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Leadership for ELL Success
Powerful Learning Experience #3: Organizing for ELL Success
Element
Description/Instructions
• Understand how to maximize organizational structures and
resources to support ELL learning
Purpose
• Identify ways in which organizational structures and resources
can be aligned to support ELL learning
• Recognize the structures and resources in schools and districts
that can be reinforced and focused on ELLs
Instructor Notes
This module is called “Organizing for ELL
Success” because it is the principal’s role to
use all the structures and resources in the
school to ensure the success of ELL students.
It is important to note that in this PLE we
define structures and resources as professional
development, personnel, teacher evaluation,
and instructional programs.
While candidates are encouraged to integrate
issues of diversity into their leadership, the
focus is often on “peripheral” multicultural
celebrations, or curricular “add-ons” (i.e fiction
by diverse authors in language arts or
“months” in social studies). These efforts,
well-intentioned as they may be, fail to (1)
challenge existing mindsets about children of
color, (2) add substantively to teacher
knowledge, or (3) develop new and equitable
structures. In addition, these isolated attempts
at “multiculturalism” are perceived as
tokenism and only serve to further jeopardize
student success.
This is especially true of ELLs who already
have limited access due to language barriers
and are often isolated in separate programs and
classes. Without careful thought about how to
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Pre-Activity
In order to see how much students know about existing structures
and resources that affect ELLs, we provide a simple organizational
reflection/assessment that highlights some basic structures that
must be modified to support ELL success.
The focus of this activity is to emphasize the structures that reflect
the organization’s level of preparedness to meet the needs of ELLs.
maximize school structures and resources for
student success, many obstacles will remain.
This is a tool for individual and organizational
reflection. The questions address the
underlying theory of ELL education regarding
language acquisition, instructional programs,
and policy issues.
The assessment can be given “whole class”
(rather than individually) to spark a discussion
about what candidates do/do not know about
their own school structures and how these
interact to foster or undermine ELL education.
If you are able to integrate this more into your
class, the areas highlighted in the assessment
can be used as “study questions” in which
students break into small groups and discuss
these issues in their school/district. Response
can be presented in class or through an on-line
discussion board.
Video can be assigned independently or in-class as part of a guided
discussion.
Video
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Do not be surprised if students do not know the
answers to many of these questions. Schools
rarely respond to ELL needs in systematic and
systemic ways, mostly focusing on curriculum
or instruction. If this is the case, then this
activity should help candidates begin to think
more holistically about ELLs and school
improvement.
Video Length ~ 7:26
These clips address the how school structures
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If viewed independently, discussion/reflection questions are
embedded.
If viewed in-class, clip can be paused for discussion. Discussion
can be whole class or in small groups.
Guided
Discussion
There are discussion questions embedded in the video after every
segment. For example,
• How does this build organizational capacity?
• What resources were identified in the process?
• What other school structures support organizational learning?
and resources were developed and aligned to
more effectively meet ELL learning needs.
The video also highlights the multi-strategy
approach employed by the school and the
district. The principal did not rely on the one,
“right” strategy but engaged with the district
and teachers to develop several strategies that
were tightly aligned.
The principal introduces,
• Professional development (both in terms of
the theoretical knowledge of Second Language
Acquisition and specific strategies for ELLs)
• Teacher observations (understanding the
classroom context and needs of ELL students)
• Building Staff Knowledge (role of ESL
teachers in instructional planning)
• District support (aligning programs district
wide and developing responsive programs)
• Personnel assignments (effective placement
of ESL professionals)
If candidates are completing this PLE
independently, then students can write short
responses to the discussion/reflection
questions. These can then be submitted for
professor review and/or an on-line forum or
brought to class for group discussion.
If students are watching the video in class, the
video can be stopped after every segment and
questions can be used to foster class
discussion.
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These discussion questions can also be
modified to reflect the local context, including
constraints and needs.
Readings
Supporting
Materials
Questions can also focus on the larger issue of
leading school reform. Many of the structures
discussed here affect teaching/classrooms and
require reallocation of resources (i.e. time,
personnel). These are organizational changes,
which highlights both a systemic approach
AND how making curricular changes alone
will not foster school improvement.
Fry, R. (2008). “The Role of Schools in the English Language
These readings highlight the role of school
Learner Achievement Gap.” Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic
structures in ELL achievement. Rather than
Center.
“blaming” ELL students for, assumed low
http://www.pewhispanic.org/2008/06/26/the-role-of-schools-in-the- achievement, these articles force students to
english-language-learner-achievement-gap/
address issues in schools and leadership.
Coady, M., Hamann, E.T., Harrington, M., Pacheco, M., Pho, S. &
Yedlin, J. (2003). "Claiming Opportunities: A Handbook for
Improving Education for English Language Learners Through
Comprehensive School Reform"
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/teachlearnfacpub/50
Gándara, P., Rumberger, R., Maxwell-Jolly, J. and Callahan, R.,
(2003, October 7). English Learners in California Schools: Unequal
resources, unequal outcomes. Education Policy
Analysis Archives, 11(36). Retrieved [2012] from
http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v11n36/
Claiming Opportunities is a free on-line text.
The whole book is relevant to this module. For
this PLE, we recommend Chapters 4 and 5.
These materials can be used in conjunction
with or instead of the articles suggested.
Ylimaki, R. M., Jacobson, S. L. & Drysdaleb, L. (2007). Making a
difference in challenging, high-poverty schools: Successful
principals in the USA, England, and Australia. School Effectiveness
and School Improvement, 18(4), pp. 361 – 381
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Related
Websites
National Clearinghouse of English Language Acquisition
http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/t3sis
There are numerous websites but these offer
both research and policy information on ELL
students and second language acquisition.
Office of English Language Acquisition
http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oela/index.html
Reflective
Journaling
Assessments
Level One
Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition
http://www.carla.umn.edu/
Reflective journals are an important part of individual leadership
development. It allows students to capture their thinking and
underlying assumptions. Periodically, students can analyze their
journal and see how their thinking evolves over time, both in terms
of sophistication and skill development.
Candidates journal about of their experiences in changing contexts
and their feeling about it, as well as strategies that were used to
“manage the change.”
Level One: Candidates reply to the discussion questions in written
form based on principal’s responses.
Level Two: Candidates write a brief case study of the school based
on principal’s responses
One way to maximize the journaling
experience is to give students time in class to
share what they are learning about
themselves/their leadership. This serves to
highlight the value of the journal and also give
you insight into where their learning needs are.
These journals can also be done on-line via
individual discussion boards, blogs, etc.
These assessments reflect the different levels
of integration into existing course. Each
“level” becomes increasing more complex and
will require more time on the part of students
and professor.
Level Three: Candidates respond to guiding questions based on
their own context
Extended
Activity
The extended activity described below requires
extensive work outside of class and reinforces
data collection and analysis skills..
 Option A: Candidates write an in-depth case study of Global Middle School, including background information,
readings, and addressing all the leadership areas, based on principal’s responses.
 Option B: Candidates write an in-depth case study, addressing all the leadership areas, based on their own context.
This requires that candidates interview their/a principal on some/all the leadership areas and write an in-depth case
study based on the data.
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