ELL Standards Suggestions for Achieving

ELL Standards

Suggestions for Achieving Alignment of Academic Standards with ELL Proficiency Standards: An Overview

The development and implementation of standards-based instruction that allows for adequate English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction and other English Language Learning (ELL) necessities has had a complex and arduous history. This paper examines in brief some of the ways ELL standards and general academic standard have interacted in the past. It also examines historical and current incentives for implementing standards-based instruction in both areas, and offers some suggestions as to how an integration of the two sets of standards can be achieved in schools based on guidelines already implemented in some areas.

Introduction

English Language Learning in public schools has become a much more complicated issue for both teachers and administrators in public schools since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (Gottlieb 2004). English language comprehension and communication skills are essential to facilitating adequate learning in other areas, and the increase in standards-based instruction mandated by the NCLB Act leads to greater difficulties for many ELL students and their teachers (Arizona Dept. Of Education 2009). There are methods of instruction that can mitigate and even overcome these difficulties, however, as well as other methods that can be implemented in the classroom to enable ELL students to receive standards-based instruction effectively while still working in their English skills (SIOP 2009).

Standards, Implementation, and Instruction

The monetary incentives for schools' compliance with NCLB has necessitated a large shift in curriculum in many schools, with an adverse effect on ELL students' achievement (Gottlieb 2004). Standards-based instruction has also made the study of educational and curriculum efficacy easier, and when properly applied can show benefits for ESL and ELL students (SIOP 2009; Laturnau 2002). Differentiating levels of English proficiency in learners is key to developing effective curricula for ELL students, and Arizona's English learner standards provide an effective method for this. The Arizona Department of Education has adopted a five-tiered classification system that identifies learners' abilities in a variety of means and settings in order to determine the place f greatest functionality and in an academic setting (Arizona Dept. Of Education 2009).

It has been contended by several education researchers and practitioners that content should be the focus of all instruction, with English language learning occurring as it is needed in conjunction with general academic advancement (Laturnau 2002; SIOP 2009). Thus, the most effective way to achieve English proficiency in an ELL student is by presenting content-based earning that also requires development of English skills (Laturnau 2002). Regular assessment of ELL progress in the student can result in content-based curricula that is at once accessible yet challenging to the student, improving performance on standards-based instructional measurements as well as increasing language proficiency (Laturnau 2002; SIOP 2009). In this way, ELL standards and assessment can actually be positively affected by standards-based instruction.