Charter ELA Training Channel
May 17, 2013
Charter ELA Requirements
The 2012 Consent Decree and charter contract
establish requirements for charters in serving
English language learners including:
• The School shall provide English Language Acquisition (ELA)
program services by ELA teachers who are fully qualified
based on acceptable evidence-based standards such as
completion of the District’s ELA training program or a
District approved training program as designed by the
School, or possession of a current English as a second
language certification. In addition, all teachers must be
highly qualified pursuant to federal requirements.
Charter ELA Training Channel
Background
• The 2102 Consent Decree requires that all
teachers in DPS meet ELA teacher
qualifications in one of the three ways:
– state endorsement,
– advanced degree, or
– approved district ELA training channel*
• In 2012 the District formed a District-Charter
ELA working group to inform the design of a
District ELA training channel for charters*
• OSRI, in partnership with ELA, is responsible
for overseeing the implementation of this
training channel
ELA Working Group - Design
principles
• The ELA Working Group has been tasked with designing and
developing a “training channel” for teachers in charter schools
that meets the following principles:
– Effective (in having positive impact on ELL students’ outcomes),
– Legally compliant,
– Flexible and differentiated to meet needs of
students/schools/teachers,
– Manageable and practical (in terms of time and cost),
– Aligned with other school-based professional development,
– Connected to classroom implementation,
– Based on collaboration, and
– Outcomes-based where possible (qualification based on
mastery of knowledge and skills).
District Role in Implementation
OSRI and ELA will ensure that charter teachers gain the knowledge
and skills described in the 2012 Consent Decree through rigorous,
targeted professional development that leads to District ELA
qualification.
OSRI will ensure ongoing oversight of the charter-specific teacher
training channel by:
• Training and authorizing trainers
• Providing quality assurance oversight to the charter ELA
training channel to ensure alignment with knowledge and skills
described in the 2012 Consent Decree
• Verifying that teachers gain qualification based on
demonstration of knowledge and skills
• Taking steps to remedy ELA qualification training if schools do
not meet teacher qualification requirements
Charter School Role in
Implementation
• School Administrators:
– Identify qualified staff to be trained by the district as authorized
trainers
– Submit a plan to the District for approval demonstrating how the
school will implement the charter training channel in their school
– Evaluate teacher demonstration of knowledge and skills through
teacher observations and evaluations
– Submit evidence of teacher qualification annually to the District
for verification
– Ensure that all teachers are qualified within 2 years of hire
• Authorized trainers
– Responsible for delivering the district approved courses and
ensuring teachers are mastering content at their campuses
– Responsible for attending annual District “refresher trainings” to
maintain status as an authorized trainer
CHARTER ELA TRAINING
CHANNEL CONTENT
Charter ELA qualification channel
Foundations
Academic language
Sheltering
English language
development (optional for
ELA-T)
Year 2 (ELA-E)
• Literacy for ELLs
• Culturally-responsive
pedagogy
ELA-E Qualification -Teachers at
schools serving more than 15
English language learners must
complete both Years 1 and 2 to be
qualified as ELA-E
ELA-T Qualification -Teachers at
schools serving fewer than 15
English language learners only need
to complete Year 1 to be qualified
as ELA-T
1
2
Academic language
•
•
•
•
5
Culturally-responsive
pedagogy
Year 1 (ELA-T)
3
Sheltering
3 English language
development
4
Literacy for ELLs
Foundations
Charter ELA Training Meets all Teacher
Knowledge and Skills from the 2012
Consent Decree
1. Foundations of Bilingual and ESL education at the federal, State, and District levels;
2. Theoretical framework of core instructional components for addressing the needs
of ELLs;
3. Methods for organizing instruction to meet the needs of ELLs;
7. Use of appropriate tools to identify ELLs;
8. Assessment skills to identify and diagnose the educational needs of ELLs;
9. First- and Second-language acquisition theories;
5d. explicitly teaching academic vocabulary that is relevant to the content and
appropriate to the ELLs’ ELP level(s);
5f. affording ELLs regular opportunities to practice and apply new language and
content knowledge in English;
5. Differentiation and sheltering strategies for providing Supported English Content
Instruction, including; 5a. grouping ELLs by ELP level and using adapted materials and
texts, visual displays, cooperative learning and group work, primary language
support, and clarification to make content lessons understandable to ELLs;
5b. using speech that is appropriate for the ELLs’ ELP level(s) and clearly explaining
academic tasks to ELLs;
5c. using supplementary materials to support content objectives and contextualize
learning;
5e. adapting content, including texts, assignments, assessments, and presentation of
content in all modalities, within the ELLs’ ELP level(s);
13. Use of technology to instruct ELLs.
6. Methods for teaching ELD in all four language domains;
Foundations
Academic
language
Sheltering
English language
development
Charter ELA Training Meets all Teacher
Knowledge and Skills from the 2012
Consent Decree
10. Culturally responsive teaching as a facilitator of language acquisition for ELLs;
11. Information about how to challenge and motivate at-risk ELLs;
12. Methods of working with the parents of ELLs and methods of improving schoolcommunity relations;
4. Teaching ELLs at different proficiency and grade levels how to write in each core
content area;
5g. teaching reading comprehension skills (e.g., prediction, summarizing, making
inferences, and identifying important information); and
5h. using reading strategies that are effective with ELLs (e.g., partner reading, reading
aloud, and teacher think-alouds) and that include phonemic awareness, phonological
awareness, decoding, word knowledge, and fluency, while taking into account the
ELLs’ ages and ELP level(s);
Culturallyresponsive
pedagogy
Literacy for ELLs
Charter ELA Training Channel Maps
to District Training Channel Courses
ELA 101
NEI
ELA foundations
Academic language
Sheltering
English language
development
Foundations
Academic
language
Sheltering
English
language
development
Language acquisition
& cultural
understanding
Culturallyresponsive
pedagogy
Literacy development
for ELLs
Literacy for ELLs
Transitioning
strategies
Tight-Loose Elements
Required Elements – “Tight”
•
•
•
•
School Discretion– “Loose”
Core course content aligned to
2012 Consent Decree (power
point, required readings, rubric for
demonstration of skills)
•
Selection of trainers (provided they meet
criteria for becoming an authorized trainer)
•
How, when, where training is provided
Ensure all teachers receive training
by authorized trainers in core
course content within 2 years of
employment at school
•
Alignment of training with existing PD
priorities and structures in the school
•
Whether and how to include additional schoolspecific content
•
Whether and how to include additional content
from additional resources
•
Where, when, and how evaluation of teacher
knowledge and skills is conducted provided it
meets knowledge and skills outlined in 2012
Consent Decree and core course content rubrics
Ensure all teachers demonstrate
evidence of knowledge and skills
outlined in 2012 Consent Decree
and core course content rubrics
Provide evidence that all teachers
have completed courses and
demonstrated knowledge and
skills to DPS
Embedded Learning Cycle
Trainer
Prework
Content
In-school system
Plan
Core content modules for
teacher training (including prework)
•
•
•
•
•
•
What? Teacher skills based on
consent decree
Why? Key concepts
When/where/who? Student,
teacher and school connection
How? Practical guidance on
practice
How? School-specific practice
How? Next steps
Practice
Feedback
Administrator
Demonstrate
Assessment of teacher
knowledge & skill
•
•
Evaluation
Rubrics for feedback & evaluation
on teacher skills (All other courses)
Test for teacher knowledge
(Foundations only)
Role of Trainer and Administrator
Role of Trainer –
“Master and Train on Course Content”
•
•
Complete Train the Trainer
sessions including annual
refresher sessions
Read additional required readings
to deepen knowledge of course
content
•
Design “training” sessions for your
school in consultation with your
administrator
•
Other duties as assigned by your
school administrator
Role of Administrator –
“Ensure Implementation and Teacher Qualification”
•
Complete Administrator ELA Workshop including
training on ELA teacher observation standards
•
Develop and submit plan for implementing
teacher qualification training at your school
•
Provide direction to authorized trainer(s) in
designing training sessions for your school
(integration into PD schedule and time, meeting
school-specific norms for adult learning best
practices, developing school-specific content on
application expectations)
•
Conduct or ensure teacher observations to
demonstrate knowledge and skills are completed
•
Work with DPS to ensure verification of teacher
qualification at your school
Summary of the Trainers
Category
Schools
# of Schools
Notes
Schools with authorized
staff trainers on site (TOT)
DSST all campuses (7), DDES,
GALS, Highline, KIPP all
campuses (3), Omar D Blair,
SOAR all campuses (2),
Pioneer, Rocky Mountain Prep,
SWEC, STRIVE all campuses (7),
University Prep, Wyatt, Venture
Prep, ACE
29
31 staff (teacher leaders,
DCI’s, etc) were authorized
as trainers through the TOT
program
Schools partnering with
other schools for ELA
training
Sims-Fayola
1
Hoping to partner with
Omar D Blair and share
their Trainer
Schools utilizing
authorized consultants
for training
AUL, CHS, Ridgeview, Escuela,
Justice HS, Monarch, Odyssey
7
3 consultants who have
been trained on the
program who will be
delivering the PD and
sometimes involved in the
coaching and evaluation
components
Next Steps for Implementation
• Spring/Summer 2013
– Administrators Workshop – TBD (June or August 2013)
• Overview of Foundations (legal requirements and key best practices)
• Overview of Administrator role in ELA programming
• Overview of ELA Training Channel (structure, how to support trainer, expectations for
‘qualifying’ teachers)
– Schools submit training plan for implementation of Charter ELA Training
channel
• 2013-14
– Charter Schools Implement First Year Courses in 2013-14
•
•
•
•
Foundations
Academic Language
Sheltering
English Language Development
– Train the Trainers – Year 2 courses and refresh – Spring 2014
– Verification of completion of first year courses/competencies
• 2014-15
– Charter Schools Implement Second Year Courses (and catch up for new
teachers) in 2014-15
• Literacy for ELL’s
• Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
Works in Progress…
• Potential to offer Graduate credit for the
courses through Adams State University
• Norming sessions for Administrators
• Trainer Affinity Groups
• Develop a plan to “catch up” new teachers
next year