Check in #2 – Root causes, Goal and Objectives
1. Which additional data did you gather to inform your thinking on the problem?
This week I started with this year's CELDT scores for my school, and then I examined the CELDT scores from 2011-2014. I examined the change in data over time by gathering it into this table:
1. Which additional data did you gather to inform your thinking on the problem?
This week I started with this year's CELDT scores for my school, and then I examined the CELDT scores from 2011-2014. I examined the change in data over time by gathering it into this table:
Some things I noticed from this data:
2. Root causes of the problem you have identified
Organizational culture - While there is an awareness that the ELs at our site tend to struggle, and that many get “stuck” at the Early Advanced level, there hasn’t been a real focus on improving these issues as part of our school’s mission. We haven’t gone beyond identifying the issue and there isn’t a message from administration that guides teachers to create action plans to make a difference in this area
External factors - Socioeconomic status; limited parent involvement; absenteeism; no curriculum for English language development
Organizational structure - Class sizes are 30+, often as high as 36, so there is limited opportunity for differentiation; one support staff on site (classified) trained in support of ELs
Student demographics - EL population is a minority at the site, ELs at Dana are not attending their home school (no data on why parents choose to send their students to a school other than their home school)
Instruction and preparation/Curriculum - Limited professional development for staff (1 QTEL PD offered for cross-curricular staff, a 2nd for ELA only); 1 ALD (Acquisition Language Development) class available (6th grade only); no English language development curriculum available from the district
3. Possible SMART Goal: English learners will make consistent growth in English language levels as scored on the annual CELDT assessment.
Possible Objectives:
- a large increase of ELs in the 2012-13 school year
- a 7% increase in students scoring Advanced from 2013 to 2014
- a drop in students scoring Early Advanced from 2013 to 2014
- a 6% increase in students scoring Intermediate from 2013 to 2014
- there is a statistically small group of students at the Beginning level
- this data looks at different groups of students each year
2. Root causes of the problem you have identified
Organizational culture - While there is an awareness that the ELs at our site tend to struggle, and that many get “stuck” at the Early Advanced level, there hasn’t been a real focus on improving these issues as part of our school’s mission. We haven’t gone beyond identifying the issue and there isn’t a message from administration that guides teachers to create action plans to make a difference in this area
External factors - Socioeconomic status; limited parent involvement; absenteeism; no curriculum for English language development
Organizational structure - Class sizes are 30+, often as high as 36, so there is limited opportunity for differentiation; one support staff on site (classified) trained in support of ELs
Student demographics - EL population is a minority at the site, ELs at Dana are not attending their home school (no data on why parents choose to send their students to a school other than their home school)
Instruction and preparation/Curriculum - Limited professional development for staff (1 QTEL PD offered for cross-curricular staff, a 2nd for ELA only); 1 ALD (Acquisition Language Development) class available (6th grade only); no English language development curriculum available from the district
3. Possible SMART Goal: English learners will make consistent growth in English language levels as scored on the annual CELDT assessment.
Possible Objectives:
- 5-7% of the English learner students at Dana will score at a higher CELDT level by the end of the 2015-16 school year.
- The number of students achieving honor roll status will increase by 5% in the 2015-16 school year.