Throughout the course of this program, I have learned a lot about school improvement processes, state accountability, school leadership, and adult learning. Last year, after being a high school ESL teacher for nearly five years, I stepped into a new role as a Multilingual Learner instructional coach working with three of the schools in our district. This was a newly created position for Shelby County, so it was a learning curve as our district ML team navigated what this role should look like. Being in this new position while implementing my culminating project allowed me to spend more time working with school and district administrators, having access to “big picture” data, and learning how and why decisions are made. 

My project focused on improving teacher confidence and competency in teaching language and literacy skills, ultimately improving instruction for all students, including Multilingual Learners. In my role as ML Instructional Coach, I was able to provide some whole-staff professional development opportunities and work with specific teachers and PLCs as they designed lessons and units. As our school is TSI for English Learners plus monitored (recently exited) students, this aligns with school improvement goals of novice reduction, increased reading and math proficiency, and increased graduation rates of sub groups including Multilingual Learners. 

Working with the school administrators and instructional leadership team this year, I have learned how to better analyze student data and “play the game” of state assessment and accountability. While high-stakes assessments are not the end-all be-all, they play an important part in our school’s accountability and each student matters. This year, we have been tracking data for individual students in our gap groups (IXL data, graduation/credit requirements, college and career readiness, grades, etc.) in order to put plans in place to increase achievement for these students. As a whole-school effort, students have shown growth overall. According to IXL diagnostic data, roughly 20% of our ML sophomores are projected to score proficient on KSA Reading and Math, surpassing the state average of 9% of MLs scoring proficient in Reading and 10% of MLs scoring proficient in Math. Through conversations and surveys, teachers have also indicated that their confidence/knowledge about teaching Multilingual Learners.

I have grown this year in collaborating with teachers and analyzing data and its implications. I have also been able to practice my leadership skills by sharing my expertise through facilitating some professional development opportunities for school faculty. With increasing achievement for ML students being a priority school improvement goal this year, conversations with teachers about individual students and instructional practices have led to increased intentionality. While I was asked to work specifically with two PLCs, I wish I had checked in and followed up with a wider range of teachers more frequently throughout the year. Going forward, as our schools start to implement stronger schoolwide systems and structures for student learning and intervention, I plan to continue to support teaching and learning for all students and be more intentional about how and when I support and follow up with teachers. I would like to set up more consistent and efficient personal systems for coaching cycles, providing resources, and giving feedback.

Culminating Project Reflection

My project started from a combination of school data and a passion for literacy and Multilingual Learners. Being in the ML world and knowing that our ML students (roughly 16% of our student population) are a “gap group” for us, I felt that this would be a worthwhile focus where I could share some of my expertise with colleagues. I then began diving into our School Report Card and other data, which indicated that the vast majority of our ML students are not scoring proficient in Reading, even if they have been enrolled in our school district since preschool. Our school has been identified as TSI for English Learners for three years in a row, so it is obvious that something needs to change in order to meet the needs of these students and ensure that they are learning at high levels.

The initial project proposal started out “bigger” than it was actually able to be during this school year. I had originally planned to implement monthly personalized PD with core content departments relating to language, literacy, and EL best practices, as well as monitor our new intervention system and provide learning around teaching foundational literacy skills. With so many new district initiatives, new curriculum for Math and English, a new block schedule, and other expectations placed on teachers, the original scale of this project simply wasn’t totally feasible this school year. There were several curveballs this year, with change in school administration being one of the tougher challenges. 

As I began to implement my project, I was able to plan and facilitate three larger professional development opportunities, with two of those being required for all faculty at Collins. For the first opportunity, I partnered with one of the other ML Instructional Coaches in Shelby County to plan and present a session about two of our “Top Five” ML strategies at our district Inspired Learning Conference. Teachers and administrators from all over the district had the opportunity to choose this presentation as one of their sessions. The next PD opportunity included meetings with small groups of teachers during their planning period to go over PSP accommodations and English proficiency levels of individual students on their rosters. For the third opportunity, I partnered with another of our district ML Instructional Coaches to plan and facilitate an immersive Spanish lesson experience using strategies to make content comprehensible despite the language barrier. When asked to reflect on their experiences with each PD opportunity, most teachers indicated that their confidence/knowledge of teaching MLs increased and that each session was useful for them. Looking back, I wish I had followed up more consistently with more teachers.

This year, the school has been focused on bettering core instruction and learning how to implement an intervention period at the high school level to ultimately increase learning for students and increase Reading and Math proficiency on KSA to try to move out of TSI status. Because 10th graders take the Reading and Math tests on KSA, we narrowed our focus and I was asked to work closely with English 2 and Geometry teachers and 10th grade ML students. We created a spreadsheet to document IXL data/growth, language proficiency levels, grades, and 8th grade KSA scores for all sophomore ML and monitored (former ML) students throughout the year. One of the school’s 90-day goals was that 80% of identified gap group students (Sophomore ML and ECE) will grow at least 50 points in performance on the Math and Reading IXL diagnostic assessments. While not quite yet at 80%, there has been some significant growth for a lot of students. While I initially planned to work with all core content areas, data and school goals led us to narrow down to sophomores for now. 

Also, this was the first year that true intervention time, and not just a glorified study hall, was built into the master schedule. At the high school level, intervention structures and instruction is a “muddy” process and everyone was learning to build the plane as we flew it. The school implemented some schoolwide structures, expectations, and a scheduling platform as a starting point. At the time, compliance and getting intervention off the ground was the most important focus, so I didn’t have as much of an impact in this part of my project as initially proposed. I worked mainly with our ML Instructional Assistants to decide which ML students to schedule during Titan Time, help determine which skills to intervene on, help provide resources, and help them determine priorities for students (finishing assignments, remediating tests, providing language instruction). 

Going forward, our school instructional leadership team has learned a lot about RTI and MTSS this year and putting systems in place to ensure that intervention is both logistically possible and that it can be effective. Strong Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction rely a lot on cohesive PLCs and discussions about data and instructional strategies. PLCs will be a focus next year, and I plan to be more intentional with various PLCs, including elective course PLCs, as I help support teachers and advocate for students in those conversations. Increased clarity around student learning and effective instructional strategies will lead to gains in student achievement. Ultimately, this project is just a small piece of the puzzle and it will be an ongoing process for years to come as we figure out how to ensure that all students, including MLs, are learning at high levels and are prepared for life after high school.

I chose to share my reflections on a Padlet I created with resources for teachers. This Padlet is available to teachers through our district ML resource Google Site. Since my project was mostly focused on instruction and achievement of Multilingual Learners, I thought this was a fitting outlet to share my project reflections and will hopefully be useful for colleagues. 

Shared Media Link: https://padlet.com/meikahamblin/el-strategies-resources-m6clae2ni3r02v0z