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| Roza Lozano and teacher Timothy Walker watch Maribel Carrillo demonstrate a lesson. |
When it comes to finding strategies for teaching English learners, Tim Walker has plenty of help. In fact, the kindergarten teacher at Mountain Vista Elementary School in Indio has professional development delivered right to his classroom.
Maribel Carrillo, the school’s English language development coach, “models” a lesson in front of Walker’s students as he watches from the back of his classroom. Sitting with Walker is Rosa Lozana, a teacher on special assignment, who explains in a whisper precisely what strategies Carrillo is using. All three educators are members of the Coachella Valley Teachers Association (CVTA).
The lesson is not only educational but fun for students, who pair up in twos for an exercise in grouping objects by size. They are told to “use their eyes” and look around the classroom for objects big and small and ask each other questions about the objects’ size. Soon the entire class is inserting words into sentences and repeating, as a group, entire sentences.
Walker, a second-year teacher, finds the example — and accompanying interpretation — extremely useful.
“I pick up on a lot of extra strategies this way and can incorporate them into my own instruction,” says Walker. “Having a coach come in is very beneficial because you actually get to see what to do. You don’t have to chase anybody down and ask ‘How do you do this?’ Help is always accessible.”
Walker is not just a mere observer, however. He and Carrillo planned the lesson together. And they will debrief after the demonstration. Afterwards he will teach a similar lesson on his own while she observes, and they will debrief again.
The district’s English Learner Services Department, which opened two years ago, provides the professional development. Staffing for the department includes a director; five teachers on special assignment for grades K-12; and English language development (ELD) coaches at each of the district’s 22 school sites (trained by teachers on special assignment) who work closely with every classroom teacher. The department also provides K-6 curriculum for the Coachella Valley Unified School District’s 14 elementary schools.
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| Khozette Bracken teaches a science and math experiment. |
Teachers say this intensive model of professional development is responsible for tremendous improvement: The district’s API scores went from 578 in 2006 to 592 in 2007. English learners, who make up nearly 80 percent of the district’s student population, went from 554 to 576. The program is considered a model in Riverside County for how to teach English learners.
The program has boosted student achievement — but the district has paid a huge price for its success. That’s because the district accepted a $2 million grant in 2005 and used it to establish the professional development department. At that time, the state offered the grant — in the form of supplemental federal funds — to all districts that were at the time considered failing under No Child Left Behind (NCLB).
Only Coachella applied.
While the money allowed the district to train teachers to work with struggling students, there were gigantic strings attached. As a condition of the grant, Coachella Valley was subject to much harsher sanctions than all of the other 98 California districts in Program Improvement under NCLB.
Despite district growth, NCLB only rewards “proficiency.” So the state Department of Education has, in effect, taken over the Coachella Valley Unified School District and appointed a trustee to make decisions, usurping power from elected school board officials and administrators. But the trustee is the county superintendent, which presents a conflict of interest, says CVTA (with support from CTA), since the county superintendent would be approving his own salary and budget.
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| Maribel Carrillo demonstrates a lesson. |
CVTA President Alexis Willis commends her district for taking the grant money to improve teacher training and student learning. She accompanied her administrators to Sacramento to testify against a takeover and requested that the district instead be assigned a District Assistance and Intervention Team (DAIT) — a group of consultants that works with district staff on governance, curriculum, achievement monitoring and other areas of restructuring.
Meanwhile, legislation has been introduced by Sen. Don Perata (D-Oakland) that would authorize spending $47 million in federal funds on Program Improvement districts with an amendment to remove the trustee assigned to Coachella Valley. The bill is under discussion with the governor’s office, education officials and school districts.
Despite the controversy, say members of CVTA, it’s been invaluable to finally have teacher training to improve student achievement in this challenging population, where 92 percent live in poverty and many come from families of migrant workers.
“It’s definitely been worth it,” says Lozana, the teacher on special assignment. “Every day when we go to the classrooms we see progress. Without this type of professional development, such progress would not be happening at this high rate of speed.”
“It’s been great having someone to use as a sounding board for ideas,” says Khozette Bracken, a fourth-grade teacher at Mountain Vista Elementary School. “When your students have a glazed look, you can find immediate support for making different instructional decisions. And with a coach right on site, it happens on a daily basis.”
Bracken appreciates the fact that the district’s professional development model encourages her to be creative with hands-on activities to keep students engaged. She has planned lessons — with the help of ELD coach Maribel Carrillo — that include freezing little toy dinosaurs to create “fossils” and then having students write their descriptions.
“There’s so much good going on in this district,” says Willis. “Unfortunately, too much of the time, it’s overshadowed by negative press.”
