional Leadership Team’s meeting time as a time for me to gather my team members to review our work and to hold the RLP conversations. At the end of the school year, the principal  informed me about the reclassification of students at Loreto. She told me that the school had reclassified twelve students, a very high number for Loreto. This means that our goal of improving the reclassification rate for Loreto has been achieved. The reclassification of twelve students is equivalent to 12% of the English Learners. That’s double the reclassification rate of the 2021-2022 school year. This rate of reclassification has never happened at Loreto. Additionally, the principal informed me that there is a good chance that four more students will reclassify, bringing the percentage of reclassification for 2022-2023 to 16%. This, indeed, was a testament to the work that everyone did with English Learners, from our team members that participated in the RLP conversations to all the work teachers did in their classrooms.  This collaboration impacted our students in a very positive way.

The experiences and skills that I brought to this field work experience include professionalism, dedication, passion, flexibility, and organization. Because I have been an educator for thirty-two years and have had the privilege of teaching wonderful students from grades kindergarten to eighth grade, I see the trajectory of education from our youngest learners all the way to middle school. I am also very passionate and dedicated to the education of all my students but ELs hold a special place in my heart due in part to the fact that I am English learner myself  My professionalism and organization are evident in my being able to juggle this field work while also adhering to my Kindergarten Readiness duties and  responsibilities as my respective schools. 

When I look at my field work project, I see that I have been heavily influenced by Improvement Science and Culturally Responsive Leadership. Improvement Science helped shape my work into tangible steps that followed a Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle (PDSA). We first looked at English Learners’ data as our starting point and we made decisions based on the data (PLAN). Then, each of us was responsible for taking action in our respective roles at the school (DO).  We came back together to look at the results (STUDY). Finally, we made informed decisions based on the findings.(ACT).  It was this cycle of improvement that focused our labor so that we were continuously working to improve the instruction of English Learners.

I am also very influenced by Culturally Responsive Leadership. I understand how important it is to be culturally responsive and culturally sustaining when teaching students. When I did the model lessons, I took into account the students’ cultural and linguistic background. I also made sure to choose culturally relevant images for the constructive conversations model lessons that I did in the second grade classrooms. Additionally, I affirmed the students’ language and incorporated numerous protocols and discussion techniques to include all diverse learners. I am a firm believer that all of our students are intelligent and that they bring a lot to the table. It is up to me to meet my students where they are and to provide opportunities for all students to benefit from each other’s knowledge.

Moving forward, I will continue to lead with a social justice lens. I will work on closing the achievement gaps of English Learners. I will pursue my leadership goal of deeply examining how instruction is provided to our ELs and continue to engage stakeholders in being rigorous in the implementation of education for ELs. I plan to meet my students where they are at, and I will do the heavy work. I will uplift my students and embrace them with all of their brilliance, and support them on their way to reclassification and the world beyond reclassification.