NORTHWEST

EDUCATION

SPRING 2006 / VOLUME 11. NUMBER 3.

A PUBLICATION OF THE NORTHWEST REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL LABORATORY

THE CHANGING 

FACE OF THE 

CLASSROOM

SERVING ELL STUDENTS

Measuring progress toward fluency 14

Building family ties 26

Connecting online to Mexico 34
C2 nwrel.org/nwedu

ON THE COVER

Classrooms across the nation are becoming increasingly diverse with more than five million students identified

as Limited English Proficient. Spanish is spoken by 79 percent of those students, while Vietnamese (at 2 percent)

and Hmong (at 1.5 percent) rank second and third respectively. In the Northwest, the top languages spoken by

LEP students vary from state to state:

State % LEP #1 Language #2 Language #3 Language

Alaska 16.3% Yup’ik (38.6%) Inupiaq (11.2%) Spanish (10%)

Idaho 8.1% Spanish (78.8%) Native American (5.6%) Serbo-Croatian (3%)

Montana 4.7% Blackfoot (25.2%) Crow (15.6%) Dakota (10.6%)

Oregon 11.2% Spanish (72.5%) Russian (8.4%) Vietnamese (3.6%)

Washington 6.9% Spanish (60.9%) Russian (7.5%) Vietnamese (6.4%)

Source: Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students

(2002)

Main photo by Craig Volpe
NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 1

Web exclusives at nwrel.org/nwedu/

6

30

34

14

FEATURES

6 Creating Believers

An Oregon school district with large numbers of Hispanic and Russian

students strives to give everyone two languages.

14 The Next Step: Assessment and 

the English Language Learner

States follow their own paths in the scramble to meet new NCLB testing

requirements.

The Role of Language

Educational consultant Gary Hargett shares his views on why many ELL

students aren’t making the progress they could.

20 Everyone’s Child

Two school districts—Anchorage, Alaska, and Federal Way, Washington—take

different approaches to serving children who speak everything from Aleut to

Zuni.

26 Forging Family Ties

For parents who speak limited or no English, getting involved in their

children’s schools means conquering real and perceived obstacles.

30 Speaking the Same Language

In a school with the dual challenges of poverty and language, a bilingual staff

provides personal proof of the transforming power of education.

Building a Bilingual Staff

Principal Connie Strawn of Lewis & Clark Elementary in Wenatchee,

Washington, offers practical advice on creating an award-winning, bilingual

staff—even in the face of stiff opposition.

34 Portal to Opportunity

From remedial reading to calculus, an online program from Mexico connects

Hispanic students in Washington’s Yakima Valley with the courses they need.

Meeting the Need for Professional Development

In rural Montana and Oregon communities, ELL teachers tap into training crafted

by partnerships of Educational Service Districts, universities, and providers like

NWREL.

NORTHWEST

EDUCATION

CONTENTS / SPRING 2006 THE CHANGING FACE OF THE CLASSROOM VOL. 11 / NO. 3
2 nwrel.org/nwedu/

DEPARTMENTS

3 Forum

4 Editor’s Note

19 Region at a Glance

ELL Enrollment Rate by County

25 Q&A

Oregon School Superintendent Susan Castillo

39 Voices

From Surviving to Thriving

40 Research Brief

What the Research Says About Effective Strategies

for ELL Students

43 End Note

I Would Like You To Know

44 NWREL News

This new section brings readers up to date on the

Laboratory’s products, people, and services.

NWREL Launches Rigorous Scientific Studies

Training Blends SIOP and Equity Components

Culturally Responsive, Standards-Based Teaching

Helping ELL Students Grow in Math 

What’s New on the Web

Conference Call

Flashback

NWREL Products

What the Research Says (or Doesn’t Say)

Assessing the Benefits of K–8 Schools

In this new department, NWREL’s Office of Planning

and Service Coordination shares answers to questions

from the field on timely topics like grade

configuration.

On the Web

Northwest Education is available online in both 

PDF and HTML versions at www.nwrel.org/nwedu/.

Look for Web exclusives, marked with .

Northwest Education is published three times a year by the

Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. Past and current

issues of the magazine are available at www.nwrel.org/nwedu/.

ISSN 1546-5020

Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Carol F. Thomas

Deputy Executive Officer

Dr. Robert E. Blum

Administrative Director, Development and Communications

Dave Wilson

Editor

Rhonda Barton

Assistant Editor

Bracken Reed

NWREL News Writers/Photographers

Vicki Jean Beauchamp, Kate Fitzgibbon, Michael Heavener, 

Paula Surmann

Technical Editor

Eugenia Cooper Potter

Design

Denise Crabtree

Data Analyst

Richard Greenough

Library Support

Linda Fitch

Webmaster

Vicki Jean Beauchamp

Circulation

Lorelei Aldridge

Statement of Purpose

Northwest Education aims to promote a regional dialogue and to elevate teaching and learning by giving readers the best information,

ideas, and personal stories from practitioners, researchers, and other

experts. 

Copyright © 2006, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. 

Articles and information in this publication may be reproduced and

distributed without permission for nonprofit educational and professional development purposes. Please acknowledge NWREL as

the source.

NORTHWEST

EDUCATION 
NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 3

Struggling Readers

As a teacher with 15 years of experience, I know that the article (“Why

Can’t I Read?,” spring 2003) was accurate in the three-tier approach, the PA

mentions, the need for systematic

phonics instruction, and the use of

high-interest materials. I was originally

looking for information on the correlation between poor letter formation and

the ability to read and write. Why is it

that when a struggling reader also

writes poorly we think it’s an indication

of a lack of literacy skills, but when a

child who reads easily and writes well

has poor letter formation we say it’s

because of their genius? 

Toni Morgan

Bilingual Teacher

Plainfield, Illinois

Dual-Purpose Libraries

Do you know of any cases in which

public libraries have been placed inside

elementary schools (“Community

Connectivity,” fall 2003)? I’m working

on a project in which the school district

is interested in partnering with the

local library system to build a library

within a new elementary school they

are planning. 

However, there are a host of

issues—security, accessibility, etc.—

that we must address to make this

work. Has this been done before? If so,

where, and can you provide a contact?

Richard LeBlanc

Architect

Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania

Northwest Education responds:

We’ve discovered a few resources.

According to the following Web site,

Alaska has explored this issue:

www.library.state.ak.us/dev/aslld.html.

Also, we recently had a visitor from

Montana, who is both a county librarian and a school librarian: Julie Hainline, Seeley-Swan High School,

Missoula Public School District,

www.mcps.k12.mt.us/highschool/

seeleyswan/library/library.htm.

Considering Individual Needs

The fact that smaller class size contributes to a closer relationship

between a teacher and the students

leads one to believe that behavior problems should lessen (“Tapping the Benefits of Smaller Classes,” winter 2000). 

Behavioral problems are one of the

major factors used in evaluating students, and too often students of various

ethnicities are judged based on a traditional Eurocentric model of behavior.

That is not to say that a child should be

allowed to run all over the class whenever he/she feels like it, but rather that

a multiplicity of learning styles need to

be considered or the child could indeed

suffer.

We are learning that we need to do

more of what teachers used to do:

Spend more time learning how a 

student responds to various teaching

techniques.

Martin V. Tooley

School Founder

Daytona Beach, Florida

We want to hear from you! Send your

letters to the editor, article ideas, and

tips on places where good things are

happening to nwedufeedback@nwrel.

org. Letters may be edited for length or

clarity.

FORUM

NWREL BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Dr. Richard McCullough (Chair)

Adjunct Professor, Western Washington University

Jerry Colonna (Vice Chair)

Superintendent, Beaverton School District (OR)

Dr. John Davis (Secretary-Treasurer)

Superintendent, Bering Strait School District (AK)

Dr. Terry Bergeson

Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction

Susan Castillo

Oregon Superintendent of Public Instruction

Dr. Marilyn Howard

Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction

Linda McCulloch

Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction 

Roger Sampson

Alaska Commissioner of Education & Early Development

Doreen Brown (Parent Representative)

Supervisor, Indian Education, Anchorage School District (AK)

Karanja Crews

Teacher, Beaverton School District (OR)

Rubén Degollado 

Assistant Principal, Hillsboro School District (OR)

Rudy Edwards

School Board Member

Snoqualmie Valley School District (WA)

Dr. Joanne Erickson

Assistant Professor, Montana State University–Bozeman

Jeff Estes

Manager, Office of Science Education Programs, 

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (WA)

Jeri Harris

Teacher, Seattle School District (WA)

Dr. Larry Harris

Dean, Idaho State University

Dennis Haverlandt 

Teacher, Great Falls School District (MT)

Jerry Keane 

Superintendent, Post Falls School District (ID)

Nancy Larsen

Teacher, Coeur d’Alene School District (ID)

Richard Mauer

Chair, Alaska State Board of Education & Early Development

Dr. Bill McDiarmid

Professor, University of Washington

Dr. Geoffrey Mills

Dean, Southern Oregon University 

Ted Popplewell

Principal, Oregon Trail Elementary School, Twin Falls (ID) 

John Pugh (Ex-Officio)

Chancellor, University of Alaska Southeast

Kay Purcell

Principal, St. Rose Parish School, Longview (WA)

Barbara Riley

Community/Business Representative, Missoula (MT)

Perla Rodriguez (Parent Representative)

Principal, Cornelius School District (OR)

Dr. Timothy Skinner

Superintendent, St. Ignatius School District, Ronan (MT)

Carol VanDerWege

Teacher, Kenai Peninsula Borough School District (AK)

Joan Parker Webster

Associate Professor, University of Alaska Fairbanks
4 nwrel.org/nwedu/

“Language exerts hidden power,

like a moon on the tides.”

—Rita Mae Brown, Starting From

Scratch

The power of language is perhaps

nowhere more evident than in the

classroom. It forms the basis of

learning and can be an almost insurmountable barrier for some

children who enter our schools without English proficiency.

Ten years ago, the first issue of Northwest Education spotlighted “The Hispanic Child.” Its stories provided descriptions of “teachers and administrators who are reaching across

the cultural and linguistic divide to educate the newcomers.”

A decade later, the divide has grown wider and Hispanic students—who make up the largest minority group in Northwest classrooms—have been joined by growing numbers of

newcomers from countries that were once just distant locations in an atlas: from Somalia and Sudan to the Ukraine,

Cambodia, and Laos. Indeed, today one in 12 Northwest students has limited English proficiency—even if they were

born in the United States—and the number of Hispanic students in the region is increasing by 7 percent each year.

Giving these children a strong foundation in the language

of our education system has become not only an equity and

social justice issue, but one with federal consequences.

Under No Child Left Behind, states must meet “annual

measurable achievement objectives” on students’ progress

toward English proficiency. In addition, the performance of

these students on state reading, mathematics, and science

tests enters into the mix when determining whether schools

are making adequate yearly progress. 

As Arlene Sandberg, an English as a Second Language

(ESL) resource teacher in Anchorage, points out, “The classroom is changing. Before, it was, ‘this kid’s bilingual, that’s

bilingual’s problem.’ A lot of classroom teachers never saw

their role as a stakeholder in a child’s achievement if the child

was bilingual or special education. You can’t do that anymore.

This child belongs to all of us.”

State assessments in reading and math reveal that achievement gaps between English language learners (ELL) and all

students range from 21 to 57 percent in the Northwest. How

to attack the gap has spawned highly charged debates over

program models and legislative policies at a time when tensions are rising over a national immigration bill. There is

even disagreement over how to describe children who are not

fluent English speakers: ELL, LEP, ESL, or EAL (English as

an additional language). We have chosen to use the term

English language learner throughout this publication, unless

another term is used in an official capacity.

Rather than focus on the contentious issues, this Northwest

Education edition looks at how schools and districts are tailoring ELL instruction to match their demographics and their

resources; differences among the new state language proficiency assessments; and approaches to key concerns like

parental involvement. Also in this issue, we introduce a new

section—NWREL News—with information on the Laboratory’s current research, products, and services. 

As always, we welcome your feedback and information on

how your school is meeting today’s educational challenges.

—Rhonda Barton, bartonr@nwrel.org 

EDITOR‘S NOTE

Photo: Craig Volpe
5

NORTHWEST EDUCATION FEATURES

THE CHANGING FACE

OF THE CLASSROOM

SPRING 2006 / VOL. 11. NO. 3

A rural Oregon district promotes biliteracy for everyone 6

States try different approaches to language proficiency tests 14

Urban school districts grapple with up to 95 native languages 20

Schools work to engage families of ELL students 26 

A committed principal builds a bicultural staff 30

Online courses link Mexico and Washington’s Yakima Valley 34
WOODBURN, Oregon—A bright blue band circles Walt

Blomberg’s wrist. Etched in the hard plastic is one word—

BELIEVE—in English, Spanish, and Russian. To Superintendent Blomberg, it represents both a promise and a challenge:

to ensure that every child graduates from Woodburn schools

literate in English and one other language.

Blomberg ordered 1,000 of the bracelets for teachers,

administrators, students, and parents in December after conducting a staff survey that asked, “Do you believe our kids can

be successful?” Blomberg admits, “I was disappointed with

the results, and I challenged the staff to explore what came out

of the survey and how we could change that. When I gave

these [bracelets] out, I said, ‘This is about believing in our

students and in each other. If we believe, we can succeed.’”

Signs of success are already abundant in the 4,700-student

district, which is 73 percent Hispanic, 11 percent Russian,

and 16 percent Anglo American. All but one of the district’s

seven schools ranked satisfactory or strong in academic performance on the Oregon report card; one elementary school

recently won a coveted state award for closing the achievement gap; the district has been a leader in attracting and

retaining bilingual and bicultural staff; and a “grow your

own” program is helping both teachers and educational aides

ramp up their skills and credentials.

Still, the high-poverty district faces its share of problems:

a middle school that is scrambling to dig out of Year 5 of AYP

sanctions; a high school striving to improve its graduation

rate by breaking into four smaller academies; and a community where immigrant cultures are stratified into even finer

layers based on religion, urban versus rural roots, and length

of time in the United States.

Coming Together

Located 35 miles south of Portland, Woodburn is a study in

contrasts. In the largely Hispanic commercial district,

bustling tacquerías feature tripe, beef brains, and pork rinds

with hot sauce. Newly arrived workers from Oaxaca and

Guadalajara toil in the surrounding nurseries and food processing plants. On the edge of the fields, one of Oregon’s

largest outlet malls offers pricey Ralph Lauren and Brooks

Brothers labels in tastefully appointed shops. Across the freeway, a prosperous retirement community hugs the golf

course. Russian Old Believers and Pentecostals till nearby

farms, quietly keeping to themselves and adhering to centuries-old religious traditions.

The Chamber of Commerce promotes Woodburn as “The

City of Unity.” But unifying the diverse groups and making

certain that all are well-served by the school system is a complex juggling act—particularly as two-thirds of the students

are English language learners. Meeting the community’s

needs has required innovation, perseverance, and even a certain amount of proselytizing. “As many people who want

access to foreign languages, there are others who say ‘if you

Creating

BELIEVERS

Story by RHONDA BARTON

Photos by CRAIG VOLPE

Weaving

together English,

Spanish, and Russian,

an Oregon school district

aims at biliteracy 

for all students.

6 nwrel.org/nwedu/
CREO

ВЕРИтЬ

7
come to America, you should speak English,’” observes

Blomberg. “I try to personalize the issue, and ask them if you

could still speak the language of your grandparents, wouldn’t

you make that choice? I’ve never had anyone say no. After all,

why eliminate one language when you can have two?”

An Impetus for Change

Woodburn’s trajectory toward a bilingual system began

nearly 10 years ago when Walt Blomberg’s predecessor gathered a strategic planning team of almost three dozen parents,

staff, students, and community leaders. Sherrilynn Rawson,

now principal of Nellie Muir Elementary, was one of the

team members. She remembers “the real impetus for

change” when she arrived at the district in the mid-1990s:

“We recognized that the early successes we were having in

elementary school weren’t translating to the middle and high

schools, and if students even made it to high school, they

were dropping out before graduation.” 

The planning team delved into research and groups of parents and teachers fanned out, visiting schools in New Mexico,

Texas, California, and Washington. “Rather than looking for a

particular label or program, we were looking for those practices that seemed to be common to all schools that were effective in teaching English language learners,” says Rawson. The

research and site visits were boiled down to lists of characteristics of successful programs, staffing, and instruction.

That formed the genesis of Woodburn’s English Transition Program, which offered five different models of teaching Spanish- and Russian-speaking students. The models

ranged from English-only instruction to dual-language, sheltered English, and both early-exit and late-exit options combining native language and sheltered English. The program

helped students make the transition to English during a fiveyear period.

“We’ve continued to evolve in our thinking,” notes Rawson, “moving away from using native language instruction as

an implicit way to get at English to having native language

instruction explicitly as another goal.” And district leaders

went one step further: They reasoned that if children in the

transition program actually came out bilingual, why not

extend that opportunity to every student? 

Welcome to Woodburn

All newcomers to the district—whether they speak English

or another language at home—begin their academic journey

at the Welcome Center, a homey beige building with flower

boxes and bright red shutters. Students and their adults are

greeted by bilingual Russian and Spanish staff members who

record all the important family information. English language learners are quickly assessed using the WoodcockMuñoz Language Survey or its Russian counterpart. To help

students feel comfortable, the tests take place just off the

main waiting area, in a room with a large interior window so

children can maintain visual contact with their family.

“We explain to the parents what we offer,” says David

Bautista, director of bilingual education and a native of

Guadalajara. “If you want your children to become bilingual,

this is what we have. If you want a traditional English-only

program, we have that, too.” Most pick the bilingual option.

It’s Bautista’s responsibility to make sure that each school

has the tools to fulfill that agenda. He works with principals

on professional development plans, locates resources, and

manages the bilingual coordinators assigned to each building.

Although it’s not part of his official job description, Bautista

also leads annual trips to Mexico where Woodburn staff members—including Superintendent Blomberg—get a glimpse of

8 nwrel.org/nwedu/

First-graders take turns reading aloud in Spanish in Ronda Johnson’s dual-immersion class. 
their students’ roots. Once the Woodburn faculty compares its resources with those of Mexican teachers, “the whining usually stops,”

Bautista confides with a sly smile. On a more

serious note, he adds that the experience can be

transformational.

Back in Oregon, Bautista urges his colleagues to recognize that “a bilingual program

is everybody’s work. You see examples of

schools that are successful because of the

teachers, or principal, or coordinators. But

when you want a whole system that works, it

takes all of the pieces together.” 

A Shining Example

One of the brightest stars in Woodburn’s firmament is Nellie Muir Elementary, which pioneered the district’s Spanish-English dualimmersion program. The program draws kindergartners who

are English dominant, bilingual in English and Spanish, or

Spanish dominant. Beginning in kindergarten and first grade,

80 percent of the instructional day is conducted in Spanish and

20 percent in English. Each year, the mix changes until instruction is evenly split between the two languages in fifth grade.

About a third of the school’s current K–2 students are

enrolled in the two-way immersion program. Another third

follow a developmental bilingual program that works much

the same as dual immersion but all students are from Spanishspeaking families. A third option is called “English-plus”:

Here students receive instruction in English with 30–40 minutes of Spanish three or four times a week. In grades 3–5,

approximately two-thirds of today’s students are developmental bilingual and one-third are in the English-plus 

program, though dual-immersion enrollment

is expected to grow in the next few years as the

current K–2 students move up.

There’s no question that the program is

getting results. In March, Nellie Muir was

recognized by the Oregon Department of

Education as the state’s top school for closing

the achievement gap. The state based the

award on a comparison of individual students’

reading and math RIT scores in 2003 and

2005. Nellie Muir’s fifth-graders showed

improvement from their third-grade test

results in a number of categories: Economically disadvantaged students grew an average

of more than 16 points in math and 17 points

in reading. Latino students were up an average

of more than 17 points in math and 18 points

in reading. And English learners gained more

than 18 points in math and 19 points in reading. “These kinds

of gains are well above the state average gains for grades 3–5

(about 12 points),” notes Principal Rawson, “meaning that

these students are catching up in terms of overall state

achievement.”

Ask anyone at Nellie Muir what makes the school work so

well and they’re bound to credit the collegiality and distributed leadership. Rawson agrees. “Every teacher here has the

responsibility to be the resident expert in something,” she

says. “On our kindergarten team, one person is the math

expert, one’s literacy, and one is ESL. I know that if I’m the

designated math person, I need to meet with the math

experts in the other grades to make sure our programs vertically align. Because I focus on one area and trusted colleagues

take care of others, it makes the work load manageable.”

Rawson pays for substitutes during a half-day each month

to provide time for team meetings and professional development. Teachers also have common time each week since special classes—like library and music—are scheduled during

the same period for all students in the same grade.

Three-fourths of Nellie Muir’s faculty is bilingual or

bicultural, along with a similar number of classified employees. “Every link in the chain is strong,” says Rawson, “including the cafeteria and janitorial staff. We all expect the best

from the kids and create a culture of that.”

More Than Classmates

Just down the hall from Rawson’s office, there’s the hum of

two dozen first-graders simultaneously reading in Spanish in

Ronda Johnson’s dual-immersion classroom. In one corner,

TJ and Ashley share a work table with Dulce and Cesar.

Dulce points to each word as she mouths a poem, “Me Gusta

Comer” (“I Like To Eat”). Ashley is reading a book in Spanish and English on veterinarians, while TJ attacks a counting

book illustrated with “mariquitas” or mosquitoes. Cesar

NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 9

CREATING BELIEVERS

THE NUMBERS

Total students: 4,778

Dollars spent per student 

(2003–2004 school yr): $6,577

Administrators (FTE): 24

Teachers (FTE): 343

With a master’s degree or higher: 53.7%

ELL Students: 62%

Free and reduced-price lunch: 90%

Racial/ethnic make-up: Anglo 16%

Hispanic 73%

Russian 11%

For more information, 

www.woodburn.k12.or.us

Superintendent Walt Blomberg

believes in a “grow your own”

approach to staffing; almost two

dozen aides have become teachers

with the district’s support.
studies a notebook with photos of all of his classmates and

their favorite things. He learns that TJ is “talentoso” (talented) and likes “las tortugas” (turtles). Taking a break from

their books, TJ and Cesar head for the carpeted area to play a

math game with pastel-colored, plastic eggs.

Johnson recalls that TJ, one of nine siblings, barely spoke

a word of Spanish when he entered first grade—even though

he was in the immersion program in kindergarten.

“He was in a silent period, but within a month of being in

the classroom, it all clicked in. Now, he’s on grade level in

both Spanish and English,” she reports. “With Ashley too—

they make that jump all of a sudden and it becomes so natural now for them to be reading and writing in Spanish.”

In addition to the flowering of language ability, Johnson

observes something else emerging in her students. “Friendship between the cultures is one thing I see now. It’s exciting

to see blonde/blue-eyed children speaking Spanish and also

to see more English growth in my Spanish kids. That surprised me because we don’t use any more English than in the

bilingual classes, but the friendships have fostered that.”

Spreading the Word

Laurie Hoefer, the mother of a first-grader at Washington

Elementary, is sold on the dual-immersion program—not

only for its academic benefits, but for the social and cultural

benefits. “Having the ability to read and write Spanish well

will be a real asset in Gracie’s future,” she believes.

On a rainy winter evening, Hoefer is sharing her daughter’s experiences at a parent meeting at Heritage Elementary.

The school, which currently has 12 mainstream English

classrooms and a half-dozen Russian ones, will add Spanish

dual immersion in fall 2006. It is the last of Woodburn’s grade

schools to adopt the program. 

About three dozen Hispanic parents, some still in work

uniforms for local landscaping firms, have shown up for

pizza and testimonials on the program. The school is looking

to recruit up to 50 kindergarten and first-grade students, and

they’ve organized the meeting to answer parents’ questions.

Both Superintendent Blomberg and Bilingual Director

Bautista are on hand to show the district’s support.

To demonstrate how the program melds language and cultural elements, half the parents are given pictures of Mexican

families engaging in different traditions. The other half

receive printed stories about these rituals. Everyone circulates

around the room, matching the illustrations with the appropriate stories. Then, each table reads the stories and looks for

the characters and specific customs that are described.

The lesson underscores that while developing vocabulary,

students also learn to value Hispanic culture—whether it is

their home culture or that of their classmates. Señor Lopez,

whose daughter is in the program at Washington, thinks this

is one of the strongest reasons for parents like him to enroll

Woodburn’s two-way or dual-language immersion program is just

one of several program models that incorporate native language.

There are other major instructional methods for English language

learners that use varying degrees of native language or none at all.

As the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, & Excellence

(CREDE) points out in the 1999 publication Program Alternatives

for Linguistically Diverse Students, “No single approach or program model works best in every situation. Many different

approaches can be successful when implemented well. Local conditions, choices, and innovation are critical ingredients of success.”

Transitional Bilingual Programs (or Early-Exit Bilingual)—All students speak the same native language; instruction is in both

native language and English, with quick progression to all or most

instruction in English.

Developmental Bilingual Programs (or Late-Exit Bilingual)—All

students speak the same native language; at first, instruction is

mostly in the native language with more English instruction as students gain proficiency.

Two-Way Immersion (also known as Dual-Language or Bilingual

Immersion)—Ideally, half the students are English-speaking and

half are LEP students sharing the same native language; instruction is in both English and the native language.

Pull-Out English as a Second Language (ESL)—Students can

share the same native language or be from different language

backgrounds; students may be grouped with all ages and grade

levels. Instruction in English is adapted to the students’ proficiency level and is supplemented by gestures and visual aids.

Three common subdivisions of ESL instruction are:

EDUCATIONAL STRATEGIES FOR ELL STUDENTS

10 nwrel.org/nwedu/

Parents fresh from work attend an evening meeting that offers information and testimonials about a new Spanish dual-immersion program.

(At right) Anglo and Latino children mix easily in bilingual classes.
their children in dual immersion. He explains in Spanish, “If

we don’t maintain our first language, we get ‘Spanglish,’ and

we lose our culture to ‘Americanismo.’ My daughter now

comes home singing [traditional] songs and asking me questions about my experiences as a child. She’s excited and gaining self-esteem.” 

Another Hispanic parent adds—through an interpreter—

that even though 80 percent of the instruction is in Spanish,

her kindergarten student is “learning a lot of English fast.

She’s even able to translate for me at the store.” 

David Bautista reassures the parents that their children’s

skills in Spanish and English will continue to grow as they

advance in the system. “Woodburn is bilingual K–12,” he tells

them. “We’re one of the few districts that can say that because

other districts just have bilingual support in elementary

school.”

Meeting Individual Needs

Indeed, at Valor—the middle school adjacent to Heritage Elementary—the district’s commitment to serving three language groups is immediately evident. Signs and student work

in Russian, English, and Spanish brighten the corridors, reinforcing the district’s slogan: “Diverse in culture, united in

mission.” Newcomers with limited English build literacy

skills and content knowledge in their native language, as well

as English, while proficient students can choose from a variety of electives in English, Spanish, and Russian. 

In a conference room off the school’s library, named for

Cesar Chavez, three science teachers and a bilingual language

arts instructor collaborate on designing a biology lesson targeting all students’ needs. Guided by consultant Jody

Wiencek, they work on incorporating state language objectives—like making predictions and describing things—into a

class on genetics and heredity. The group agrees on the lesson’s content goal—“understand the transmission of traits in

living things”—and discusses how students might relate to the

word “transmission.” The goal will be posted prominently in

the classroom, along with separate language and social goals.

Marcia Wood, who will teach the lesson while her colleagues and principal observe, hands out a classroom seating

chart. It’s anything but random. Her students—Hispanic,

Russian, and Anglo—are grouped in tables of four with a mix

of English language proficiencies. Examining the chart,

Wiencek tells the teachers, “To meet kids’ needs, we really

have to think about differentiation and not be grey about it.

We need to know if they’re at the intermediate level, early

intermediate, and so on.” Wood fills the group in on which

students are on IEPs, who just came back from an extended

stay in Mexico, and who has health issues.

During the class, the observers will focus on different

tables, determining if each student understands the lesson and

performs at or above his or her English proficiency level.

They’ll also check to see if the students are fulfilling their designated roles as table captain, facilitator, recorder, or reporter.

In a debriefing session after the class, the teachers feel positive about the lesson. Principal Bill Rhoades is impressed

with the students’ ability to apply science terms they’ve previously learned. Erin Voelker observed kids helping each other

stay focused on the task and says the class has inspired her to

find more activities where her students can use different roles.

Robert Shearer says he learned that “getting through the activity isn’t as vital as getting to the ending: You need to reach closure where you go through your goals again.” Jody Wiencek

tells Wood, “It’s evident you have high expectations of your

students and are getting them to develop as a learning 

CREATING BELIEVERS

• Grammar-based—teaches about the language, including its

structure, functions, and vocabulary

• Communication-based—emphasizes using the language skillfully in meaningful contexts

• Content-based—attempts to develop language skills while

preparing students to study grade-level material in English

Structured Immersion (also known as Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English, Sheltered English, or Content-Based

ESL)—Students can share the same native language or be from different language backgrounds; instruction in English is adapted to

the students’ proficiency level, and supplemented by gestures and

visual aids. This method requires significant teaching skills in both

English language development and subject-specific instruction;

clearly defined language and content objectives; modified curriculum, supplementary materials, and alternative assessments.

SOURCES

National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition & Language Instruction Educational Programs. (Updated 2006, April 5).

Types of language instruction educational programs [Web page].

Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved April 6, 2006, from

www.ncela.gwu.edu/about/lieps/4_desc.html

Reed, B., & Railsback, J. (2003). Strategies and resources for mainstream teachers of English language learners. Portland, OR:

Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. Retrieved April 6,

2006, from www.nwrel.org/request/2003may/ell.pdf

NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 11
community.” Wood agrees that her students “know there’s

accountability because I revisit their daily goal.”

Principal Rhoades, himself a graduate of Woodburn

schools, places a high value on professional development

activities like this one—even to the point of substituting in

the classroom to free up teachers. “Our notion is that every

day can be a professional development day with our teams

and our ability to interact.” He adds, “It’s a good place to be

when you see people disappointed if they don’t get to go to

professional development. It means that they understand the

benefits and it becomes more likely it gets implemented in

the classroom.” Rhoades uses federal title dollars and NCLB

school improvement money to bring in consultants and purchase services, but his goal is to continue developing his

staff ’s capacity to do these activities on their own.

Restructuring

At the district’s other middle school, French Prairie, intensive professional development carries much higher stakes.

It’s seen as the “major key to our school transformation” and

a way to focus monthly on power standards. French Prairie is

in the uncomfortable position of undergoing restructuring as

a result of NCLB sanctions.

Principal Eric Swenson, who joined the school as a change

agent in 2005, says, “One of the first calls I received was from

an Associated Press reporter who wanted to know my thoughts

on being a new principal at one of the few middle schools in

the nation in the fifth year of corrective action. ... I replied

that I honestly wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

Swenson, together with his new assistant principal and

school improvement coordinator, have thrown themselves

into battle with a religious fervor. They hired 10 new teachers—including four new bilingual teachers—and rearranged

students in heterogeneous “small communities of learning.”

They’ve adopted a collaborative leadership approach,

increased the focus on authentic assessment, and added more

dual-language instruction and targeted English language

development classes.

They also went after parents in what Swenson calls an

“unrelenting” way, showing up at Wal-Mart and local apartment complexes to spread the word that French Prairie welcomed family and community involvement. As a result, 1,000

people showed up for the school’s first open house this fall.

Assistant Principal Edward Tabet admits that turning the

school around involves working 12-hour days and “trying to

build the plane as you’re flying it.” But with the support and

resources provided by Swenson, Blomberg, and Bautista, he

believes they can do it. School Improvement Coordinator

Paul LaBarre, a former Jesuit volunteer, agrees that a lot is

riding on their efforts. “Middle school is where we have to

fight the fight,” he says. “We can’t just send them off to high

school unprepared.”

Finishing the Journey

Woodburn High, the district’s only high school, is waging its

own fight to hold onto students and to make their last years

in school more rigorous and relevant. With the help of an

Oregon Small Schools grant, the high school is breaking into

four academies next fall. At a series of assemblies, Woodburn

teachers try to drum up enthusiasm for small schools that

will focus on international studies, business, communications, and arts and science. Each of the academies will offer

advisories and the opportunity to enroll in International Baccalaureate classes. Currently, about 20 percent of Woodburn’s students take at least one IB course, but the faculty

hopes to see those numbers grow.

David Winterburn, the school’s bilingual coordinator,

describes the student body as very heterogeneous—from

recent immigrants to Spanish speakers born in Oregon. Students come from Mexico or Eastern Europe with grade-level

academics or barely any formal schooling. “Our biggest challenge is trying to meet all their needs and making sure teachers have the proper training to work with students whose first

language isn’t English,” says Winterburn, whose own language skills include Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Cape

Verdean and Guinea-Bissaun Creole.

Tom Gazzola, the assistant vice principal for curriculum,

sees the restructuring as a way to make huge changes that will

benefit all students—no matter whether they’ve just arrived

from Moldavia or are Woodburn born and bred. “Breaking

into small schools shakes everybody up,” he says. “It makes

them think about what’s possible. And while it’s possible to

take an ocean liner of a school and make changes, it’s easier

with a rowboat.”

In the front hallway of the high school—right under the

banner that says welcome in Russian, Spanish, and English—

senior Yesenia Chavez reflects on what it’s like to be a product of the Woodburn School District. “The best thing is you

become more open to people because it’s so diverse,” she

says. “You get to experience three cultures together.”

Superintendent Blomberg would be happy to hear that.

It’s an affirmation of his vision of Woodburn students as the

cultural brokers of tomorrow, believing in themselves and

each other. ■

12 nwrel.org/nwedu/

Spanish, English, and Russian can be heard on the playgrounds of

Woodburn schools.
NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 13

TO DREAM THE POSSIBLE DREAM

In a bilingual Russian classroom, literacy lessons reach out to the Woodburn community.

The question—What do you want to be

when you grow up?—is a common one

for young children. But, Heritage Elementary teacher Mavjuda Rabimova was

troubled when her second-graders gave

answers like “housekeeper” or “construction worker.” It wasn’t that these

were poor choices, but simply that her

native Russian students were limited by

their lack of exposure to other options.

This realization launched Rabimova

on a literacy project designed to

broaden her students’ worldview. At

Heritage, 16 percent of the 768 students

are Russian, 36 percent are “Englishonly,” and 48 percent are Hispanic. The

Russian speakers are taught in their

native language and sheltered English in

a “late-exit” model: As students

progress through the grade levels, more

of their day is devoted to English

instruction. Rabimova’s second-graders

receive 70 percent of their lessons in

Russian and 30 percent in English.

To kick off the literacy project, Rabimova introduced her class to the concepts of biography and autobiography,

examining what facts and

experiences would be

interesting to learn about

a person if you were writing about his or her life.

Armed with a list of questions, they went home to

interview family members.

This information later

found its way into written

family histories. Students

practiced the art of autobiography when Rabimova

asked them to recall and

write about a “bright

memory” of their own. 

After helping the

youngsters understand

where they and their families had come

from, Rabimova expanded the project

to the outside community. She invited

parents and other Russian-speaking

community members into the classroom

to share their interesting talents and

jobs. Students developed interview

questions for their guests, concentrating on such topics as childhood, occupation, and hobbies. The first visitor was

both a poet and a parent of one of the

students. She gave a harrowing account

of her emigration from Russia to the

United States. Subsequent visitors

included a policeman who had learned

to speak Russian to better serve the

community. The children were thrilled

when he let them explore his squad car.

An electrician talked about the benefits

of his job and even popped off a light

switch in the classroom for an

impromptu lesson on electricity. A local

artist not only talked about his life, but

led a two-hour art lesson.

After each visit, students discussed

the interview and their notes. They were

surprised to learn that they each had

recorded different things than their

peers. Students turned the visits into

written biographies, moving from rough

drafts through peer and teacher reviews

to a final composition.

At the end of the year, Rabimova

helped students compile the essays and

photos of their visitors into a book to be

displayed in the classroom. The class

also made a list of occupations to which

they might aspire. “Oh my God, that

was a big list!” exclaims Rabimova.

“And then finally we said, now we can

dream about these and it’s possible. I

want them to know from the beginning

that it is possible in America. Everything

is possible with education.”

This is an excerpt from a recent NWREL

resource guide, Tapestry of Tales: Stories of Self, Family, and Community Provide Rich Fabric for Learning. The book

provides examples of how teachers can

use personal and community stories to

motivate students to write and to reinforce reading, speaking, and listening

skills. It can be purchased at www.

nwrel.org/catalog/ and is available in

PDF format at www.nwrel.org/tapestry/.

CREATING BELIEVERS

Meeting poets, plumbers, 

and policemen helps Russian

students see the wide world

of career possibilities.
14 nwrel.org/nwedu/
NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 15

The Next Step: 

ASSESSMENT

and the English 

Language 

Learner

ANCHORAGE, Alaska—Laurie Fredrick figures she’ll spend 89 hours this spring

judging how well her Filipino, Hmong, Samoan, and Hispanic students understand English. Fredrick—and teachers like her across the country—are fulfilling

a new federal mandate, administering statewide assessments of English language

learners’ skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. 

An English as a Second Language resource teacher at four Anchorage elementary schools, Fredrick will individually test all 52 of her ELL kindergarten students on the four dimensions. She’ll also give the speaking portion of the

proficiency test to 250 first- through sixth-graders. One after another, the students will sit across from Fredrick for 15 or 20 minutes, examine pictures, and

orally respond to questions and prompts. For some monolingual youngsters, it

will be a grueling ordeal. Other, more fluent, students will breeze through the

session, barely breaking a sweat.

“We get a wide range of students,” notes Fredrick, who spends half her time at

Lake Hood Elementary, a school that’s just a stone’s throw from the world’s

largest seaplane airport and where almost a third of the youngsters are non-native

English speakers. “Many of our students don’t read or write in their first language, but they speak it or at least hear it at home. A majority of them were born

here or came young.” 

The new battery of assessments, which are steeped in academic rather than

conversational English, will give Fredrick a clearer picture of students’ proficiency—from beginning to high-beginning, low-intermediate, high-intermediate, and advanced levels. Because the tests are aligned to state standards, they’ll

also help teachers tailor classroom instruction to each child’s needs.
Language Learners in the Spotlight

Like Alaska, most states are rolling out their language proficiency tests for the first time in spring 2006. As the centerpiece of Title III legislation, the new tests are the second

major piece of the No Child Left Behind Act to directly affect

English language learners. Together, Title I and Title III have

brought unprecedented attention to Limited English Proficient (LEP) students as a distinct subgroup—attention that’s

spawned the full range of emotions often associated with

politically laden educational policy: from hopeful praise to

bold criticism, cautious support, and widespread confusion.

According to Wendy St. Michell, the LEP program manager for the Idaho State Board of Education, “The number

one issue we have with Title III—other than adequate funding—is to help district- and school-level staff members

understand the compliance issues involved with the new

legislation. Some have not understood the difference

between the language proficiency test and the statewide

content assessment, and that the language proficiency

test is not an optional assessment. It has also been difficult to communicate that the new language proficiency test has its own set of sanctions, which

include AYP.”

Although Title I requires testing all students on

academic content, while Title III requires testing

only the English proficiency of ELL students,

the two pieces of legislation are inextricably

twined and are based on the same major 

elements: 

• Specific grade-level standards and

benchmarks. For Title III, standards and

benchmarks are for language proficiency

rather than academic content. 

• A comprehensive assessment. Title III

legislation requires that ELL students be

tested in five domain areas: listening,

speaking, reading, writing, and comprehension. Comprehension can be determined with the same measurements used

for listening and speaking, and is therefore

not assessed as a separate domain on most

state tests.

• Measurable achievement goals that

are used to determine adequate yearly

progress (AYP). In Title III these goals

are called “annual measurable achievement

objectives” (or AMAOs) and are separated

into three major categories. 

1. The starting point and annual goals—set

by the state—for the percentage of ELL

students who will make progress on the

yearly English language proficiency test

2. The percentage of students who will attain proficiency

and exit out of the program each year

3. The percentage of students in the ELL subgroup who

will meet state AYP goals on the statewide academic

content test

• A system of accountability. If a district fails to meet any

one of the above objectives, it is not considered to be making AYP and is subject to the same sanctions as in Title I.

This is the most direct link between the Title I and Title

III legislation.

The State of the States

The U.S. Department of Education issued the final guidelines for Title III in February 2003, and states have been

scrambling to meet the new requirements ever since.

Developing the new English proficiency assessments has

proven to be the most difficult—and most costly—part of

the process. By the end of 2004, 40 states had reportedly

developed an assessment, but few had actually administered one. The federal government set a final deadline of spring 2006. According to the latest reports,

only a few states—including Montana in the Northwest region—will miss this mark. (For more on

Montana’s situation, see page 17.)

Several states used a separate federal grant

program to form consortia—partnerships among

states, higher education institutions, and educational companies—to collaborate on the

development of a common test. One such

group, the Mountain West Assessment Consortium (MWAC), originally included Alaska,

Idaho, Montana, Oregon, several other western states, and Measured Progress, a nonprofit company that specializes in educational

assessment. 

While MWAC made some progress toward

the development of a single assessment, several states began to question its relevance to

their specific standards and needs. Some

states felt they could not wait for consortium

decisions, and so split off to develop their

own assessments. Eventually, the consortium

dissolved.

A brief look at the assessment development

process in the Northwest reveals the uneasy

balance between federal requirements and the

states’ preference for blazing their own trails.

16 nwrel.org/nwedu/

“Funding is

definitely 

one of the

biggest

issues for us.

We’re trying to

figure out how to

use the available

funds in the best

way possible. As

a small state, we

have to be more

creative than

some in terms of

how we come

into compliance.”

—Wendy St. Michell,

LEP manager, Idaho
NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 17

THE NEXT STEP

ALASKA

Alaska was one of the first states to split from MWAC and

eventually contracted with Ballard & Tighe, a private company best known for its IDEA products, which include

English language development programs and assessments.

Like many companies, Ballard & Tighe responded to NCLB

legislation by developing a package of assessment products

that specifically addressed the new Title I and Title III guidelines. Alaska worked with the company to customize the

IPT® 2005 (IDEA English Language Proficiency Test) to

match the new Alaska state standards for English proficiency. 

IDAHO

Idaho was also a member of the MWAC. When the consortium dissolved, Idaho held competitive bidding for an assessment vendor and eventually chose Touchstone Applied

Science Associates (TASA), Inc. The company and the state

worked together to modify the MWAC items and develop

the Idaho English Language Assessment (IELA), which

includes separate assessments for kindergarten and the 1–2,

3–5, 6–8, and 9–12 grade spans. 

As in many other states, Idaho school districts are now

required to hire test administrators using their own Title III

funds. While the state pays for the actual test materials, critics

say that a big chunk of total Title III funds are consumed by

the administration of a single test. According to Wendy St.

Michell, “Funding is definitely one of the biggest issues for

us. We’re trying to figure out how to use the available funds in

the best way possible. As a small state, we have to be more creative than some in terms of how we come into compliance.”

MONTANA

Montana has a very small LEP population. Native Americans

are the largest ethnic group in the state, representing 11.3

percent of the total student population and 84 percent of all

Limited English Proficient students. Because Title III is a formula-driven program in which districts receive allocations

based on the total number of LEP students they report, Montana receives only a small amount of Title III funds. 

A member of MWAC, Montana found itself in a difficult

situation as other states split away from the consortium. “The

cost of contracting for a statewide test, compared to the

amount of funding we qualified for, has made for a real challenge,” says Lynn Hinch, Montana’s Title III director. “We’re

still working to form a partnership with another state and

have also been engaged in issuing a request for proposals as

required by our state administration. We’ve been in constant

touch with the [U.S.] Department of Education about that,

and they’ve been very supportive.” Montana expects to

administer its first tests in the 2006–2007 school year. 

OREGON

Oregon was also an original member of MWAC but chose to

go in a different direction early on. “In a project like

[MWAC], sometimes standards get watered down to meet

everybody’s needs,” says Pat Burk, chief policy officer for the

Oregon Department of Education. “We felt that the language

of the assessment became pretty vague and general, and that

ours needed to be more specific than what was emerging in

the consortium.”

Another factor was that the state wanted to deliver the

assessment online. “Putting it online actually controls costs,”

says Burk, “but the real benefit is that it allows us to get results

back to teachers instantly. We felt that was very important.”

The state eventually contracted with Eugene,

Oregon–based Language Learning Solutions to develop the

English Language Proficiency Assessment (ELPA). The

ELPA consists of individual tests for grade levels K–1, 2–3,

4–5, 6–8, and 9–12, and is being given online.

WASHINGTON

Even before NCLB, Washington implemented a uniform

statewide assessment for English language learners. Shortly

after that, the state began developing English proficiency

standards. Because the language proficiency test was selected

before standards were established, the state conducted an

alignment study. 

Partly because of this head start, the state chose not to participate in MWAC or any other consortium. “In some ways

we were ahead of the pack, but our development process may

have been somewhat out of sequence,” admits Mike Middleton, an operations manager in the state assessment department. “We had a statewide assessment, but we had yet to fully

articulate specific English language proficiency standards.”

Based on the results of the alignment study, the state

decided to work toward a test more closely aligned with both

state standards and Title III requirements. 

They eventually chose Harcourt Assessment, Inc. “We

agreed to build an augmented test, with Harcourt’s off-theshelf product—the Stanford ELP—as the foundation,” says

Middleton. “We needed to fill in gaps so that it better

matched our state standards.” The augmenting process

included material created and reviewed by statewide panels

of ELL teachers, using the state’s English language development standards (ELDs).

The final product, WLPT-II, is “more closely aligned than

either the earlier language proficiency test used by the state or

Harcourt’s base product,” says Middleton. The new test is

divided into four separate grade levels: K–2, 3–5, 6–8, and

9–12, and covers all five domains for measuring language

proficiency.
The Challenges of the Law

Besides limited finances and tight deadlines, several details of

Title III legislation have drawn criticism from educators and

technical assistance providers. For instance, as required by

the legislation, most states have built their English proficiency standards around their existing language arts standards. The intent is to ensure that language learners do not

fall behind in content. The reality, say critics, is that learning

a language and learning more complex, formal uses of that

language are two very different things.

“States have complied with the letter of the law,” says Gary

Hargett, an independent educational consultant who specializes in ELL issues, “but the concern is that it doesn’t necessarily help you define what real English language proficiency

is. Language arts and English language proficiency are two

separate constructs. To combine them in this explicit way is

not going to help us understand how to help a student

become proficient.”

The inclusion of K–1 students in the statewide assessment

has also raised some concern. “The law says that all students

must be assessed, including K–1,” says Hargett. “So, you have

to ask: What does English reading and writing look like for

the K–1 ELL student? Well, we’re not even sure what it looks

like for the native English speaker at that age, especially in

writing. I think it raises all kinds of theoretical questions that

they didn’t mean to raise, and those are interesting questions,

but the mandate is not for research—the mandate is to

develop tests that can be used for accountability.”

According to many experts, the focus on a single kind of

assessment and on limited measures for determining

progress is a major issue. “They’ve tied language proficiency

to content standards,” says Frank Hernandez, a program

adviser for the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory,

“but I don’t know if that is going to be sufficient or appropriate to assess instruction.” 

The effective assessment of ELL students, say many

experts, has little to do with a single, annual test. “You need

to include a lot of other factors and measures besides one

high-stakes test to tell whether you have an effective program

or not,” says Hernandez. “The best way to measure how well

you’re doing with ELL students is to use a number of different criterion-referenced assessments in the actual classroom.

They need to be closely tied to your instruction, and they

need to be given frequently—bimonthly, monthly, or even

weekly, depending on the type of assessment.” 

Finding the Positives

Even critics of NCLB agree that the new legislation has

brought much-needed attention to the plight of ELL students. In the past, ELL students were seldom included in

statewide testing, and ELL teachers had little clout, a tiny

budget, and were often isolated in separate classrooms or

even separate buildings. Mainstream teachers, meanwhile,

received little professional development in effective instruction for ELLs and were given scant motivation to take the

issue personally. 

While some may find accountability measures to be a negative kind of motivation, the fact remains that ELL students

can no longer be ignored. Educators around the country are

already reporting some positive outcomes from this aspect of

NCLB, including an increase in collaboration between mainstream teachers and ELL specialists; an increased awareness

of the importance of language instruction across the curriculum; and a focus on professional development for mainstream teachers of ELL students. 

For Hargett, the increase in high-quality professional

development is the most important of these improvements.

Although “sheltering” strategies and other language-centered

approaches have been garnering support for several years, he

says, the results have not always been successful.

“Teachers need help in figuring out how to embed language objectives into their lesson plans,” says Hargett.

“That’s well known. But it’s not enough to say you’re going

to create a language-rich atmosphere in the classroom. I’ve

been in a lot of classrooms where I was told, ‘This is a sheltered classroom,’ and I couldn’t see where the teacher had

pulled out explicit attention to a form of the language.

“The key to success isn’t the assessment you use,” Hargett

continues. “The key is the actual services you’re providing.

You have to take a close look at your program and say: ‘Are

these programs really addressing the learner’s needs? Are

they really developing English proficiency? Are they really

making content accessible to ELL students during the time

that they’re still gaining English proficiency?’ I think those

programmatic questions have to be answered before you can

have any meaningful discussion about the assessments. It’s

really a mistake to think that the key is in the nature of the

assessment as opposed to what’s being assessed.” ■

The Role of Language

18 nwrel.org/nwedu/

“The best way to measure how well you’re doing with ELL students

is to use a number of different criterion-referenced assessments

in the actual classroom. They need to be closely tied to your instruction, and

they need to be given frequently—bimonthly, monthly, or even weekly, depending on

the type of assessment.” —Frank Hernandez, NWREL program adviser
NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 19

Kotzebue

Nome

Bethel

Dillingham Homer

Kenai

Anchorage

Wasilla Valdez

Cordova

Fairbanks

Sitka

Unalaska

Kodiak

Seward

Petersburg

Ketchikan

Juneau

Barrow

Medford

Eugene

Corvallis

Salem Portland

Vancouver

Olympia

Tacoma

Seattle

Bellingham

Everett

Wenatchee Spokane

Yakima

Richland

Pasco

Walla Walla

Lewiston

Missoula

Kalispell

Great Falls

Helena

Bozeman

Billings

Havre

Pendleton

Bend

Klamath Falls

Nampa

Boise

Twin Falls

Pocatello

Idaho Falls ELL Enrollment Rate

0% to 3%

4% to 7%

8% to 15%

16% to 74%

REGION AT A GLANCE

ELL Enrollment Rate by County (School Year 2002–2003) By Richard Greenough

This map highlights counties that

have high percentages of ELL student enrollment including tribal

areas in Montana, Alaska Native

villages, and migrant labor areas in

Washington, Oregon, and southern Idaho. A map showing

absolute numbers of ELL students

enrolled would look quite different: More than half of the region’s

ELL students are concentrated in

only 10 counties in the SeattleTacoma, Portland-Salem, Boise,

Anchorage, and Yakima metro

areas.

Source: National Center for Education

Statistics, Common Core of Data, School

Year 2002–2003 (the Common Core is a

collection of data submitted by state 

education agencies)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska—In a voice just above a whisper, the shy

nine-year-old responds to some basic questions about herself

during a state assessment. She can only answer a few questions, and is stumped when asked to identify common objects.

Her uncomfortable silences aren’t totally unexpected. She

is a recent Hmong refugee, and the English vocabulary

required for this test may be as hard to grasp as some of the

other realities of a new life in a gritty Anchorage neighborhood. Not only are the words and sounds different from her

native tongue, but the scene outside is equally foreign: Fellow students at Mountain View Elementary are leaving tracks

on the playground with plastic snowshoes and a hulking bull

moose has made himself comfortable on the edge of the

school’s boundary. 

FROM THAI TO TAGALOG

For Arlene Sandberg and other ESL resource teachers in

Anchorage, such examples of cultural and linguistic dislocation are commonplace. Approximately 15 percent of the district’s students—some 6,613 youngsters—are English language learners. The district is home to a mind-boggling 95

different languages, and that number is likely to grow. Just

this year the district had to create a code for Sudanese on its

forms when two children arrived from the war-torn African

nation. At Mountain View alone, a visitor can hear snatches

of Samoan, Spanish, Russian, Thai, Lao, Hmong, Mien,

Cambodian, German, Tagalog, Cup’ik, Yup’ik, and Inupiaq

in the hallways and at recess.

Sandberg is one of 13 resource teachers who—together

with bilingual paraprofessionals—serve ELL students in

Anchorage’s 58 elementary schools. Under Anchorage’s formula, resource specialists are assigned half-time to schools

with 100 or more limited English students; they divide the

rest of their week among three other schools with smaller

ELL populations. In the case of Sandberg, though, her influence ripples out to a much wider circle than her four schools.

EVERYONE’S

CHILD

IN LARGE DISTRICTS WITH DOZENS OF

LANGUAGES, EVERY TEACHER NEEDS TO

CONSIDER THE ELL STUDENT’S NEEDS.

By RHONDA BARTON

20 nwrel.org/nwedu/

Photo: Bracken Reed

The 26-year teaching veteran, recently named Alaska’s

2006 Teacher of the Year, shares her expertise with others

through state and district workshops, sheltered instruction

trainings, university lectures on bilingualism, and state-level

committee work. Above all, she serves as a tireless advocate

for ELL students. “I’m willing to stir the pot,” she admits.

“I’m not worried about winning a popularity contest with

teachers—I have to work with every single teacher in this

school and everybody knows that I put students first.”

Maxine Hill, the head of the district’s bilingual education

program, praises Sandberg as “an exceptional teacher who has

continued to refine her skills through many staff development opportunities.” Hill adds, “She has totally embraced the

philosophy of SIOP (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol) in her instructional techniques in order to benefit the

students she encounters on a daily basis at Mountain View

Elementary School.” 

Like her ESL colleagues, Sandberg spends the bulk of her

time working with children who need the most intensive help

learning English. But, she makes it her business to keep track

of every one of the 130-plus ELL students at Mountain View.

“Even though I can’t see them

all, I truly know where they are

[in their language development]

and what they need,” she says.

Their language abilities cover

the full range: “Even though

some kids are born in the

United States and others come

to us right off the airplane from

another country, many have no

English because they’ve been

speaking their first language up

until the minute they get here

and then they speak it when

they get home at night,” she

observes.

SHARING DATA AND STRATEGIES 

Because the need is so great and Sandberg is stretched so thin,

she tries to help classroom teachers fine-tune their skills in

working with English language learners. Today, Sandberg and

Trish Jackson, Mountain View’s reading coach, are planning a

professional development session where they’ll present data

on K–3 reading scores. They’ve highlighted the results for

ELL students and are tracking their long-term progress.

Jackson and Sandberg—who together with the school psychologist make up Mountain View’s core leadership team—

have worked with other teachers at their school to develop

interventions for struggling readers. The strategies appear to

be helping: Mountain View made adequate yearly progress

for the first time last year.

The advent of No Child Left Behind and the consequences tied to AYP have had a dramatic impact on the ELL

landscape, Sandberg believes. “Now we have to look at

data—and look at it in a different way—and change what’s

not working. Before, a lot of classroom teachers never saw

their role as a stakeholder in a bilingual child’s achievement.

You can’t do that anymore .... This child belongs to all of us.”

“I feel that

since most of

our parents

can’t speak

on behalf of

their children,

I have to advocate

for them. We always

have to look at 

the child and make

sure we’re doing

what we need to do

to make a difference 

for that child.

—Arlene Sandberg, 2006

Alaska Teacher of the Year

10 THINGS MAINSTREAM TEACHERS CAN DO TODAY

The following tips were adapted from Help! They Don’t

Speak English Starter Kit for Primary Teachers and from

Integrating Language and Content Instruction: Strategies

and Techniques. 

1. Enunciate clearly, but do not raise your voice. Add gestures, point directly to objects, or draw pictures when

appropriate.

2. Write clearly, legibly, and in print—many ELL students

have difficulty reading cursive.

3. Develop and maintain routines. Use clear and consistent

signals for classroom instructions.

4. Repeat information and review frequently. If a student

doesn’t understand, try rephrasing or paraphrasing in

shorter sentences and simpler syntax. Check often for

understanding, but don’t ask, “Do you understand?”

Instead, have students demonstrate their learning in

order to show comprehension.

5. Try to avoid idioms and slang words.

6. Present new information in the context of known 

information.

7. Announce the lesson’s objectives and activities, and list

instructions step by step.

8. Present information in a variety of ways.

9. Provide frequent summations of the salient points of a

lesson, and always emphasize key vocabulary words.

10. Recognize student success overtly and frequently. But,

also be aware that in some cultures, overt individual

praise is considered inappropriate and can therefore be

embarrassing or confusing to the student.

See sources on page 24.

22 nwrel.org/nwedu/

Free summer school helps Federal Way students improve their

reading and meet grade-level expectations.

”
STRUCTURED IMMERSION

The idea that everyone is responsible for the progress of ELL students is fully embraced by the

Federal Way School District in

Washington. Located between

Seattle and Tacoma, Federal Way is

the state’s seventh largest school

district with almost 22,400 students. Slightly more than 10 percent of those students are English

language learners from homes

with 78 different dialects. While

the greatest number of students

speak Spanish, Korean, Russian,

or Ukrainian, teachers might

encounter children whose first language is Swahili, Ilokano,

Amharic, Arabic, or Urdu.

Like Anchorage, Federal Way assigns ESL specialists and

bilingual paraeducators to schools based on the number of

limited English students enrolled. A full-time specialist with

a state endorsement provides support at schools with 100 or

more ELL students, while a school with 50 ELL students

merits a half-time position. However, the district has adopted

a research-based structured immersion program that relies

on classroom teachers in neighborhood schools. The model

involves teaching grade-level subject matter in English in

ways that are comprehensible and engage students academically, while promoting English language development.

Sheltered instruction is also part of the model for secondary

students. Students take leveled language arts and social studies,

while assigned to mainstream science and math classes. 

“People are a little afraid of the words ‘structured immersion,’” notes Jean Vaughan, Federal Way’s director of ELL

programs, “but our program is scaffolded. We constantly have

teachers look at the state’s English language development

standards, which drives the instruction.”

While newcomers at the elementary school level go

directly to the mainstream classroom, they receive ELL

English instruction every day for up to 40 minutes during a

90-minute block in guided reading groups that are based on

the student’s language proficiency. Limited proficiency students also may get individualized tutoring in math.

At the secondary level, students are taught in sheltered

English classes. Bilingual tutors are assigned to science and

math mainstream teachers who also receive training in Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE)

through Action Learning in California. (See page 11.) Teachers new to SDAIE (which is similar to the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol commonly used in Washington)

receive mentoring and follow-up trainings, along with help

from instructional design specialists. 

EVERYONE’S CHILD

A SAMPLING OF TEACHING STRATEGIES

The mainstream teacher who is searching for research-backed

strategies to improve ELL students’ achievement will find little

in the way of definitive scientific studies. However, there are

less rigorous, evidence-based studies that suggest beneficial

approaches. A By Request publication from the Northwest

Regional Educational Laboratory (www.nwrel.org/request/

2003may/ell.pdf) summarizes some of these strategies and

notes that they are rarely used in isolation:

• Total Physical Response (TPR)—Developed by James J.

Asher in the 1960s, TPR is a language-learning tool based

on the relationship between language and its physical representation or execution. TPR emphasizes the use of physical activity to increase meaningful learning opportunities

and language retention.

• Cooperative Learning—Robert E. Slavin has shown that

cooperative learning can be effective for students at all academic levels and learning styles. It involves student participation in small-group learning activities that promote

positive interactions.

• Language Experience Approach (also known as Dictated

Stories)—This approach uses students’ words to create a text

that becomes material for a reading lesson. Students

describe orally a personal experience to a teacher or peer

who writes down the story, using the students’ words verbatim. The teacher/peer then reads the story back as it was

written, while the student follows along. Then the student

reads the story aloud or silently. This approach helps students

learn how language is encoded as they watch it written down.

• Dialogue Journals (also known as Interactive Journals)—In

this approach, students write in a journal and the teacher

writes back regularly, responding to questions, asking questions, making comments, or introducing new topics. The

teacher does not evaluate what is written, but models correct language and provides a nonthreatening opportunity

for ELL students to communicate in writing with someone

proficient in English.

• Academic Language Scaffolding—The term “scaffolding”

is used to describe the step-by-step process of building students’ ability to complete tasks on their own. It consists of

several linked strategies, including modeling academic language; contextualizing academic language using visuals,

gestures, and demonstrations; and using hands-on learning

activities that involve academic language.

• Native Language Support—According to Thomas and Collier (2002), ELL students should be provided with academic

support in their native language whenever possible. Even in

English-only classrooms, and even when an instructor is not

fluent in a student’s language, this can still be done in a

number of ways. Teachers can use texts that are bilingual or

involve a student’s native culture, organize entire lessons

around cultural content, and encourage students to use

their own language when they cannot find the appropriate

word in English.

Photo: Jim Lavrakas
Vaughan credits this capacity building as the reason why

Federal Way’s ELL students outperform their peers on the

Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL). In

reading, 65 percent of the district’s ELL fourth-graders met

standards last year (compared to 46 percent for the state at

large) and Federal Way’s math scores bested the state average

by 18 points. Scores for reading and math for seventh- and

10th-graders were also substantially higher than the

statewide showings.

PROVIDING FOR ALL

“All means all, according to our superintendent, and we really believe that and have

moved it forward,” says Vaughan. The district’s definition of “all” even goes beyond

the norm: When they saw a need to bolster

Hispanic students’ WASL scores, Federal

Way leaders used Title III funds to create a

Latino Night School for the whole family.

Partnering with Highline Community

College and a local multiservice center, the

district’s night school offers a GED program, high school credit recovery, middle

school classes, and adult education courses

in conversational English and skill building.

For the 3–10-year-old set, there are activities

and homework help provided by the district’s AmeriCorps workers. The school,

which operates two nights a week, also serves mothers and

children from birth to toddlers. As a result of the program,

WASL scores among Federal Way’s Hispanic students rose

last year and the school will see its first group of adults receiving GEDs this year. 

Vaughan thinks that any school might benefit from a

structured immersion approach, though she admits it may be

a hard sell in some communities. “There seems to be a fear

that schools won’t be able to market it to their mainstream

teachers, to have special learners or ELL students in each

classroom for the majority of the day and have them be successful,” she says. Changing minds, though,

may lie in how the system is funded. Federal Way doesn’t take basic education dollars

out of mainstream classes and use them for

bilingual education; consequently, mainstream teachers don’t have the expectation

that ELL is responsible for the achievement

of all bilingual students. 

Besides yielding strong test scores, there

may be another, more powerful argument

for mainstreaming English language learners with scaffolded instruction. “It’s a wonderful enrichment to be able to interact and

work with so many cultures and languages,”

Vaughan states firmly. “It’s a true multicultural learning environment.” ■

• Accessing Prior Knowledge—All students, regardless of

their proficiency in English, come to school with a valuable

background of experience and knowledge. When teaching a

new concept, the teacher can ask students what they

already know about a subject. Creating a visual, such as

“semantic webs,” with the topic in the center and students’

knowledge surrounding it, is a good way to engage students in the topic and to find out what they already know.

• Culture Studies—The importance of including a student’s

home culture in the classroom is a well-documented, fundamental concept in the instruction of English language learners. Culture study, in this context, is a project in which

students do research and share information about their own

cultural history. Such studies can be appropriate at any

grade level and incorporate many skills, including reading,

writing, speaking, giving presentations, and creating visuals.

(For more on culturally responsive, standards-based teaching, see page 47.)

• Realia Strategies—“Realia” is a term for any real, concrete

object used in the classroom to create connections with

vocabulary words, stimulate conversation, and build background knowledge. Realia gives students the opportunity to

use all of their senses to learn about a given subject, and is

appropriate for any grade or skill level. 

SOURCES

Derrick-Mescau, M., Grognet, A.G., Rodriguez, M., Tran, H., &

Wrigley, P. (1998). Help! They don’t speak English starter kit

for primary teachers: A resource guide for educators of Limited English Proficient migrant students, grades Pre-K–6 (3rd

ed.). Oneonta, NY: Eastern Stream Center on Resources and

Training. Retrieved March 30, 2006, from www.escort.org/

products/helpkit.html

Reed, B., & Railsback, J. (2003). Strategies and resources for

mainstream teachers of English language learners. Portland,

OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. Retrieved

March 30, 2006, from www.nwrel.org/request/2003may/

ell.pdf. Copies of the publication are also available for sale;

for information, see page 49. 

Short, D.J. (1991). Integrating language and content instruction: Strategies and techniques. Washington, DC: Center for

Applied Linguistics. Retrieved March 30, 2006, from

www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/pigs/pig7.htm 

Thomas, W.P., & Collier, V.P. (2002). A national study of school

effectiveness for language minority students’ long-term academic achievement. Santa Cruz, CA: Center for Research on

Education, Diversity and Excellence. (ERIC Document

Retrieval No. ED475048)

A Russian ELL student in Federal

Way works with a classmate on a

physics experiment.

24 nwrel.org/nwedu/
Q&A 

Susan Castillo has racked up an impressive list of “firsts”: first Hispanic woman

to serve in the Oregon State Senate;

first Latina elected to statewide office in

Oregon; and Oregon’s first Hispanic

state school superintendent. The former

television journalist has overseen the

state’s half-million students and 1,200

public schools since January 2003 and

recently announced her candidacy for a

second four-year term. 

During her tenure, Castillo’s main

push has been to shrink the achievement gap, and there’s evidence that the

state is inching closer to that goal.

According to an analysis of 2005 state

test scores by the Oregonian newspaper, “passing rates among white students went up in every grade in reading

and math. But the scores of Latino,

Native American, and low-income students shot up dramatically at most

grade levels, putting those students

closer to matching the attainment of

white and middle-income students.” 

In an interview with Northwest Education, Castillo reflected on her crusade

to close the gap and her role as the

Northwest’s only Hispanic school superintendent.

Q: How has your own family experience

and Latino heritage colored your views on

education?

I grew up in a household where my

mother dropped out in the eighth

grade and was very challenged

throughout her life on the kind of

work that was available to her. Growing up and seeing your parent experience that, you really do make that

connection between education and

opportunity.

For me, closing the gap is also really

important because we know we need to

have all kids be successful for economic reasons. We can’t afford to lose

anyone in our schools today and it’s

even more critical because of the

changes in our world, the skill levels

needed, and the urgency to compete in

this global economy. 

This year, Oregon experienced its greatest

enrollment increase in nearly a decade—

largely due to a 10 percent jump in Latino

youngsters, who now make up 15 percent of

the total student population. What do you

feel is important in serving this growing

demographic? 

I really see how important it is to

make progress in the area of parental

involvement. I can remember that my

mother was not exactly comfortable in

the school environment because of her

own experience with school. But, it’s

so powerful for parents to be involved

and know [their children’s] teacher

and what they’re doing in school. We

need to help our schools be successful

in reaching out and help them connect

with best practices around the state. 

Also, for children who don’t have

English as a first language, we’ve been

focusing on early learning—getting

them into preschool and full-day

kindergarten. When we called that out

as an issue and started providing more

leadership at a state level, we helped

districts connect with other districts

that are retargeting their federal dollars

to create more opportunities for

extended day or full-day kindergarten.

As a result, we have many more children in full-day kindergarten today and

we want to continue to build on that.

We certainly want to continue our

efforts to get all children who qualify

for Head Start into Head Start. We’re

not covering those children and they

are the poorest of the poor kids in Oregon. We need to make that a priority: It

will make an enormous difference in

what happens with the success of those

children and all of us will benefit.

What do you see in the future for ELL education, especially as the rhetoric grows louder

around “English-only” programs?

I think there are important lessons

to be learned from the whole Englishonly wave out there. That’s my prediction for those states: We may see them

rethink what they’re doing. I think

here in Oregon, we’re about trying to

find solutions to help all kids be successful, to honor all children, to honor

what languages they speak, and to help

them be proficient in English because

we know that’s very important to be

successful and get into higher levels of

education.

I think what’s exciting in Oregon is

that we are open to experimenting and

trying to understand what does work

for children to help them be successful.

Maybe there isn’t a silver bullet, and

we need to be open to watching for

results. What are the results we want?

Where we’re getting those results, let’s

learn from that and build on it. ■

A Hispanic Perspective: Oregon School Superintendent Susan Castillo

NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 25
FORGING

FAMILY 

TIES Increasing parent involvement means

overcoming barriers that are both 

real and perceived. 

By RHONDA BARTON

26 nwrel.org/nwedu/
HILLSBORO, Oregon—Gilt-framed portraits of seven children smile down from the wall above the velvet love seat in

Maria Esther Palomares’s modest but spotless living room.

They’re the reason that Palomares and her husband

Marcelino Alejandro left their native Guadalajara to plant

roots in a suburb west of Portland. “We came to find a better life,” says Palomares in rapid-fire Spanish. “It is difficult

to study in Mexico. Here, the government helps out more.”

Palomares is determined that her children—and others

like them—will flourish in the Hillsboro School District.

Even though she speaks little English, Palomares is as

involved in the education system as any stereotypical soccer mom. Dashing from one classroom or meeting to the

next, she reads Spanish stories to children in the elementary school, volunteers at PTA gatherings, chaperones

field trips, and serves on both the district’s parent advisory

and strategic planning committees. Despite putting in 10-

hour days as an agricultural worker, Marcelino also volunteers his evenings.

Their hard work hasn’t gone unrewarded. Palomares

reports that all of her children are getting good grades and

doing well in school. Her oldest daughter, Erica, garnered

five scholarships and enrolled in Portland Community College—the first family member to attend college. Seventeen-year-old Yesenia, a high school junior, plans to go to

nursing school and even five-year-old Esmeralda, the

youngest in the family, confidently says she wants to be a

doctor when she grows up.

Photo courtesy Hillsboro School District

NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 27
What NCLB Says

It’s not surprising that Maria and

Marcelino’s children are on track to

fulfilling their parents’ dreams for

them. Thirty years of research confirms that when parents are involved,

students do better in school. In a comprehensive review of 51 high-quality

studies, Anne T. Henderson and Karen

L. Mapp found that—regardless of

family income and background—students with involved parents are more

likely to earn higher grades, enroll in

higher level programs, attend school

regularly, have better social skills, show

improved behavior, graduate, and go

on to postsecondary education.

The No Child Left Behind Act—

particularly in Titles I and III—has

expanded schools’ obligations to

inform parents and reach out to families who’ve traditionally been underrepresented in school activities and

decisionmaking. For example, schools

that receive Title III funding must

establish effective ways to inform parents of Limited English Proficient students how they can be involved in their

children’s education and actively help

their children learn English and meet

high academic standards. Under

NCLB, all parents have the right to be

informed of the content and quality of

their children’s education; the right

and responsibility to participate in

decisions and learning at the school;

and the right to make educational

choices in the best interests of their

children. 

Yet, despite those

mandates and the

research findings,

many schools still

struggle to actively

engage high numbers of parents and

other family members. And, that fact is

even truer when it

comes to families

who speak limited

English. 

A “Running Start”

A statewide survey by Oregon’s Chalkboard Project found that many traditionally underrepresented families tend

to spend more nights assisting their

child with homework than their higher

income Anglo counterparts. At the

same time, they are less likely to volunteer at their child’s school because of

barriers that are both perceived and

real. Those barriers can range from

language to culture to economics.

“Involvement creates a bridge

between the school and the home,

allows parents to spot problems or

opportunities early, and improves communication between the important

adults in a child’s life. But, minority

and low-income families are telling us

they often don’t feel welcome in school

hallways and classrooms,” says Chalkboard President Sue Hildick.

Chalkboard, which is funded by five

local foundations, has responded with a

two-tiered effort called “Running

Start.” The first part is a staff training

kit with tools and resources to conduct

all-day workshops or shorter one-hour

seminars with teachers, administrators,

staff, and parent leaders. According to

Chalkboard, “the aim is to arm every

adult in the school—from teachers and

playground monitors to school crossing guards and custodial staff—with a

deeper understanding of the barriers to

parent engagement and how to overcome them.”

PARENTS’ TOP 10

Through surveys and ongoing communication with the

Hillsboro School District, Hispanic parents have identified

their top priorities:

• Parent education classes in English

• Supportive school environments

• Better communication between educators and parents

• Community services and how to access the support

• More about NCLB

• Understanding the U.S. education system

• How to advocate for their children

• Understanding special education

• Drug and alcohol prevention and services

• Gang prevention and support services

Maria Esther Palomares (left) sits on the Hillsboro School District’s parent advisory and strategic

planning committees, ensuring that Spanish-speaking parents’ voices are heard. Palomares’s seven

children, including 17-year-old Yesenia, are enrolled in the district.

Photo: Rhonda Barton

28
NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 29

The second part of the project is

aimed at parents. It offers sample Oregon test questions and information on

topics such as how to read report cards

and how education works in the

United States. “These seem basic,”

admits Project Director Stefani Willis,

“but for newly arrived parents, it’s difficult to navigate the system.” The

materials, translated into Spanish, and

the training toolkit are available on

Chalkboard’s Web site (www.chalk

boardproject.org). While much of the

information is available in bits and

pieces in other places, Chalkboard

leaders believe organizing it on one site

will make it easier to access. 

Chalkboard is also partnering with

the Oregon Department of Education

to launch a policy template that ensures

all schools reach out to parents in a

unified, thoughtful way. The two

groups hope the template will be

approved by the Board of Education in

time for statewide implementation in

the 2006–2007 school year.

A Welcoming District

Schools in and out of the state only

have to look as far as Hillsboro to find a

model for successful family engagement. Saideh Haghighi, a Teacher on

Special Assignment, puts in 12 hours a

day to make sure that parents like Maria

Palomares feel welcome

throughout the district.

Haghighi, whose heritage

is a mix of Puerto Rican and

Iranian, was working in an

after-school tutoring program when she realized that

parents of her ELL students

rarely showed up for conferences. “I started visiting

them at home and decided

to hold meetings at the community centers in apartment

complexes, instead of at

school,” she recalls. She was

joined by a couple of other

teachers and, as word spread

of their outreach efforts, the

National Education Association offered them a twoyear, $18,000 grant to create

a parent involvement program.

Today, Haghighi

provides support to

all 32 schools in the

district, which has

a Hispanic enrollment of almost 28

percent. A typical

day starts with a

school visit at 7:30

a.m. and stretches

long into the night

with parent meetings. In between,

she translates at

conferences and

fields an endless

stream of requests

from parents and

school officials.

“My focus is on the

Hispanic community,” she says, “but

I’ll never say no to helping in ESL

efforts with other minority groups.”

Next year, she’ll have two additional

community outreach workers to help

target the district’s seven elementary

schools with a 50 percent or greater

Hispanic population. Funding for the

positions—“always an issue,” concedes

Haghighi—will come from a variety of

sources, including title grants. But, the

increasing need for such outreach is

clear given Hillsboro’s

demographics: The number of Hispanic students in

the district grew almost 154

percent from 1994 to 2004,

compared to a .07 percent

increase in the white student population. 

Saideh Haghighi—whose

first name means “good

luck” in Farsi—believes

Hillsboro is unique in its

commitment to including

Hispanic parents at all levels of decisionmaking. Five

such parents serve on the

district’s strategic planning

committee, including three

who don’t speak English.

Hispanic parents also have

a say in choosing new 

curriculum for board approval. And,

they turn out by the hundreds for

monthly meetings on topics they’ve

chosen themselves.

One of the most successful functions was a Saturday college fair, held at

one of the district’s high schools.

Haghighi invited representatives from

a half-dozen local colleges and universities, who were ready and able to

admit students on the spot. “We had a

table with information on 19 scholarships and volunteers to help parents fill

out their FAFSA (financial aid) forms.

Thirty-four students showed up and all

were accepted or took home offers to

review with their families!”

When it comes time for Yesenia

Palomares-Alejandro to head for college, she’ll know that her parents

played a huge role in paving the way.

“They’ve always told me you don’t

have to work, just concentrate on your

studies,” she says. “It makes me proud

that they’ve been so involved and 

supported us.” ■

FORGING FAMILY TIES

Saideh Haghighi advises

schools to show families

that you care, take their

concerns seriously, and

treat parents as

individuals.

RESOURCES

Building Trust With Schools and Diverse Families 

www.nwrel.org/request/2003dec/

This By Request booklet, published by the Northwest

Regional Educational Laboratory, examines research on

family involvement and provides a regional sampler of

effective practices. 

Chalkboard Project

www.chalkboardproject.org

This foundation-funded educational advocacy organization

offers a parent involvement toolkit for school staff members and informational materials in Spanish for parents.

National Council for Community and Education 

Partnerships 

www.edpartnerships.org

This Web site has a wide range of parent and family

engagement resources, including a link to Henderson and

Mapp’s 2002 study, A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact

of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student

Achievement.
WENATCHEE, Washington—When Principal Connie Strawn

arrived at Lewis & Clark Elementary in 1992 she could barely

speak a word of Spanish. “I couldn’t even pronounce Spanish names correctly,” she recalls. At the time, nearly 20 percent of the students at the school were native Spanish

speakers, many of whom had recently arrived from Mexico. 

A small agricultural city on the eastern slope of the Cascade Mountains in North Central Washington, Wenatchee

was in the middle of a seismic demographic shift. New technologies, changing immigration policies, and other global

market forces were combining to alter the normal migration

of agricultural workers. With the work year expanding, more

migrant laborers were staying on after the fruit harvest and

choosing to make a permanent home in the Wenatchee Valley. The percentage of English language learner students—

nearly all native Spanish speakers—began to rise

astronomically throughout the district. Experts predicted

that the Latino population in the area would double within

the next decade.

Strawn’s first reaction to these demographics was an acute

awareness of her own limitations. Her lack of Spanish and

her rudimentary understanding of Latino culture were barriers to the kind of environment she wanted to create at the

school. She could also see that the staff at the school shared

her limitations. “My first year here we had two teachers who

spoke some Spanish,” says Strawn, “but no native speakers at

all.” For a school already nearly a quarter Hispanic, this

seemed unacceptable. Strawn’s guiding questions were:

“What’s best for the kids? What do the kids need?” Her

answers led her to two decisions that would help shape the

future of the school. First, she would embrace the diversity

in a purely personal way, by learning as much Spanish and as

much about Latino culture as she could fit into her busy

schedule. Second, she would actively seek out bilingual,

native Spanish-speaking teachers and staff members at every

opportunity. 

JOURNEY TO THE CLASSROOM

In 1992, one of those future teachers was still toiling in the

orchards and fields of Central Washington, struggling to

learn English, and dreaming of a return to teaching. Alfonso

Lopez was born in a small village in Oaxaca, Mexico. By the

time he arrived in Wenatchee in his mid-20s, he had already

struggled through more adversity than many people face in a

lifetime. The son of poor farmers, he managed to attend college and earn his teaching degree and later a master’s degree

in social science. Lopez taught for five years in rural schools

in Oaxaca. Often, he served as principal as well as teacher and

was also called on to teach an English language class. “I didn’t

speak any English,” he admits. “I was just trying to do whatever the book said.” 

Like Strawn, Lopez’s sense of his own limitations as an

educator served as motivation. A visit from his brother, who

had been living in the Wenatchee Valley area for several years,

convinced Lopez that he should go to the United States. At

first, he says, his goal was to learn English so that he could

return to Mexico and teach English language classes more

Speaking the Same

LANGUAGE

A high-poverty school in North Central Washington 

uses progressive hiring practices and a dual-language approach 

to close the achievement gap.

Story and photos by 

BRACKEN REED

30 nwrel.org/nwedu/

Photo © Eric Simard
NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 31
effectively. But once here, he fell on hard times. Lacking

financial support, he was unable to take language classes. Very

quickly, he ended up alongside his brother in the orchards. 

For nearly 10 years Lopez worked in the orchards and on a

cattle ranch near Ellensburg. In that time, his intelligence,

warm personality, and personal ambition took him from fruit

picker to the position of ranch foreman. He was making good

money and his English was slowly improving. Just as his boss

offered to send him to college for agricultural management,

he saw an advertisement in the local Spanish language newspaper El Mundo. A program called the Priority Hispanic Certification Program was recruiting native Spanish speakers with

professional degrees in their home country, who were interested in becoming certified teachers. Lopez was one of nearly

60 people who responded to the ad, and was eventually chosen to be one of 16 participants. A collaboration between the

North Central Education Service District, the Washington

Office of the Superintendent of Public

Instruction, and Heritage College, the program was designed to meet the state’s dire

need for Spanish-speaking teachers. For

Lopez, it was an opportunity to pursue his

long-delayed dream: a return to teaching and

a chance to improve his English. He gave up

his well-paying job and moved back to the

Wenatchee area where, as part of the program,

he worked as a paraprofessional—first at Lincoln Elementary and then at Lewis & Clark

Elementary. 

When Lopez arrived at Lewis & Clark,

Connie Strawn’s instincts were already proving prophetic. The Hispanic and LEP population at the school had continued to soar.

The mobility rate hovered at 40 percent.

More than 80 percent of the students qualified

for Title I free and reduced-price lunch. Spanish-speaking teachers were in demand throughout the state, and Strawn was a step ahead. The

hiring of Alfonso Lopez would be another giant

step forward.

BUILDING THE BILINGUAL “FAMILY”

The vision that Strawn formed soon after 

coming to Lewis & Clark centered on the

development of a schoolwide, bilingual environment that embraced diversity and held all

students to high expectations. It’s a vision often

articulated but seldom pursued with the kind of

fierce commitment Strawn has shown. Against

significant opposition she stuck to her initial

determination to hire bilingual, native Spanishspeaking teachers. Lopez was not the first such

staff member Strawn hired, but as she says,

“Alfonso was definitely key.”

While Lopez was still a paraprofessional and finishing his

degree program, an ESL position came open at the school.

Strawn pushed the district to give him an emergency teacher

certificate and hired him full-time as soon as it went through.

Lopez, who now works as the school’s Title I reading specialist, began opening doors immediately. Rosemary Tiffany—the

daughter of Mexican migrant workers, a native Spanish

speaker, and a colleague of Lopez’s at Lincoln—came on board

as a bilingual kindergarten teacher (See “Voices,” page 39).

Other bilingual teachers soon followed. The school quickly

gained a reputation in the city for its bilingual, family-friendly

environment, helped along by Lopez’s tireless promotion. “I

wrote articles for newspapers,” he says. “I went on television

and radio, went to soccer games, whatever I could do to get the

word out.” The word was that Principal Strawn had a vision

and that her vision made Lewis & Clark Elementary the best

school in the district to send your Spanish-speaking child and

the most supportive environment a bilingual

teacher could wish for.

THE LANGUAGE OF SUCCESS

The story of Lewis & Clark’s success is a

decadelong process of hard work, strong

leadership, and an unwavering commitment

to high standards for all students. Throughout that decade Strawn has not only hired

bilingual teachers, but also a bilingual secretary, a bilingual home visitor, and a bilingual

counselor. These hiring practices have had a

far-reaching influence that’s changed the

entire school culture. As Megan Castillo, a

language enrichment specialist at the school,

says, “Our staff ethnicity really beautifully

matches our student ethnicity now, and that

has not only changed students’ expectations 32 nwrel.org/nwedu/

Bilingual kindergarten teacher Rosemary Tiffany, the child of migrant workers, draws on

personal experience to inspire both students and fellow teachers.

From farm worker to ranch foreman

to teacher and soon-to-be administrator, Alfonso Lopez’s intelligence,

ambition, and personal warmth

have helped him rise to the top.
and visions of what they can achieve, but also teachers’ expectations. They say to themselves: ‘Look at what Mr. Lopez

achieved, look at what Mrs. Tiffany has achieved. I need to

have higher expectations for my students, too.’ It’s been beneficial for students and parents, but also for the teachers in

the building.”

During the past decade Strawn has also developed her

vision of a school that is truly bilingual and resolute in its

belief that teaching students to read in their native language

is the right thing to do. The school initially implemented an

early-exit bilingual program and then moved to a duallanguage immersion program in 2004–2005. The program—

based on the dual-language model developed by Leo Gomez

and Richard Gomez, Jr.—currently encompasses K–2, but

will expand to the third grade in 2006–2007, the fourth grade

the year after, and finally cover the entire K–5 student body

in 2008–2009. As part of the model, all students take math in

English; science and social studies in Spanish; and language

arts in their native language. Beginning in the second grade,

a second unit of language arts is added so that all students

have both Spanish and English language instruction. 

Strawn, who has greatly improved her own Spanishspeaking skills over the years, sees a dual-language immersion program as the ultimate expression of the school’s commitment to diversity. “This has been my dream,” she says.

“To help Spanish-speaking students retain their native language while learning English, and to give English speakers

the gift of bilingualism. We have the same expectations for all

students, no matter what their native language, their ethnicity, or their economic background.”

Those high expectations are beginning to pay off. For the

past two years, the school’s reading and math scores have

exceeded state and district results. In the 2004–2005 school

year, 86 percent of Lewis & Clark’s fourth-graders met or

exceeded the standard on the reading portion of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) and 66 percent met or exceeded the standard in math. In addition, the

achievement gap between white and Hispanic students has

virtually disappeared. The school was named a 2005–2006

National Title I Distinguished School and was awarded a

Title I Academic Achievement Award for sustained improvement on reading scores. In 2005, Strawn was chosen by her

peers as the North Central Washington Elementary School

Principal of the Year and Rosemary Tiffany was named the

ESD’s Regional Teacher of the Year. 

For his efforts, Lopez received a Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award in

1998, as well as the 1998 Washington Award for Excellence in

Teaching. He will earn his administrator’s license in the spring of

2006 and take a step he could

hardly imagine in his days in the

orchard: When school begins in

September, Lopez will take over as

principal from the retiring Connie

Strawn. Like Strawn, Lopez will

undoubtedly bring a strong,

clearly defined vision to that position: One that embraces cultural

diversity and the belief that all students, given an equal opportunity,

can succeed. ■

Building a Bilingual Staff

“This has been my dream. To help Spanish-speaking students retain their

native language while learning English, and to give English speakers the gift of

bilingualism. We have the same expectations for all students, no matter what their native

language, their ethnicity, or their economic background.” —Principal Connie Strawn

SPEAKING THE SAME LANGUAGE

33

Lewis & Clark Elementary’s dual-language bilingual program currently encompasses K–2, but will be

schoolwide within the next three years.
34 nwrel.org/nwedu/

Heriberto Torres, a former migrant worker, now teaches full-time at

Yakima’s Davis High School and directs its plaza comunitaria.
YAKIMA, Washington—At 2:40 on a drizzly spring afternoon, students burst through the weathered metal

doors of A.C. Davis High School. A young couple walks toward the parking lot, their arms draped around

each other, creating their own island as other students dart around them. Some students head for soccer

or softball or track practice or to club meetings; others to after-school jobs or the comforts of home. But

for another group, the academic day is not over. These students amble in to a small, portable classroom

just outside the main building with their backpacks and book bags and head for one of the computers that

circle the small, crowded room. 

Heriberto Torres, the coordinator of the program—a short, compact Latino with a broad chest and a

tidy mustache—greets each student in energetic, rapid-fire Spanish. After a long day in English language

classrooms, many of the 30-plus students seem to visibly relax as they enter the room and fall into the easy

rhythms of their native language. Mariachi instruments fill the back of the classroom and brightly-colored,

Spanish language posters cover the walls. While most of these students might prefer to be at sports practice or wandering toward the parking lot with an arm around their sweetheart, there is a sense that the

hardest part of the day is behind them. Here, there is a feeling of shared culture based on both a common

language and each individual’s desire to improve his or her life. The classroom is filled to capacity. For the

next two hours and 15 minutes, all lessons are in Spanish. 

AN ONLINE LEARNING PROGRAM BASED IN MEXICO 

ALLOWS LATINO STUDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES 

TO MAKE STRONGER ACADEMIC GAINS—

USING MATERIALS IN THEIR NATIVE LANGUAGE 

WHILE THEY CONTINUE TOWARD FLUENCY IN ENGLISH.

Story by BRACKEN REED

Photos by SARA GETTYS

Opportunity Portal to

NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 35
Portals, Portables, and the Plazas Comunitarias

The portable classroom at Davis is one of several places

around the city that house plazas comunitarias, or community plazas. Each offers a facility, computers, an on-site coordinator, and a wealth of educational and cultural resources

and services.

Here, both students and parents can access a cornucopia of

Spanish language content courses via the CONEVyT (pronounced “Cone-aye-Veet”) Portal. CONEVyT—the Spanish

acronym for Mexico’s Consejo Nacional de Educación para

la Vida y el Trabajo (the National Council for Education for

Life and Work)—is part of a national system that offers lifelong education and training opportunities for Hispanic

teenagers and adults. The Mexican government created the

program more than 25 years ago to meet the needs of the estimated 35 million adults in that country who had not completed school beyond the sixth grade. From the beginning,

the program also focused on serving Hispanic immigrants in

the United States. 

Several Mexican government agencies, including the Secretaría de Educación Pública, the Instituto Nacional de Educación para los Adultos (INEA), and the Colegio de

Bachilleres, collaborated to develop the programs and services offered under the CONEVyT umbrella. In purely academic terms, this collaboration resulted in high-quality,

Spanish language curricula for more than 150 different

courses, ranging from remedial Spanish literacy and math to

calculus, physics, and other college-level courses. Initially

offered as traditional pencil-and-paper coursework, during

the past five years the program has developed into a Webbased “portal,” which has helped spread its popularity

throughout the United States. Currently, public and/or private institutions, schools, or districts in 30 different states use

the CONEVyT Portal to help English language learners

improve their academic achievement. More than 130 plaza

comunitaria sites exist in the U.S., while more than 2,000 are

scattered throughout Mexico.

Only a few states, however, have truly tapped into the full

potential of the CONEVyT program by hosting their own

portals, rather than simply accessing the main Mexican educational site. These include California, Texas, Oregon,

Nevada, New Mexico, Georgia, North Carolina, and most

recently, Wisconsin and Washington. 

In May 2005, these last two states held a joint videoconference with Mexican government officials to announce the

unveiling of CONEVyT Portal/Plaza Comunitaria projects

in their respective states. Mexican President Vicente Fox,

Washington state Governor Chris Gregoire, and other highranking officials hailed the multinational collaboration 

and its potential to improve the academic achievement of

Spanish-speaking students in the United States. 

Making It Your Own

The CONEVyT Portal in Washington is

hosted by the Yakima School District, whose

superintendent, Benjamin A. Soria, played a

major role in bringing the program to the state.

Hosting a portal allows for more customization

of the program, explains Nicolas Zavala, the

executive director of state and federal programs

for the district. “Basically, we have what’s called

a mirror site,” says Zavala. “We house the

entire program on our own server. In theory,

we could just connect to the Oregon portal or

the California portal or directly to the Mexico

portal, but having our own portal gives us

greater control. We can personalize it. We can

upload certain courses that another state might

not be interested in. Moreover, we also have

more control over the registration process, the passwords for

the assessments, and other administrative functions. It makes

us a lot more independent.”

Hosting a portal also means that a state can shape the

CONEVyT coursework to match its own state standards.

Soon after the May 2005 inauguration ceremony, the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction’s

migrant/bilingual office formed a course alignment project

team, consisting of bilingual, content-area experts from

around the state—including 11 from the Yakima School District. For the next several months the team worked closely

with Mexican education organizations and the Mexican

Consul in Seattle to explicitly align courses to Washington

state standards. In the end, 92 of the possible 150 courses

were fully aligned and piloted in the fall of 2006. 

A Growing Population

In 2003 Washington had 490,448 official residents born in

Mexico or other Hispanic nations—the eighth largest such

population in the United States. Between 1990 and 2000, the

36 nwrel.org/nwedu/
number of Mexican-born residents in the state increased by

200 percent. Much of this growth can be attributed to changing trends in agriculture and in the immigration policy. The

Yakima Valley, a broad, fertile agricultural plain, is fed by the

Yakima River, which starts in the foothills of the Cascade

Mountains and stretches more than 100 miles to its confluence with the Columbia River in the Tri-Cities. Along the

way it is used to irrigate some of the most productive farmland in the country. Hispanic migrant workers have been an

important part of this agricultural work since at least the

1960s. Yakima and the smaller towns that dot the

valley have traditionally been home to the largest

concentration of Hispanics in the state.

In recent years, the shift from fruit

orchards to vineyards and hop fields has

contributed to a shift in migration trends.

More Hispanic workers are staying in the

valley year round, and more Hispanic students are filling the schools. According to

the most current available statistics there are

more than 55,000 Hispanic students in Washington public schools, representing 12 percent

of the entire student population. In the Yakima

School District that number is closer to 59 percent. Many of these students are English language learners struggling to meet grade-level

expectations in the core subject areas. For many

students that struggle ends in frustration. During the 2003–2004 school year, for instance,

the dropout rate for Hispanic students was

10.2 percent, while the on-time graduation

rate for that group was only 54 percent. As

Jorge Herrera, the CONEVyT coordinator

for both the Yakima School District and the

state, says, “We see the CONEVyT 

program as a way to keep more kids in school, raise the graduation rate, and bring them up to grade level, while they also

acquire English.” 

Breaking Barriers

The 30-plus students crowded into the Davis High School

portable building are only a small sampling of Yakima’s

CONEVyT participants. At the Davis site alone, for instance,

more than 80 English language learner/migrant students are

registered in the program. In addition, more than 100 mainstream students are using CONEVyT courses as supplemental resources for their own academic development—some

use the program to study Spanish, or a part of a CONEVyT

course to improve their skills in specific content areas, while

others take courses (in Spanish) not otherwise offered by the

school. Many of these mainstream students have access to

home computers and normally come to the plaza comunitaria site only to take exams if needed. 

For the many students and parents without access to the

Internet, the plaza comunitaria is indeed a portal to opportunities otherwise out of reach. Each site is open to both students

and parents four days a week. Students, like those at Davis,

have access to their respective plaza comunitaria from 2:45 to

5:00 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, while parents come in the

evenings from six to eight. More than 40 parents are registered

at the Davis site. On an average night, between 25 and 30 parents show up to do CONEVyT coursework or to take personal

growth classes, such as employment skills, ESL, GED Spanish

courses, parenting, or effective communication.

Perhaps the most important features of the program, for

students and parents alike, are its flexibility and

affordability. All K–9 level courses are free,

while grade 10–12 level courses have a small

recovery fee of $10 each, which includes all

course materials and assessment tools. In

addition, all of the courses are designed for

those 15 years or older, but participants can

find an appropriate course at any level of

instruction, from remedial to college-level.

“Adding to the flexibility,” says Herrera, “is

that none of the courses has a time limit—students aren’t pressured to finish the course

within a semester or trimester or whatever. They

can go at their own pace and take the tests when

they are ready.”

All of this flexibility is meant to remove the

traditional barriers to adult learning in the Hispanic community, such as limited English

skills, a mobile lifestyle, lack of childcare, the

need to hold multiple jobs, and distrust in the

standard educational institutions. Here, all

coursework is in Spanish and most staff

members are bilingual. 

NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 37

GROWING THE SYSTEM

The Yakima School District 

will eventually have a dozen 

separate plaza comunitaria sites 

around the city. Several other sites 

around the state are either established or in the planning stages, 

including four in Wenatchee, 

four in Toppenish, 

one in Okanogan, 

five around 

Centralia, one in 

Cowiche, and one each 

in inner-city Seattle, 

and tiny, remote Mattawa. 

Each district must provide 

a facility with computers 

(no more than five years old) 

and hire a district coordinator. 

Interested districts should 

contact Jorge Herrera at the 

Yakima School District: 

509-573-7114. 

PORTAL TO OPPORTUNITY

ELL students can earn up to 14 of their 22 required academic credits by

taking online Spanish language courses via the CONEVyT portal.
A World of Choices

For many students, CONEVyT will mean the difference

between graduating and dropping out. In Washington state,

students must earn 22 total credits to graduate, with a maximum of seven credits taken in electives. Currently, Limited

English Proficient students can earn up to 14 of their 22 credits in Spanish via CONEVyT, including core classes such as

Algebra I and II, geometry, Biology I and II, Economics I and II,

accounting and bookkeeping, one of the two health/fitness

requirements, world languages, and occupational education.

The only core subject credits students can’t meet through

CONEVyT are language arts and social sciences. “The Washington CONEVyT Portal offers content course work in

Spanish only; basic language arts and local history aren’t

options,” says Herrera, acknowledging the essential need and

the political nature of English language instruction. “We want

students to learn English. The Spanish language courses are

not a replacement for that—they are supplemental.”

For Herrera, the real treasure of CONEVyT is in its electives. Students can earn all seven of their elective credits, but

they don’t have to stop there. The program offers advancedlevel classes such as physics and calculus, and others—such as

philosophy, anthropology, and scientific research methodology—that aren’t offered at the regular school, in any language.

“In the past,” says Herrera, “students might arrive at the

school ready for calculus, but end up being placed in a lowerlevel math class because of their limited English skills. That

was a total waste. Now, with CONEVyT, a student will never

get stuck in a lower-level or remedial class due to a language

barrier.”

Along with these educational opportunities, Herrera says,

come hope and dignity. Parents who have never learned to

read or write in any language can take ESL classes or Spanish

literacy classes—or both—at an appropriate level and at their

own pace. They can also earn a GED by taking Spanish language classes or can earn their accredited certification from

the Mexican school system. 

For Herrera, the only barriers still left are due to the afterschool nature of the program. “We would really like to make

this available during school hours, like English language

online programs such as A+ or NovaNet,” he says. “It’s not

fair that a lot of these students have to miss out on sports or

can’t take after-school jobs or participate in other activities. If

they don’t have a home computer and they really want to participate in the program, they have to make some difficult

decisions.”

One other possible barrier is that—beginning in 2008—

students will have to pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, in English, in order to graduate. But Herrera

does not see this as a problem. “If anything, CONEVyT will

help them pass,” he says. “Transferring knowledge from one

language to another is easier than being tested on material

you’ve never even studied.”

Finding Community

As the students at Davis High School plunge into their studies a quiet settles over the room. Most of the students are

wearing headphones and are deeply immersed in their lessons. Some students are taking tests—including a few taking

finals. Others are just getting started with CONEVyT. As

Torres surveys the room, he points to one rail-thin boy in a

hooded sweatshirt. “This student just arrived from Mexico

two days ago,” he says. “He really has no English at all.”

Although Torres is whispering in English, the boy seems to

sense that he’s being talked about. He shifts slightly in his

seat and glances in our direction—swiftly, almost imperceptibly—but in that glance is a mass of emotions: fear, confusion, homesickness, anger, loss. Torres, who was also born in

Mexico, seems unfazed. “We’ll get him going,” he says confidently, and turns in another direction. 

In this student—surrounded by his Spanish-speaking

peers, presented with coursework he is familiar with from

Mexico, and guided by an instructor who himself has made

this same long journey—it’s possible to see the real power of

CONEVyT and to understand the meaning of the plazas

comunitarias. ■

38 nwrel.org/nwedu/

Alice Villanueva (second from left) runs the plazas comunitarias site 

at Eisenhower High School in Yakima, with the help of paid student

tutors. Each of the students also participate in the CONEVyT program,

with access to the plazas site after school from 3 to 5 p.m. The students

then return in the evening to tutor adult participants from 6 to 8 p.m.

Photo: Bracken Reed

“We see the CONEVyT program as a

way to keep more kids in school, raise

the graduation rate, and bring them up to grade

level, while they also acquire English.”

—Jorge Herrera, CONEVyT coordinator
Rosemary Tiffany is a bilingual kindergarten teacher at Lewis & Clark Elementary in Wenatchee, Washington, who

knows firsthand the challenges her students face. The daughter of migrant

workers, she grew up in the Yakima Valley and was a struggling student, a high

school dropout, and teen parent.

Through sheer determination, she

earned both bachelor’s and master’s

degrees and was recognized as the

North Central ESD Regional Teacher of

the Year. In addition to teaching, Tiffany

gives professional development trainings in cultural awareness throughout

Washington state.

I’m a second language learner. I

started school not being able to speak

English, which was difficult for me

because I went through most of my

elementary and intermediate years

really hating school—I mean really hating it with a passion. I didn’t understand the language, and learning

English was difficult for me because

my family was very large and we were

migrant farm workers, so we didn’t

stay in one spot for very long.

I came from a family of 12 and no

one had graduated. My mom never

went to school, my dad had maybe a

second-grade education. They were all

working in the fields, so there was no

one really to help me with schoolwork. 

My mom always kind of pushed us

to go to school, but I invented all kinds

of illnesses to stay home. One day the

truancy officer came and knocked on

my door and said, “I know you’re in

there. I saw you through the window.”

So, he actually forced me to get in the

car and took me to school and it was

kind of embarrassing. After that, I tried

to go to school even though I didn’t

like it. 

Somehow I stuck with it, but I did

get married as a junior in high school

and dropped out for a little bit. Then, I

decided that school was more fun than

working in the field. So, I went back to

school and I did graduate, amazingly. I

can remember in my biology class in

high school, the teacher was just kind

of talking to the whole class—kind of

an informal conversation—and I said,

“I think I’m going to get an A this time

on my test,” because I knew I had been

working hard. And he said, “Well, I

don’t expect you to.” He said, “I don’t

think you’ll ever amount to anything.”

He truly said those words! Those

words hurt a lot. And I’m the type of

person that if you say, “You can’t,” I’ll

show you I can. I think maybe in a way

that was meant to happen to me

because it really pushed me in the

other direction.

[After graduating,] I started working

as a paraprofessional. I did that for five

years: I was doing just about the same

amount of work as a teacher and not

getting the pay, and there were so many

things I didn’t like that I was seeing. I

decided to try to go to college. A really

neat program came along—the

Migrant Extended Degree program:

They would pay for the years it would

take, but it meant that I would work as

a parapro and then go to school at

night. I did that for two years, but

decided that I really wanted to get done

sooner, so I quit the program and went

to college on my own. I was treated

really well there. I think they kind of

looked at me like an exchange student

because I was different—there weren’t

many Latinos there at that time.

The thing that happened to me at

college is I [finally] began to understand the language. It took me not five

years, not seven years—as most programs tell you—but it took me at least

10 or more years to really understand

the academic language and to be able to

comprehend what I was doing. 

I went on to become a teacher and

later got my master’s degree in bilingual education/ESL from Heritage

College in Toppenish. I went on to the

Chelan School District and taught

there for nine years as their migrant/

bilingual teacher. I was teaching [my

students] to learn English but at the

same time I was giving them a lot of

Spanish instruction to support them. I

had kids telling me, “I can’t do it. I

can’t. English is too hard. I can’t learn

it.” What helped is that I had gone

through that experience and I was able

to say, “If I can learn it, you can learn it.

And I know it’s hard but you will learn

it eventually.”

My goal as a teacher is: I want my

kids to know that I care for them and

that I want them to have a good education. That is important to me. If they

know that you care, they’ll work harder

for you. ■

VOICES

A Teacher’s Voice: From Surviving to Thriving By Rosemary Tiffany

Photo: Bracken Reed

NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 39
RESEARCH BRIEF

What the Research Says About Effective Strategies for ELL Students By Rhonda Barton

Meeting the needs of English language learners is a challenge

that’s widely felt in the Northwest. Half of the region’s 1,103

school districts report enrolling ELL students. In 91 of those

districts, English learners represent more than a quarter of all

students and in another 37 districts, ELLs fill half the seats.

Beyond any social implications, the performance of these

students can carry a disproportionate amount of weight in an

educational era dominated by No Child Left Behind.

According to the Urban Institute, two-thirds of ELL students

nationally come from low-income families. Consequently,

an ELL student who does poorly on state achievement tests

can potentially affect a school’s adequate yearly progress

standing in as many as three categories: Limited English Proficiency, low income, and racial/ethnic. As the Center on

Education Policy (Rentner et al., 2006) points out, “This

leads to greater pressure on schools, districts, and states to

rapidly increase the English proficiency and academic performance of English language learners in order to improve

the performance of three subgroups.” 

The question then becomes, how is this goal best 

accomplished?

ASSESSING PROP 227

Two states—California and Massachusetts—restrict bilingual

instruction and require English learners to be taught overwhelmingly in English. California’s Proposition 227, which

passed by statewide referendum in 1998, established structured immersion as the

default program for instruction. ELL students undergo

sheltered/structured immersion during a “temporary

transition period not normally intended to exceed one

year” and then transfer to

mainstream English language

classrooms.

A five-year evaluation of

Proposition 227, conducted

by the American Institutes for Research and WestEd (Parrish

et al., 2006), was released in January 2006. After tracking data

from 1.5 million English learners and 3.5 million English fluent and native English-speaking students in California, the

researchers concluded that “there is no evidence to support

an argument of the superiority of one English learner

instructional approach over another.” Among the study’s

other findings were:

• Since Proposition 227, students across all language classifications, in all grades, have posted gains on state achievement

tests. But, other reforms such as class-size reductions and

the climate of increased federal and state accountability

make it impossible to attribute these gains to any one factor.

• The gap between ELL students and native English speakers has remained virtually constant in most subjects and in

most grades.

• Less than 40 percent of English learners are likely to meet

the criteria to be reclassified as fluent/proficient after 10

years in California schools. 

The study goes on to say that while there’s no one path to

academic excellence, several critical factors do contribute to

success for English language learners. These include staff

capacity to address ELL students’ linguistic and cognitive

needs; schoolwide focus on English language development

and standards-based instruction; shared priorities and expectations; and systematic, ongoing assessment with use of data

to guide instruction.

THE CASE FOR DUAL LANGUAGE

The work of Virginia Collier and Wayne Thomas of George

Mason University seems to challenge the assertion that

there’s no one path to academic excellence for ELL students. 

After 20 years of program evaluation research involving

almost two dozen large and

small school districts in

urban, suburban, and rural

settings in 15 states, Collier

and Thomas (2004) write passionately about the “astounding effectiveness” of duallanguage immersion.

In what they term a “wakeup call to the field of bilingual

education,” Collier and

Thomas point to evidence

that “enrichment dual-language schooling closes the academic achievement gap in L2 and in first language (L1) students initially below grade level, and for all categories of

students participating in this program.” They go on to say,

“This is the only program for English learners that fully

closes the gap.”

According to the researchers, when students enter mainstream classes and leave special remedial programs (including

40 nwrel.org/nwedu/

“[T]here is no evidence to support 

an argument of the superiority of one

English learner instructional approach

over another.” 

—Proposition 227 Evaluation
intensive English-only

classes such as those in California and Massachusetts,

ESL pullout classes, ESL

content/sheltered instruction, structured English

immersion, and transitional bilingual education),

they may continue to make

academic progress—but

only one year at a time, as

do typical native English

speakers. And, they may

make less than a year’s

progress each year in secondary school when the

cognitive demands are

greater. In order to make

more than one year’s

progress in each year and

effectively close the

achievement gap, Collier

and Thomas maintain that ELL students need curricular

mainstream instruction through two languages. 

Collier and Thomas also believe that the dual-language

approach has an added benefit: “[It] can transform the experience of teachers, administrators, and parents into an inclusive and supportive school community for all.”

ANOTHER VIEW

Looking at research spanning the last quarter century, Fred

Genesee of McGill University and his colleagues (2005) also

found “strong convergent evidence that the educational success of ELLs is positively related to sustained instruction

through the student L1 [native language]. In both descriptive

and comparative program evaluation studies, results showed

that length of time in the program and time of assessment

affect outcomes.” 

Examining 200 studies and reports, the researchers homed

in on oral language development, literacy, and academic

achievement. They reported that when students in the early

years (K–3) of a bilingual program were tested, they typically

scored below grade level. However, later assessments (at the

end of elementary school and in middle and high school)

revealed that “educational outcomes of bilingually educated

students, especially in late-exit and two-way programs, were

at least comparable to, and usually higher than, their comparison peers” (p. 375). The studies also showed that the longer

the students stayed in such programs, the better they did.

According to Genesee

and his coauthors, research

consistently confirmed that

ELL students who received

any specialized program,

such as bilingual or English

as a Second Language

instruction, were able to

catch up to or surpass the

levels of their ELL and

English-speaking classmates in English-only classrooms. Citing Thomas and

Collier’s seminal 2002

study, they stated that “students who participated in

an assortment of different

programs and those who

received no special intervention performed at the

lowest levels and had the

highest dropout rates.”

In conclusion, Genesee and his colleagues maintain:

“Taken together, these results indicate that ELLs are more

successful when they participate in programs that are specially designed to meet their needs (ESL, bilingual, etc.) than

in mainstream English classrooms and when the program is

consistent throughout the student education” (p. 374). 

THE BENEFITS OF SIOP

Jana Echevarria, a professor at California State University,

Long Beach and principal investigator with OERI’s Center

for Research on Excellence, Education & Diversity

(CREDE), makes a case for the use of sheltered instruction

to boost achievement for ELL students. A developer of the

empirically validated Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (see page 46), Echevarria asserts that SIOP offers a

model for systematic implementation of high-quality ELL

instruction rather than the “pick and choose” approach to

sheltered lessons used by some teachers.

Writing in the February 2006 issue of Principal Leadership,

she reports on one elementary school where “chronically

underachieving students made consistent and significant

yearly gains on standardized tests when the SIOP model was

implemented to a high degree by all teachers.” Eighty-six

percent of the third-graders who were enrolled in the school

NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 41 Photo: Rhonda Barton

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, Hispanics will make up half of

America’s under-18 population by the year 2020.
during the three years that SIOP was implemented scored at

or above grade level on state assessments.

Based on her research, Echevarria characterizes effective

ELL practices as focused instruction that contains explicit content and language objectives; frequent opportunities to interact

with the teacher and other students; and explicit vocabulary

development with words repeatedly written, pronounced,

modeled, and used in context. She makes the distinction

between social or conversational English and academic

English, noting that “teachers often assume that because students can converse well in English, they should also be able to

complete academic tasks and assignments.” That is a false

assumption, given studies that show conversational ability can

be acquired within one to three years while academic proficiency can take between five and nine years to develop.

INTERWEAVING STRATEGIES

Further support for the practices emphasized by Echevarria

can be found in a synthesis of 34 research studies compiled

by Hersh Waxman of the University of Houston and Kip

Tellez of the University of California, Santa Cruz (2002).

The studies—most of which were qualitative and involved a

limited number of classrooms—highlighted seven teaching

strategies that were effective for ELL students: collaborative

learning communities, multiple representations, building on

prior knowledge, instructional conversation, culturally

responsive instruction, and technology-enriched instruction.

Waxman and Tellez argue that these practices are not separate but can—and should—be used simultaneously. Thus,

teachers can help students improve their language skills by

working in small groups while using technology or by linking culturally responsive lessons to prior learning.

In the end, the researchers stress that “the most important

issue related to effective classroom instruction is not the

form it takes but the quality of the instruction.” Teachers

must perform these practices well, set high expectations for

ELL students, and offer a warm and supportive classroom

environment.

FAR-REACHING CONSEQUENCES

By improving outcomes for the growing population of

English language learners, educators not only address the

demands of NCLB but the greater human consequences. As

the Pew Hispanic Center (2002) points out, “In the United

States today people with more education tend to live longer

and healthier lives, remain married longer, and earn more

money.” Hispanics—who make up 75 percent of the language minority students in the United States—drop out of

high school at twice the rate of their white peers and are less

likely to go on to postsecondary education. With the projection that Hispanics will make up half the population under

the age of 18 in this country by the year 2020, it becomes ever

more critical to give them—and other ELL students—the

education they need to succeed. ■

SOURCES

Collier, V.P., & Thomas, W.P. (2004). The astounding effectiveness of dual-language education for all. NABE Journal of

Research and Practice, 2(1), 1–20. Retrieved April 7, 2006, from

http://njrp.tamu.edu/2004/PDFs/Collier.pdf

Echevarria, J. (2006). Helping English language learners succeed. Principal Leadership, 6(6), 16–21.

Genesee, F., Lindholm-Leary, K., Saunders, W., & Christian,

D. (2005). English language learners in U.S. schools: An

overview of research findings. Journal of Education for Students

Placed At Risk, 10(4), 363–385.

Parrish, T.B., Merickel, A., Pérez, M., Linquanti, R., Socias,

M., Spain, A., et al. (2006). Effects of the implementation of Proposition 227 on the education of English learners, K–12: Findings from

a five-year evaluation. Washington, DC: American Institutes of

Research, & San Francisco, CA: WestEd. Retrieved 

April 4, 2006, from www.wested.org/online_pubs/

227YR5_Report.pdf

Pew Hispanic Center. (2002). Educational attainment: Better

than meets the eye, but large challenges remain [Fact sheet]. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved April 4, 2006, from

http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/3.pdf

Rentner, D.S., Scott, C., Kober, N., Chudowsky, N., Chudowsky, V., Joftus, S., et al. (2006). From the capital to the classroom: Year 4 of the No Child Left Behind Act. Washington, DC:

Center on Education Policy. Retrieved April 1, 2006, from

www.cep-dc.org/nclb/Year4/Press/

Thomas, W.P., & Collier, V.P. (2002). A national study of school

effectiveness for language minority students’ long-term academic

achievement. Santa Cruz, CA: Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence. (ERIC Document Retrieval

No. ED475048)

Waxman, H.C., & Tellez, K. (2002). Research synthesis on effective teaching practices for English language learners. Philadelphia,

PA: Temple University, Mid-Atlantic Regional Educational

Laboratory, Laboratory for Student Success. (ERIC Document Retrieval No. ED474821)

RESEARCH BRIEF

42 nwrel.org/nwedu/
END NOTE

NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 43

I WOULD LIKE YOU TO KNOW

by Diana Reyes

I would like you to know 

that we did not all come from Mexico. 

That it hurts our feelings when you call us “wetbacks.” 

We do not all steal from you. 

We do not all stare at the television for hours and 

boss you around to turn off the lights. 

We are not all lazy. 

We are not all immigrants. 

We are not all in gangs that jump people for their money, 

nor do we do drugs. 

We do not all drop out of school when it gets difficult. 

We are not dirty because of our skin color. 

We are not all poor. 

Most of us know English so don’t talk about us 

like we don’t understand. 

Our parents mostly come here for a better life and 

mostly it turns out to be the other way around. 

Some of our families are not always perfect. I know mine aren’t. 

But we all have families & 

Friends That Love Us. 

These are the facts.

Diana Reyes is a seventh-grader at Valley View School in Phoenix, Arizona.

Photo © Elena Ray
Today, the need for evidence has become as important in the

classroom as in the courtroom. In 2002, the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA) created the Institute of Education

Sciences with the mission of “transforming education into an

evidence-based field.” ESRA followed on the heels of the No

Child Left Behind Act’s demand for using “scientifically

based research” when choosing initiatives to improve educational results. 

The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory—which

has long been known for its research and development activities—is rising to the challenge by launching a series of rigorous

scientific studies that will yield the type of evidence educators

can readily use. “Since the Laboratory was founded almost 40

years ago, we’ve considered ourselves as ambassadors of scientific evidence, taking research into the field in ways that stimulate and support its effective application in educational policy

and practice,” says Carol Thomas, NWREL’s Chief Executive

Officer. “We are building on that tradition by conducting rigorous studies to examine the effects of proposed policies, programs, or practices on academic achievement related to

high-priority needs of the region.”

Under the new Regional Educational Laboratory (REL)

contract, NWREL will conduct three randomized controlled

trials that test the efficacy of interventions in reading, writing,

and mathematics in elementary, middle, and high schools.

Each of these long-term studies will use a sufficient number

of experimental and control groups to ensure rigor. According to Steve Nelson, director of the Office of Service and

Planning Coordination, “There will be careful consideration

in recruiting and selecting sites so there’s fidelity of implementation, geographical and educational contexts, and size

and diversity of student populations.”

Kim Yap, head of the Center for Research and Evaluation,

explains that this type of “gold standard” scientific research

“increases the certainty of knowing that an intervention—

and not other factors—has made a difference.” Yap adds,

“You can talk to teachers, parents, and students and they can

tell you if something has made a difference, but those are

perceptions and not empirical evidence. For gold standard

research, you need to isolate other variables so you can say

the intervention is solely responsible for the result.”

An external group of nationally known researchers—both

methodologists and content experts—will serve as a technical

advisory board. The distinguished group (see list below) will

critique the design of the studies and offer feedback.

NWREL Launches Rigorous Scientific Studies

44 nwrel.org/nwedu/

• Raymond Barnhardt, director of the Center

for Cross-Cultural Studies and co-director of

the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative at the

University of Alaska, Fairbanks

• Johannes Bos, president and CEO of 

Berkeley Policy Associates

• William Demmert, Jr., director of the

Applied Research and Development Center

at Western Washington University

• Allen Glenn, professor of curriculum and

instruction and former dean of the College

of Education at the University of Washington

• Dan Goldhaber, associate professor at the

University of Washington and an affiliated

scholar of the Urban Institute’s Education

Policy Center

• Richard Lesh, the Rudy Distinguished Professor of Education at Indiana University

• Audrey Champagne, professor of educational theory and practice at the State University of New York, Albany

• Joan Herman, co-director of CRESST and

the Center for the Study of Evaluation at the

University of California, Los Angeles

• Michael Kamil, professor of education at

Stanford University

• LeAnne Robinson, assistant professor at

Western Washington University

• Lynn Santelmann, associate professor at

Portland State University

• Sam Stringfield, professor at the Department of Teaching and Learning, University

of Louisville

NWREL’S TECHNICAL WORKING GROUP

These experts in research methodology and content areas will serve as advisers to NWREL’s experimental studies:

“You can talk to teachers, 

parents, and students 

and they can tell you if

something has made a

difference, but those are

perceptions and not empirical

evidence. For gold standard research, you need

to isolate other variables so you can say the

intervention is solely responsible for the result.”

—Kim Yap, NWREL Center for 

Research and Evaluation

NWREL NEWS
NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 45

In addition to the experimental studies, a series of shorter

term, “fast response” research projects will address issues of

special interest to the Northwest. During the next year, these

projects will focus on the effectiveness of literacy coaches,

professional development policy in science and mathematics,

improving principal leadership, the role of external facilitators in school improvement efforts, and parental choice in

supplemental educational services. 

“These studies rely on extant research, rather than new

data,” notes Yap. “For example, we’ve collected a lot of data

on literacy coaching as a result of our statewide evaluations of

Reading First results. By analyzing that data, we can draw

conclusions about the different types of coaching and which

are more effective with certain types of students and teachers.” In future years, NWREL will select other fast response

topics based on regional needs assessments.

Getting the results of research into practitioners’ hands

remains a high priority for the Laboratory. “At NWREL, dissemination has always meant something more than mere distribution of information,” says Dave Wilson, head of the

Office of Development and Communication. “For dissemination of knowledge to be meaningful, it must result in some

positive effect on policy, practice, and ultimately learner 

outcomes.”

Teachers and educational leaders will be able to access

briefing papers and research reports through postings on a

national Laboratory Network Web site as well as NWREL’s

own Web site. Upcoming issues of Northwest Education will

also share research findings, which will form the basis of

future trainings and other products.

Yap stresses that the findings will be helpful to teachers

and administrators in terms of practice and policy. “We’re not

doing esoteric research,” he says. “We’re trying to help 

educators find answers.” ■

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH STUDIES

NWREL will conduct three long-term, rigorous experimental studies:

• Research on Elementary Writing—Led by

Michael Coe, this study will examine how

NWREL’s 6+1 Trait® Writing model affects

teacher practices and student achievement in

grades 3–5. It will involve 60 schools in four to

six school districts, with six teachers participating in each school. Both urban and rural school

districts will be represented, along with students from different racial/ethnic minority

groups, income levels, and English proficiency levels. A teacher survey and student pretest will provide baseline data. Writing samples

and multiple assessments of students in both a treatment group and

a control group will be used to determine the impact of instruction

in the writing traits.

• Research on High School Reading—This randomized study, under Jim Kushman, will test

the effectiveness of a reading comprehension

program called Project CRISS (Creating Independence Through Student Owned Strategies).

The study will focus on ninth- and 10th-grade

students in approximately 20 comprehensive

high schools with large numbers of nonproficient readers. The research will ask whether

direct tutoring and teacher strategies in the classroom have a positive effect on struggling readers and if there are different effects

when students are grouped by NCLB subgroup categories.

• Research on Middle School Mathematics—

Edith Gummer will examine NWREL’s mathematics problem-solving model and its impact

on improving mathematical thinking in the

classroom. The study will not only look at 

student achievement, but how professional

development in the model affects teachers’

classroom practices. The research is linked to

another study of the problem-solving model,

funded by the National Science Foundation Interagency Education

Research Initiative. 
NWREL Training Blends SIOP and Equity Components

It’s hard to imagine two places more different than American

Samoa and Kodiak, Alaska. But, educators in both locations

have benefited from training in Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP), provided by the Northwest Regional

Educational Laboratory’s Equity Center. Since 2003,

NWREL’s SIOP workshops have reached 1,000 educators

from rural Jerome, Idaho, and Falls City, Oregon, to Washington’s urbanized Puget Sound.

Developers at the Center for Research on Education,

Diversity & Excellence (CREDE) created the SIOP model as

a way to help students acquire grade-level content knowledge

while increasing their English proficiency. The model consists of 30 items grouped in three broad categories: preparation, instruction, and review/assessment. Using SIOP, the

teacher has a road map for everything from building language

objectives into lesson plans to linking instruction to students’

background experiences and to providing feedback. 

After becoming certified SIOP trainers, NWREL staff

members added their own twist to the model: They created a

three- to four-day SIOP academy that incorporates key components of educational equity. Equity Center Director Joyce

Harris talked about the program with Northwest Education:

Q: It seems more and more schools are investing in SIOP these

days. What accounts for the growth in its popularity?

No Child Left Behind is forcing schools to focus on populations that have not done well for any number of reasons.

One [population] that jumps out at you is English language

learners and the expectations that these students will be able

to show some academic growth in a relatively short period of

time. The reality is if these students don’t have a command

of the English language, on which most assessment materials

are based, they won’t do well. The traditional approaches

have really centered on ‘let’s develop the language and then

we’ll deal with the academics,’ but SIOP is based on trying to

help students develop their proficiency in the English language while they learn academic skills. Another reason for

SIOP’s popularity is the U.S. Department of Education’s

focus on using research-based best practices in our schools.

The developers of SIOP were able to pull proven practices

together in a cohesive professional development model.

What makes NWREL’s version of SIOP unique?

When we returned to Portland [from CREDE], we began

a very ambitious process of looking at the SIOP materials

through the lens of trainers, and added some things that we

felt would strengthen the contents

for our participants. One of them is

the whole issue of second language

acquisition. Teachers need to know

the fundamentals of second language

acquisition and understand the stages

from a student’s perspective. What is

the student experiencing? So, we talk

about things like affective filter and

the “silent period.” We often help

teachers reflect on times when they

may have visited a different country

where they were in the language

minority: How did you feel when

everyone around you was speaking in a language that you

didn’t understand? What did you do? Did you try to get in

the middle of the conversation? No, you were silent. You listened. You looked for cues to let you know whether what

people were saying was angry or welcoming. That’s something we spend a fair amount of time on in the very first part

of the training. We think it’s important for teachers to understand that the process of acquiring a second language is a total

involvement of the whole being: It’s not just reading words,

trying to sound out words, or trying to figure out meaning. It

involves some physical responses. 

How would you answer the contention that SIOP amounts to just

good teaching? 

That’s exactly what it is and that’s why we got involved

with SIOP. These are just things that you do if you want to be

effective in the classroom and create students with high levels

of academic performance. SIOP reaffirms that if you are using

good teaching practice, you can adapt your content and the

way you deliver it to help any child become successful academically. Teachers need to understand that they already have

knowledge of the skills and strategies of good teaching, but

with English language learners, they must focus every day on

helping students develop their reading, writing, listening, and

speaking skills. We constantly reinforce that whatever you do

in the classroom to help ELL students, it has to give them 

the opportunity to practice reading, writing, listening, and

speaking all the time—no matter what the subject is. ■

To bring a NWREL SIOP Academy to your site, contact the Equity

Center at 503-275-9482 or visit www.nwrel.org/cnorse/. Professional development workshops on other issues regarding equity and

access—including building cultural competency, reducing school-based

harassment, and closing the achievement gap—are also available. 46 nwrel.org/nwedu/

The Equity Center, led

by Joyce Harris, offers a

SIOP academy.

NWREL NEWS
Developing Culturally Responsive, Standards-Based Teaching

Research indicates a strong correlation between low school

performance and a lack of congruence between students’ cultures and school norms. Multiple studies also suggest a compelling relationship between family involvement and benefits

for students, including improved academic achievement,

attendance, and behavior at home and school, as well as

higher scores on standardized tests. According to a new publication by Steffen Saifer and researchers in NWREL’s Center for School, Family, and Community, “drawing on the

knowledge, skills, and experiences of students enriches the

curriculum and builds family and community support,

broadening learning experiences for all

students.”

Classroom to Community and Back:

Using Standards-Based Teaching To

Strengthen Family and Community Partnerships and Increase Student Achievement

seeks to unite two traditionally disparate but equally important pedagogies—culturally responsive teaching

and standards-based teaching. The

book and an accompanying workshop

provide foundational research, tools,

and examples to actively engage all students by incorporating their cultural

knowledge and frames of reference

into a standards-based curriculum.

Woven throughout the guide are

“snapshots” of real-life classrooms

using culturally responsive, standardsbased (CRSB) teaching. 

First-graders in one ESL classroom

bring their parents in to share stories

from their home countries. They read

from a book that the parent and child

have made together. The parent speaks

in her native tongue and the student

interprets in English, emphasizing that

speaking more than one language is an

asset, not a deficiency. This project at

Whitman Elementary School in Portland has proven to be very successful:

During one school year, all students in

the class made adequate progress and

three of 12 who started the year below

grade level finished nearly two years

above grade level.

Other examples in the book include publishing a bestselling book on the community’s traditional Thanksgiving

Day high school football competition, creating family maps

that trace immigration experiences, and making heritage

dolls. The projects provide a peek into successful kindergarten through high school classrooms.

CRSB TEACHING WORKSHOPS

NWREL offers professional development workshops on culturally responsive, standards-based teaching in half-day and

all-day formats with a two-day session recommended for

trainers. The training can be customized to meet the needs of K–12

teachers, staff development specialists,

and administrators. In a survey of educators who participated in the training,

100 percent said it provided a good

process for closing the achievement

gap, and more than 92 percent said that

they were able to make stronger connections with their students’ families.

To find out more about available workshops and how to bring one to your

site, contact Steffen Saifer at 800-547-

6339, ext. 150; saifers@nwrel.org.

To order Classroom to Community,

visit the online catalog at www.nwrel.

org/comm/catalog/ or call 800-547-6339,

ext. 519. The guide is also available

online at www.nwrel.org/partnerships/

c2cb/c2c.pdf. ■

Classroom to Community and Back:

Using Culturally Responsive StandardsBased Teaching To Strengthen Family and

Community Partnerships and Increase

Student Achievement

179 pp.

Item #C001

Member: $27.55 plus shipping

Nonmember: $29.70 plus shipping

“Much has been 

written about culturally

responsive and standardsbased teaching separately,

but it is the integration

of the approaches that 

is critical to the goal of

high achievement for 

all students.”

—Classroom to Community

and Back

NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 47
Helping ELL Students Grow in Mathematics 

Developing mathematical understanding in English language

learners is the aim of a new professional development offering

from NWREL’s Center for Classroom Teaching and Learning. Created to support migrant educators in Montana who

are members of the federally funded MATEMATICA consortium, the original course integrated two research-based

approaches to instruction: Cognitively Guided Instruction

(CGI), a student-centered method for teaching mathematics

to K–3 students, and Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP), a national model used to support high-quality

instruction in the academic content areas for ELL students.

NWREL has now broadened the offering, using other

research-based best practices in mathematics instruction to

meet the needs of educators teaching upper elementary and

adolescent ELL students.

Intended for teachers, paraprofessionals, and administrators who teach mathematics to ELL and migrant education

students, this service can be customized to meet a school or

district’s specific needs. Courses are tailored for specific

grade clusters—K–2, 3–5, 6–8, or 9–12—and consist of a

combination of the following components: 

• A series of workshops examining research-based best

practices for mathematics and sheltered instruction. These

can be delivered using both face-to-face meetings and

videoconferences.

• Video Study Group meetings, facilitated on site by a

NWREL staff member, where teachers examine and discuss

videotapes of their own classroom instruction.

• Asynchronous online discussions and assignments.

“What a difference [this course] has made already!” wrote

one participant in the online class forum. She went on to

reflect, “Creative problem solving had almost been taught

out of my students. Now my students understand that math

can be done using various strategies and I have seen a huge

improvement in comprehension and problem-solving skills

from those students who were struggling at the beginning of

the year.”

In addition to learning effective mathematical instruction

practices and sheltered instruction strategies, participants benefit from working collaboratively with colleagues to improve

teaching and learning for ELL students in mathematics.

To learn more about these services, including how to

schedule a training for your site, contact Linda Griffin at 800-

547-6339, ext. 169, or griffinl@nwrel.org. ■

48 nwrel.org/nwedu/

“The strategies I learned in this class

allow me to focus on what I want my

students to learn and accomplish, and

has made teaching a lesson easier.”

—Class participant

NWREL mathematics expert Linda Griffin leads an interactive 

online session as part of a course that blends cognitively guided math

instruction and Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol techniques.

NWREL NEWS
NORTHWEST EDUCATION / SPRING 2006 49

Conference Call

What’s New on the Web

NEW SEARCH ENGINE

In the past, searching for just the right

page on NWREL’s Web site of more

than 22,000 documents may have

seemed like looking for the proverbial

needle in a haystack. But now, users of

the site are apt to find what they need

in the first page—maybe even the first

result. “With the popularity of search

engines like Google, we all expect to

type a word or two into a search box

and get the answer,” observes

NWREL’s head Webmaster, Vicki Jean

Beauchamp. “With our previous search

engines, that wasn’t happening. You’d

get results ... though not necessarily

what you were seeking. That’s changed

with the introduction of the Google

Mini, a new search engine that’s been

adapted exclusively for NWREL’s use.”

• Building Trust With

Schools and Diverse

Families: A Foundation for Lasting Partnerships

• Culturally Responsive

Practices for Student

Success

• Profiles of Progress: What Works in

Northwest Title I Schools

Each booklet contains a discussion

of research and literature pertinent to

the issue, a sampling of how Northwest schools are addressing the challenge, suggestions for adapting these

ideas to schools, selected references,

and contact information. PDF versions

of all 30 booklets are free on the Web at

www.nwrel.org/request/. ■

Google Mini works with any search

box on NWREL’s Web site. If you still

have trouble finding the appropriate

page, e-mail Beauchamp at webmaster

@nwrel.org. Here’s to more efficient

searching! 

BY REQUEST

While quantities last, various titles

from NWREL’s popular By Request

series are available for sale in NWREL’s

Products Catalog Online (www.nwrel.

org/comm/catalog/). The series addresses a wide variety of issues and

concerns raised by Northwest educators during a 10-year span, including: 

• Strategies and Resources for Mainstream

Teachers of English Language Learners

2006 OREGON HIGH SCHOOL INSTITUTE 

June 26–27, 2006

Kingstad Center, Beaverton, OR

The hot topic of high school reform is

the focus of this two-day event for

Oregon educators, cosponsored by

NWREL and several other organizations including the Oregon Department of Education and Employers for

Education Excellence (E3)/Oregon

Small Schools Alliance. Participants

will gain awareness of what is happening in Oregon high schools, develop an

understanding of effective school

reform strategies, and commit to taking

community action. The first day centers on Personalized Learning: Engaging Students. The second day’s topic 

is Preparing Students for Success: 

College, Work, and Citizenship. Register online at http://gearup.ous.edu/

hsinstitute/; the registration deadline is

June 9, 2006. 

strategies, lesson design and training

considerations, and workshop planning.

6+1 TRAIT® WRITING ASSESSMENT:

INTRODUCTORY INSTITUTE

October 11–13, 2006

Surfsand Resort, Cannon Beach, OR

This workshop features practical,

ready-to-use lessons and strategies that

help students identify quality in writing, manage their own writing process,

practice effective revision and editing,

and become confident writers. The

final day will focus on beginning (K–3)

writers. Teachers of grades 6–12 may

opt to attend only the first two days. 

For information on 6+1 TRAIT Writing

events, contact Sharon Northern at 800-

547-6339, ext. 572, or e-mail northers@

nwrel.org. More information can be found at

www.nwrel.org/assessment/trainings.php ■

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING TEAMS

SUMMER INSTITUTE

July 25–27, 2006

NWREL, Portland, OR

This three-day institute will give facilitators the tools to lead professional

learning teams in their own schools.

The training will support schools

working with structural changes like

Smaller Learning Communities and

interdisciplinary teaming. For further

information, contact Susan Sather,

800-547-6339, ext. 645; sathers@

nwrel.org. Register by June 23, 2006. 

6+1 TRAIT® WRITING ASSESSMENT FOR

TRAINERS INSTITUTE

July 19–21, 2006

The Resort at the Mountain, Welches, OR

In this three-day advanced training, educators who are experienced users of the

6+1 TRAIT model will learn how to

train others in its use. Previous training

in the model is required. The institute

will include a review of writing traits and
50 nwrel.org/nwedu/

Flashback

1. TRAINING OF TRAINERS

Teachers from as far away as Hong Kong and six states spanning the country attended the 6+1 Trait® Writing Assessment

for Trainers Institute in Portland, March 6–8, 2006. After

participating in the intensive three-day institute, these new

trainers can now teach other educators in their communities

how to use the internationally popular writing assessment

model. Pictured—NWREL trainer Peter Bellamy describes

workshop elements.

2. NEW FRONTIERS IN YOUTH MENTORING

Some of the country’s most prominent mentoring experts

were featured at a training program for Alaska youth mentoring professionals, held in Anchorage, April 10–12, 2006.

The conference showcased effective mentoring practices—

especially those in rural locations and with Native youth.

NWREL’s National Mentoring Center coordinated the

event, which was sponsored by the Alaska Mentoring

Demonstration Project. The project is a collaborative initiative between the Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies of

Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Southeast Alaska; Boys and Girls

Clubs; and the National Senior Service Corps of Alaska. Pictured—(from left to right) Patti MacRae, NWREL; Maggie

Steele, Seventh Generation

Warriors for Peace; Amy Cannata, NWREL; Mark LoMurray, The North Dakota Tribal/Rural Mentoring Project;

Craig Bowman, Common Ground Consulting; Nicky Martin, NWREL; Judy Taylor, U.S. Department of Education

Mentoring Resource Center; Dr. Susan Weinberger, Mentor

Consulting Group.

3. BREAKING RANKS

High school leaders from across the nation gathered at a

Breaking Ranks IITM workshop in Portland conducted by

NWREL’s Recreating Secondary Schools Unit, March 

6–8, 2006. The tailored workshop was designed to help high

school leaders integrate their schools’ Smaller Learning

Community plans with three core areas: collaborative leadership, personalization and curriculum, and instruction and

assessment. 

School teams interested in future Breaking Ranks II workshops or in the new Breaking Ranks in the Middle (BRIM)

workshops currently under development by the National

Association of Secondary School Principals can contact Katie

Whitney Luers at luersk@nwrel.org or Erin McGary-Hamilton

at mcgaryhe@nwrel.org. Pictured—Erin McGary-Hamilton

helps team members from Miami, Florida, work on their

school plan.

4. 4CAST CONFERENCE

NWREL’s Volunteer Leadership Center is leading an

innovative pilot project that

will identify best practices

from AmeriCorps field programs in the Northwest and

share them through a variety

of electronic learning formats.

To kick off the project—called

“4CAST” or Collaboration

for Capacity-Building Strategies and Tools—AmeriCorps

representatives gathered in

Portland, March 21–23, 2006,

to review existing materials

and discuss how to adapt

them for a wider audience.

4CAST expects to post the

material on a national Web site

in early fall. ■

1

3

4

2

NWREL NEWS
Improving Adolescent Mathematics: 

Findings From Research

This publication focuses on research

designed to improve adolescents’

learning of mathematics. It helps

school leaders and faculty members

work collaboratively to develop

schoolwide or districtwide plans to

improve math learning by incorporating research-tested practices into

instruction, assessment, professional

development, and school structures to

support struggling learners. (117 pp.)

Item #S301

Member: $16.70 plus shipping

Nonmember: $18.85 plus shipping

Improving Instruction Through 

Professional Learning Teams: 

A Guide for School Leaders

Although there is considerable

research on the value of professional

learning teams (PLTs), there is little

research on how schools develop them.

This guide provides strategies for

teachers and school leaders to effectively develop these communities in

coordination with their school

improvement plans. A theoretical

foundation for PLTs and concrete

advice on getting ready for PLTs, building support structures and relationships, and reinforcing PLT skills are

presented in this guide. (125 pp.)

Item #S002

Member: $28.30 plus shipping

Nonmember: $30.75 plus shipping

Leadership in the Collaborative School: 

A Research-Based Process Guide for 

Present and Future School Leaders

Studies of successful schools have

revealed certain essential ingredients in

improving education. This book contains sections on getting started and

setting direction, planning and taking

action, and maintaining momentum

and sustaining progress. Each chapter

discusses tools for effective change,

including short research syntheses,

consensus-building materials, data use,

recommended resources, and sample

activities. (260 pp.)

Item #S003

Member: $21.10 plus shipping

Nonmember: $23.10 plus shipping

To order: nwrel.org/comm/catalog/ or call 800-547-6339, ext. 519 51

New Products

View NWREL’s complete product catalog and check out our easy and secure online ordering system at www.nwrel.org/comm/catalog/

NWREL PRODUCTS
52 To order: nwrel.org/comm/catalog/ or call 800-547-6339, ext. 519

These colorful folders help students

organize and protect their work and

provide reference information about

writing with the traits. Incorporated

into the fun design are definitions of

the traits and grade-appropriate tips on

being a better writer the 6+1 Trait® way. 

6+1 Trait® Writing folders (primary

grades)

Item #E115

Member: $12.50 for a pack of 10 

plus shipping

Nonmember: $13.75 for a pack of 10

plus shipping

6+1 Trait® Writing folders (middle and

high school grades)

Item #E116

Member: $12.50 for a pack of 10 

plus shipping

Nonmember: $13.75 for a pack of 10

plus shipping

The 6+1 Trait® model has such a

tremendous impact on writing instruction because it allows teachers to 

pinpoint students’ strengths and weaknesses in ideas, organization, voice,

word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation; and focus

instruction accordingly. In these books,

author Ruth Culham guides teachers

on how to assess student work, plan

instruction, and use a common vocabulary for the traits of good writing that

their students can understand. Each

book—one framed to address K–2

teachers’ needs and another for teachers of grades three and up—includes

scoring guides, focus lessons, and

activities for teaching each trait. 

6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete

Guide for the Primary Grades 

304 pp.

Item #E060

Member: $23.45 plus shipping

Nonmember: $25.99 plus shipping

6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete

Guide (grades 3 and above) 

304 pp.

Item #E061

Member: $24.25 plus shipping

Nonmember: $26.99 plus shipping

Seeing With New Eyes (6th ed.)

For primary students, writing can take

many forms: drawings, scribbles, and

text that goes every which way. The

challenge for teachers is to see the

experimentation and playfulness of

young writers not as errors, but as ways

of learning. The sixth edition of Seeing

With New Eyes is designed to do just

that. 

Based on NWREL’s 6+1 Trait®

Writing model, this guidebook helps

teachers use the traits of good writing

as a framework for instruction and

scoring of prewriters as well as competent ones. The sixth edition includes

new scoring guides on a wide range of

student work samples to help teachers

give more effective feedback. While the

main audience for the publication is

teachers of grades K–2, the model can

also be used effectively for older students in special education and Limited

English Proficiency classes. (317 pp.)

Item #E028

Member: $23.40 plus shipping

Nonmember: $26.45 plus shipping

Best Sellers

View NWREL’s complete product catalog and check out our easy and secure online ordering system at www.nwrel.org/comm/catalog/

NWREL PRODUCTS
Picture Books: An Annotated Bibliography

With Activities for Teaching Writing With 

the 6+1 Trait® Writing Model (6th ed.)

The latest edition of this perennial

favorite contains an additional 150

annotations of picture books published

between 1998 and 2004. The new

annotations include many books suitable for use with young adult readers

and listeners, indicated with a “YA”

coding. As in the past, the descriptions

are arranged by trait. Each of the traits

has sample lesson plans for immediate

classroom use, including the most

recently added trait—presentation. If

you have started using the 6+1 TRAIT

Writing system in your classroom, you

will find Picture Books a valuable

resource. (176 pp.)

Item #E013

Member: $17.25 plus shipping

Nonmember: $19.60 plus shipping

Wee Can Write: 

Using 6+1 Trait® Writing Strategies 

With Renowned Children’s Literature

NWREL introduces its latest book

focusing on teaching and assessing the

skills that are the bedrock of effective

writing. Written by two kindergarten

teachers, Wee Can Write ties the literacy

needs of very young writers (preschool–grade 2) to developmentally

appropriate instructional strategies,

including assessment of student understanding. Built on a foundation of

renowned picture books and divided

into the four seasons of the year, this

book’s flexible lessons for six traits

continuously blend connections

among reading, writing, speaking, and

creative artwork, supporting a thematic

and integrated approach to the writing

activities. (135 pp.)

Item #E009

Member: $22.65 plus shipping

Nonmember: $25.70 plus shipping

6+1 Trait® Writing Rubric to Grade 

Converter

Teachers love a lot of things about the

6+1 TRAIT model: It helps them

improve their writing instruction; it

shows students what good writing

looks like; and it creates a common

vocabulary to discuss writing. But the

main drawback to the model has always

been the time-consuming calculations

required to convert rubric scores to

grades.

NWREL offers a time-saving solution that ensures accuracy—the rubric

to grade converter. Using reliable slidechart technology, the rubric to grade

converter has the flexibility to work

with the model’s four-, five-, and sixpoint scales and can be used to grade

writing on just one or all seven traits. 

Item #E112

Member: $9.75 plus shipping

Nonmember: $10.60 plus shipping

To order: nwrel.org/comm/catalog/ or call 800-547-6339, ext. 519 53
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NORTHWEST REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL LABORATORY 

101 S.W. Main Street, Suite 500

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For questions regarding 

Northwest Education

call 503-275-9515

For all other inquiries 

regarding NWREL 

call 503-275-9500

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nwrel.org/nwedu/

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Look for Web exclusives. 

Up next in the fall issue:

Effective literacy coaching: Helping students learn to read and read to learn