The Promoting Excellence Appraisal System In the past decade, the population of English language learners (ELLs) in school districts throughout the United States has grown by over 50%, for a current enrollment of 5.3 million students making up an average of 10% of the total school population National Clearinghouse on English Language Acquisition (2011). The growing numbers of English language learners. Washington, DC. The U.S. Department of Education, Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students.. This demographic transformation has brought new challenges as educators and schools struggle to meet the needs of this population. Increasing numbers of districts and schools have failed to meet benchmarks for adequate yearly progress for the ELL subgroup under the provisions of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), triggering consequences such as staff replacement or school restructuring. States that applied for—and won—a waiver from requirements of NCLB were required to revise their plans to demonstrate how they would address the needs of English learners. However, there is no guarantee that the corrective actions required for compliance purposes will address the specific instructional supports shown by research to improve ELL achievement. To date, states and districts have available little systematic guidance for determining the quality of ELL programs. Test scores are the primary data collected to determine ELL performance for accountability purposes. These data can be useful in pinpointing achievement gaps between ELLs and non-ELLs. However, test scores provide little indication of what school districts or schools need to do to improve ELL programming once issues are identified. To address this need, GW-CEEE developed the Promoting Excellence Appraisal System (PEAS). This system is designed to provide school districts with the information they need to make sound decisions about improvements most likely to produce higher student achievement. The appraisal system examines seven dimensions and corresponding standards of practice. These include: Leadership Personnel Professional development Instructional program design Instructional program implementation Assessment and accountability, and Parent and community outreach The appraisal system centers on a rubric which lists constructs and standards of practice for each of the dimensions. Districts can use the rubric as a self assessment to support continuous improvement, and states have used it as a framework for identifying needed supports for districts that enroll large numbers of ELLs. A Summary of the Research Base for the Promoting Excellence Appraisal System The Promoting Excellence Guiding Principles Acosta, B.D., Anstrom, K., Marzucco, L. and Rivera, C. (2012). Promoting Excellence Assessment System. Washington, DC: The George Washington University Center for Equity and Excellence in Education. Available from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Barbara_Acosta/contributions suggest that an effective program of support for ELLs is characterized as one that is enriched, academically challenging, long-term, and integrated with programs for native English speakers. Thus the purpose of the appraisal is to examine the extent to which these principles are in place and to provide guidance to the district to ensure it is implementing an effective program for ELLs. Research on effective practices for ELLs (The George Washington University Center for Equity and Excellence in Education, 2009) indicates that educating ELLs to high standards requires district-wide policies and procedures that hold all educators, not just ESL or bilingual teachers, responsible for ELLs’ academic success. Practices that support holding all teachers responsible include providing opportunities for ESL/bilingual and general education teachers to collaborate to provide instruction that supports students’ learning of English and academic content and comprehensive, job-embedded professional development for all teachers. Research-based practice calls for school districts to have educational programs in which ELLs have access to the entire school curriculum. Districts and schools should provide instructional curricula, materials and resources that support ELLs in learning grade-level, academic content (e.g., properly translated native language materials and English language materials controlled for linguistic complexity), and teachers should be prepared to adopt and use these materials. In addition, schools should create an environment in which native English-speaking students learn academic content with their English language learner peers. School districts must also provide services for ELLs that take into account English and native language literacy, previous educational experiences, language/cultural background, and appropriate and valid student assessment results. Districts must monitor the progress of ELLs and evaluate the effectiveness of their instructional programs. They should support ongoing monitoring of programs and assessments to ensure their appropriateness for ELLs. Finally, districts and schools should support ongoing, classroom-based assessment of ELLs and provide professional development for teachers on research-based approaches to classroom-based assessment. The effective practices research calls for school districts to provide all educators with comprehensive professional development focused on planning and delivering academic instruction that is differentiated to address the varying English language proficiency levels of ELLs. At a minimum, school districts should provide professional development that helps teachers understand the process of second language development and methods for integrating language and content instruction. To ensure full implementation of desired practices, districts must ensure professional development is job-embedded and sustained, and have a means for determining the practices are carried out with fidelity. The George Washington University Center for Equity and Excellence in Education l www.ceee.gwu.edu 3 The George Washington University Center for Equity and Excellence in Education l www.ceee.gwu.edu