Research Background and Design
The Telluride School District, along with the nation, has experienced an increasing population of English Learners in the past twenty years, most notably the past decade.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of school-age children (5-17) who spoke a language other than English at home rose from 4.7 to 11.2 million between 1989 and 2009, or from 10% to 21% of the population in this age range" (Jones, 2013, p. 111).
As the population has grown, the nation’s schools have struggled to keep up with the needs of this new population. The Telluride School District has provided pullout time with English Language Development specialists at the lower grades, but it has proven to be practically impossible at the high school level, as students are required to earn the necessary credits to graduate high school. At Telluride High School, students are encouraged to learn English through conversation with their peers and general education teachers for the majority of the day, spending only one or two periods with the English Language Development specialist. New students are charged with the responsibility of learning a new language and content simultaneously, which can be overwhelming for students who are adjusting to a new culture and may have experienced recent trauma. Consequently, teachers are required to teach content and language in their content classes. Many of these teachers have never been provided with any type of professional development to prepare them for this task. As Lee and Buxton note, "a majority of teachers working with ELLs believe that they are not adequately prepared to meet their students' content-specific learning needs” (2013). Our English Learners have continued to struggle in the current structure. During the 2013-2014 school year English Learners’ average grade point average was 1.36 and bilingual students averaged a 2.5 GPA, while native English speakers averaged a GPA of 3.41 at Telluride High School. This is a large achievement gap, leading to the following research question: What can Telluride High School faculty do to collaborate systematically within the school to improve the academic performance of English Learners? The study will be an ongoing inquiry in how to best meet this challenge, with its results measured through interviews and pre and post surveys of secondary educators. The results will be published via an interactive website chronicling teacher response.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of school-age children (5-17) who spoke a language other than English at home rose from 4.7 to 11.2 million between 1989 and 2009, or from 10% to 21% of the population in this age range" (Jones, 2013, p. 111).
As the population has grown, the nation’s schools have struggled to keep up with the needs of this new population. The Telluride School District has provided pullout time with English Language Development specialists at the lower grades, but it has proven to be practically impossible at the high school level, as students are required to earn the necessary credits to graduate high school. At Telluride High School, students are encouraged to learn English through conversation with their peers and general education teachers for the majority of the day, spending only one or two periods with the English Language Development specialist. New students are charged with the responsibility of learning a new language and content simultaneously, which can be overwhelming for students who are adjusting to a new culture and may have experienced recent trauma. Consequently, teachers are required to teach content and language in their content classes. Many of these teachers have never been provided with any type of professional development to prepare them for this task. As Lee and Buxton note, "a majority of teachers working with ELLs believe that they are not adequately prepared to meet their students' content-specific learning needs” (2013). Our English Learners have continued to struggle in the current structure. During the 2013-2014 school year English Learners’ average grade point average was 1.36 and bilingual students averaged a 2.5 GPA, while native English speakers averaged a GPA of 3.41 at Telluride High School. This is a large achievement gap, leading to the following research question: What can Telluride High School faculty do to collaborate systematically within the school to improve the academic performance of English Learners? The study will be an ongoing inquiry in how to best meet this challenge, with its results measured through interviews and pre and post surveys of secondary educators. The results will be published via an interactive website chronicling teacher response.
Institutional Review Board Proposal
Research Findings
This study was divided in to two sections; one in which I surveyed teachers' classroom practices and anonymous opinions, and one in which I personally interviewed each study participant. I surveyed and interviewed 19 faculty members of the high school between December 15 and April 12. Both of these measures have been extremely helpful in planning the next steps for the English Language Development program at Telluride High School.