Transcript Connecting Research and Practice: A Snapshot of Resources for English Language Learners March 5, 2008 3:30 – 5:00 PM National Press Club Washington, DC.

Connecting Research and Practice:
A Snapshot of Resources for
English Language Learners
March 5, 2008
3:30 – 5:00 PM
National Press Club
Washington, DC
Why are the SEE Forums needed?
• More than ever, evidence in education is
needed—and demanded
• Few mechanisms exist to link education
decision-makers with sound, relevant, and
“actionable” evidence
• The SEE Forums provide a regular
opportunity to connect the DC-based
policymaking community with timely, relevant,
and rigorous research and resources
Who we are:
• American Institutes for Research (AIR), a
nonprofit, nonpartisan social science and
education research and technical
assistance organization (www.air.org)
• Supported through a grant from the
Institute of Education Sciences
(ies.ed.gov) of the U.S. Department of
Education
What we do:
• Hold six public forums for DC-based
policymakers on research and resources to
promote evidence-based education
• Issue ResearchLinks publications, explaining
and outlining the policy relevance of the evidence
presented and linking it to additional resources
• Maintain a website (www.seeforums.org) that
offers access to the information presented during
the forums and serves as a “scientific evidence
portal” to support policymaker efforts to apply
rigorous evidence
Today’s Forum:
• Connecting Research and Practice: A Snapshot of
Resources for English Language Learners
• Highlight two resources that help to connect rigorous
research to policy and practice:
– IES Practice Guide series
– Doing What Works website
• Presentations by leading researchers and experts,
observations from experienced practitioners, and a
discussion on how to use the evidence provided
Agenda:
• Welcome and Introductions
– Steve Fleischman
• IES Practice Guide Series
– Rebecca Herman & Russell Gersten
• Doing What Works Website
– Nikola Filby
• Responses from the Field
– Delia Pompa & Maria Santos
• Questions, Answers and Discussion
For more information:
• Website —
www.seeforums.org
• Questions and comments —
[email protected]
IES Practice Guides
Rebecca Herman
Managing Research Analyst
American Institutes for Research
What are practice guides?
• Designed to provide evidence-based advice to
practitioners
• Originated in health care
• Hybrid of expert consensus panels and critical
reviews of the research
How can practice guides help?
• Fill a niche where there is a great need for
guidance but limited strong impact evidence
• Written to be of immediate use to practitioners
What is the rigor of
IES Practice Guides?
• Process
– Systematic review of evidence
– Expert judgment
– Rigorous review of guide
• Research
– Prioritize strongest evidence
– Include a wide range of evidence
• Summarizing the evidence
– Based on strength of the evidence and
generalizability of the findings
– Recommendation can be supported by expert
judgment and theory
IES Levels of Evidence for
Practice Guides
Strong
Moderate
Low
Requires
(1) studies whose designs can support causal conclusions (internal
validity) and
(2) studies that in total include enough of the range of participants and
settings on which the recommendation is focused to support the
conclusion that the results can be generalized to those participants and
settings (external validity).
Requires
(1) studies that support strong causal conclusions but where
generalization is uncertain or
(2) studies that support the generality of a relationship but where the
causality is uncertain.
Based on expert opinion derived from strong findings or theories in
related areas and/or expert opinion buttressed by direct evidence that
does not rise to the moderate or strong level. Low evidence is
operationalized as evidence not meeting the standards for the moderate or
high level.
What topics are covered by practice guides?
• Research-based practices to help K-5 English language
learners improve their reading skills
• Research-based practices for encouraging girls in math and
science
• Organizing instruction and study to improve student learning
• Research-based practices for turning around low performing
schools
• Research-based practices to help improve adolescent reading
skills
• Response to intervention: Reading
• Response to intervention: Math
• Behavior problems in regular classrooms
• Teacher recruitment and retention
• Postsecondary access for at-risk students
What is a Practice Guide?
Case of the English Learners Practice
Guide
Russell Gersten, PhD
Research Director, RG Research Group
Professor Emeritus, University of Oregon
Session Objectives
1.
2.
3.
4.
Orient group to the Practice Guide
Provide a crisp overview of the state of scientific research and
how it can and should influence policy and practice
Provide specific suggestions for implementation of structured
English immersion
Discuss school level implementation
Search for Coherence
•
Panel struggles to develop 5 to 10 assertions that are:
•
•
•
•
Forceful and useful
And COHERENT
Do not encompass all things for all
people
Do not read like a book chapter or article
Jump start the process by using individuals
with topical expertise & complementary views
Panelists
Russell Gersten (Chair)
Robin Scarcella
Timothy Shanahan
Penny Collins (formerly Chiappe)
Scott K. Baker
Sylvia Linan Thompson
The Topics
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Early screening and identification
Early Intervention
Vocabulary
Academic English
Peer assisted learning
Recommendation 1:
Early Screening for RD using
English Language Measures
• Level of Evidence: Strong
•
Twenty-two studies have demonstrated that three types of
measures are valid means of determining which English
learners are likely to benefit from typical classroom reading
instruction and which children will require extra support:
• Measures of phonological awareness
• Measures of familiarity with the alphabet, and the
alphabetic principle in English
Recommendation 1: Continued
•
•
•
•
Fights conventional wisdom of “wait until child is proficient
in English”
No need to wait until students have good oral proficiency in
English before teaching reading
No need to wait until students are proficient in English
before screening for students who may need extra support
Recent research (Lesaux, Journal of Educational
Psychology, November 2007) shows still valid for fourth
grade reading
Type of Research to Support the
Assertion:
Descriptive/Longitudinal
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•
•
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Describes students’ progress over K, 1st and/or 2nd
In other words, does not demonstrate causes (e.g.
native language is better or worse than English
reading instruction)
Does show what can happen without any serious
researcher involvement in instruction or curriculum
Has been replicated and results are consistent
What Does the Research Say About
Early Identification?
•
•
For ELLs, as for Native speakers, Phonological
processing measures are excellent predictors of
potential at risk status
Oral language proficiency measures (English) are
poor predictors of subsequent reading performance
What Does the Research Say
About Rate of Learning to Read in
English for ELLs?
•
The rate of ELL student learning can be the same as
their native English speaking peers.
•
This is true for word reading, reading
comprehension, phonological skill development
in English
•
Not true for discourse comprehension or memory
for sentences (Woodcock measure)
Roadblocks
Some teachers think that:
• Reading problems may resolve themselves once
English learners develop proficiency in oral English. It is
unfair to test a child in a language that she or he does
not understand.
• Native language assessments are more valid than
English language measures for this group of students.
Fine to do both.
• It is inappropriate to teach phonological processing
skills in a language that a child does not fully
understand.
Recommendation 2:
Intensive Small Group Reading
Interventions
• Level of Evidence: Strong
• Evidence: Four randomized controlled trials using
three curricula (What Works Clearinghouse
website)
• The three curricula shared many common
characteristics
• Impacts limited to reading and basic
comprehension, no English language
development effects
Suggestions
• Use an intervention program with students who enter the
first grade with weak reading and prereading skills, or
with older elementary students with reading problems
• Use it daily for at least 30 minutes in small,
homogeneous groups of 3-6 students
• Provide training and ongoing support for teachers
Recommendation 3:
Extensive and Varied Vocabulary
Instruction
• Level of Evidence: Strong
• Three intervention research studies demonstrate that
intense and explicit vocabulary instruction enhances
reading comprehension
Suggestions
•
•
•
Adopt a sound framework for vocabulary instruction that
is evidence based.
Develop district-wide lists of essential words for
vocabulary instruction. Teach essential content words in
depth.
Vocabulary instruction for English learners should also
emphasize the acquisition of meanings of everyday words
and common words, phrases, and expressions that
English Learners have not yet learned.
Roadblocks
•
•
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Teaching vocabulary effectively is difficult.
Some teachers may incorrectly assume that
English learners know a concept and the word for
that concept in their primary language when, in
fact, they do not.
Especially true for academic terms such as
“dividend”, ratio, abolish, compromise…..
Recommendation 4:
Develop Academic English
 Level of Evidence: Low
 Based on two intervention studies, on one
correlational study, and on expert judgment.
 English learners require considerable explicit
and deliberate instruction to learn academic
English.
Suggestions
•
•
•
•
Adopt a policy clearly stating that English learners
must have a daily block of time devoted to
development of academic English
Develop or purchase curricula that can be used to
teach and develop academic English
Teach academic English in the earliest grades
Provide teachers with appropriate professional
development to help them learn how to teach
academic English
Recommendation 5:
Regular Peer-assisted Learning
Opportunities
• Level of Evidence: Strong
• Based on three high-quality experiments and quasiexperiments
• All of these studies demonstrated positive impacts on
reading achievement for students at varying ability
levels
Suggestions
• Ensure that teachers of English learners devote at least
two hours a week to instructional activities where pairs of
students at different ability levels and/or different English
language proficiencies work together on academic tasks
in a structured fashion.
• These activities should provide practice and extension to
material already taught.
U.S. Dept of Education
Website Highlighting
Effective Practices
SEE Forum, March 5, 2008
Nikola Filby
http://dww.ed.gov
DWW Goal
Translate research-based practices into practical
tools
that support & improve
classroom instruction.
Overview
• Major initiative from the US Dept of Education
• Directly addresses the needs of practitioners
• Web-based resources on a wide range of topics
– Teaching Reading to English Learners in Elementary
School
– Preschool Language & Literacy
– Encouraging Girls in Math & Science
– Cognition, Adolescent Literacy, Math & more
Putting It Together
• Institute of Ed. Sciences (IES) research base
– Practice Guides, What Works Clearinghouse,
national panels
• Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy
Development (OPEPD) manages the project
• Other ED offices support & disseminate
• WestEd, RMC, AIR produce original content & tools to
show practices in action
• Little Planet Learning is the web developer
• Focus groups & experts provide feedback
Website Tour
• 5 separate practices on EL
• Practice guides & research base
• 30 + multimedia pieces on EL
– expert interviews
– instructional presentations
– interviews & sample materials from schools
• Tools & templates to implement practices
Let’s Go!
http://dww.ed.gov
Getting the Most from DWW
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•
•
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Find research & resources to support instruction
Incorporate into professional development
Use with study/discussion groups
Assist with state and local planning
Feedback & Questions
Jennifer Ballen Riccards
DWW Project Director
[email protected]
http://dww.ed.gov
For more information:
• Website —
www.seeforums.org
• Questions and comments —
[email protected]