DATA OVERVIEW

IN SUPPORT OF SHELTERED SCIENCE

INSTRUCTION INITIATIVES FOR

ENGLISH LEARNERS

4/17/2014

LISA MOZER, ED.S.

A unique education facility, home to two English

language acquisition programs.

LAB PROGRAM: students 13 years of age or older, with

interrupted formal schooling (middle school curriculum)

INTENSIVE ENGLISH: Students are enrolled at their home

school and enrolled for half a day at the center (high

school curriculum)

“The mission … to teach English to non-English speaking students.”

216

143

306

269

2011 2012 2013 2014

Num

ber

of

Stu

den

ts

Year of Student Enrollment

Students Population 2011-2014

The student population changes from year to year.

This is mostly due to nations at war or conflict

and natural disasters.

School GoalsTo allow international students to function at an

optimal level within instructional programs offered in

DeKalb County Schools.

To help students quickly obtain proficiency in English to

attain satisfactory achievement.

To provide for a rapid adjustment to the cultural

differences in American schools.

To serve as a continuing language and cultural

resource to the neighborhood schools once the students

are in regular attendance

The goal of this investigation

To show student learning gains and how

learning in Science fits into the language

acquisition model. As a result, a

recommendation for a learning initiative to

support student learning in 8th grade

science is identified.

Note: the program model serves a student

body of multiple languages.

The CRCT indicates a history of our students not

performing…Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests

The CRCT is a standards-based assessment, and measures how well

students are mastering specific skills defined for each grade by the

state of Georgia.

.

Note: the assessment was developed for fluent English

Speakers, and our students are not fluent in English.

Students fluent in English are not at our school

Meets assessment scores for 8th grades has a slightly

better history in Reading and in Math.

Student Demographics

Over the past three to four years the majority of the

student population are refugees from Nepal and Burma,

and speak

Nepali, Burmese, Karen, and Chin.

Enrollment tallies change from year to year, due to war

and conflicts, and natural disasters. The reports of student

populations can also be challenging, due to African

countries having so very many languages, and Spanish

speaking students are reported as black and white, or all

as Hispanic

2014 Student Language Report (Students’ primary language report)

Amharic (Ethiopia) Nguni

Arabic (Iran) Other Asian

Bengali (Nepal) Persian (Iran)

Burmese (Nepal) Sango (Central Africa

Republic)

Dari (Afghanistan) Somali

Dinka (Sudan) Spanish

English-Non/Amer

(Liberia)

Swahili (Central Africa

Republic

Ewe Tagalog

French (Central Africa

Republic)

Tigrinya

Kinyarwanda (Rwanda) Urdu

Kirundi ( Wolof (Snegal)

Kiswahili (Congno)

Kuname

Nepali

37%

27%

34%

1%

2014 Student Population

Asian

Black (Africian Countries)

Black and White (reported as Hispanic)

White (Irania, Iraqi, Afganistan)

100 10397

119

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

2014 2013 2012 2011

Num

ber

Of

Stu

dents

Asian Student Population, 2011 - 2014

Asian Student Population

0

50

100

150

2014 2013 2012 2011

100 10397

119

74

1928

71

92

114

16 18

3 0 0 0

Population Groups

Asian

Black (Africian Countries)

Black and White (reported as Hispanic)

White (Irania, Iraqi, Afganistan)

100%

0%

Student Population

Eng Learners

NonEngLearners

The student body: entirely English Learners

Evidence

Researchers agree that fluency in a second

language takes many years (Archibald et

al., 2007, p. 3)

Reference

Archibald, J., Roy, S., Harmel, S., Jesney, K., Dewey, E., Moisik, S., et al.

(2006). A review of the literature on second language learning. Retrieved

from http://education.alberta.ca/media/349348/litreview.pdf.

After two years, the majority of our students depart the school program

with English reading and writing skills between 2nd and 3th grade levels.

The majority of our students enter 7th grade without any English Skills.

Students’ low CRCT score can indicate necessary initiatives in instruction to

advance learning.

Science Instruction

Budgeted and annually funded initiatives for reading and math, such as Star

Reading and Star Math, are in place and since implementation content

assessment results have indicated measureable learning gains.

Science content is mapped to Common Core and relies heavily on teacher-

lead instruction in the classroom. With an appropriate initiative to support

learning in Science the gap between Math/Reading and Science achievement

scores can be addressed.

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

LangArts 8

Math 8

Reading 8

Science 8

Social St 8

Number of 8th graders Scoring 800 (+)

CRC

T S

ub

ject

Ass

ess

ments

8th grade CRCT results the past 3 years

2013 2012 2011

Recommendations

Without additional data, the percentage of 8th grades meeting the Georgia CRCT in

reading, social studies, science, English language arts seems dismal to most. The real

evidence is beyond the mostly unmet 800-meets score .

Data comparison suggested:

Identify lowest Science CRCT scores and other learning indicators, such as grades

and artifacts

Identify averages and high scores of Science, Math, Reading, Language Arts, and

Social Studies in other assessments

Identify similarities in student scores in all strands, and in all key assessments

660

680

700

720

740

760

780

800

820

Key Assessments

CRCT (Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests) a standards-

based assessment for Language Arts, Reading, Math, Science and

Geography

ACCESS (Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-

State for English Language Learners) a secure large-scale English language

proficiency assessment

ITBS (Iowa Tests of Basic Skills) Norm-Referenced Tests

8th Grade Writing and content benchmark district assessments, Star

Reading and Star Math assessments

Science Instruction Initiative Recommendation

Although student-tutoring and mentoring services are made available and well

participated in, content instruction initiatives mostly support reading, and math.

Similar to the Online Resource Star Reading

Science instruction can be supported with

Education Genesis

Web based education resource

http://www.genesisedu.com/

More information on implementation will be made available beyond this

presentation.

Thank You.

Lisa F. Mozer, Ed.S.