0.7 Gallegos, c., & Wise, d. (september 2011). leadership for

About the authors

Carol Gallegos is a Literacy Coach in the Curriculum and Instruction Department of the Hanford Elementary School District in California.

Donald Wise is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Research and Administration at California State University Fresno. Dr. Wise also works with numerous school districts in reform efforts.

Introduction

Maria, the principal of a school with a significant number of English learner students (ELs) is looking at school data in order to make decisions about her school’s academic program. She wished that her university preparation program had prepared her better to use these and other data in her decision-making process. Today, she has just received the annual CELDT (California English Language Development Test) results. These data provide insights into ELs’ listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. She is pleased to see that several students may qualify to be reclassified as proficient in English. All of the students being considered for reclassification have an overall score of Early Advanced on the CELDT even though some have one area of the four domains still in the intermediate range. Overall, these students are developing English proficiency. The principal consults the most recent achievement results for the California Standards Test (CST) for these ELs and sees that several of these students were at least at the Basic level of achievement at the end of the previous school year. She is going to schedule meetings with teachers to discuss the progress of each student. At this rate, the school should have no trouble meeting the AMAO (Annual Measurable Achievement Objective) under the NCLB requirements for percent of English learners who are reclassified. She knows that students who are reclassified may still need services to improve both language and academic skills. Maria has found that she is learning to be an instructional leader, but it hasn’t been easy.

This article discusses the decisions that school leaders must make to reclassify students as fluent and proficient in English and the implications that reclassification decisions could have for the future achievement of those students. The study examined the achievement gap between English learners and the overall student population and the reclassification of English learners as proficient in English in schools across three California counties. Both a discussion of the achievement gap and a description of English learners and accountability factors are included. The theoretical underpinnings of language acquisition and assessment of language and achievement are presented. Finally, the results of the study are presented along with implications for school leaders to consider during the reclassification process.