In response to: "How School and District Leaders Support Classroom Teachers’ Work With English Language Learners"
Reading this article really highlighted how important leadership knowledge and support of ELL education is to its successful implementation.
I agree with many of the ideas presented in this article. Administration is the main influence on school goals, allocation of resources and funding, and focus of professional development, collaboration time, and student placement protocols. In order to have a successfully implemented ELL program, the staff as a whole unit need to have a basic understanding of ELLs and the language acquisition process. Adminstration leadership can drive this focus by creating school wide goals, petitioning for funding and resources from the district, as well as utlitizing and encouraging staff members who are well versed in ELL education.
Administration has the benefit of having a view of what is happening on a whole school level. Educators are often only aware of the immediate group of students with which they interact; they don't have the opportunities to collaborate or view the whole picture. With this benefit, administration has the ability to strategically monitor, address support issues, and make suggestions or provide further resources where they see it necessary.
While reading this article, I was also struck by how much influence administration has on how staff think of their school and it's structure. ELL has been approached as a separate, or 'other', program for so long. I feel like all of the administrators I have worked with continue to think of it this way, likely because they were all classroom teachers before becoming administrators. It's a self perpetuating cycle.
This leads to my big questions:
What will it take for administrators to change their view on ELL education? How can administrators be educated in understanding that what is best for the ELL group is really best for all students? And that treating ELL needs as part of a whole, rather than separate, is beneficial? Like much of our system, I'm sure administrators are overwhelmed. I'm curious when and how ELL education will become a focus.
My second question is around comments in the article that site that administrators in the schools which were used in the case study were selective in their hiring of new teachers. They hired those that had ELL experience or education around language acquisition, in an effort to strengthen ELL education knowledge in the school. They were upfront and open when posting for these positions about what they were seeking.
While this article is from the states, my second question is as follows: could we encourage our districts to hire administrators based on their specialties? And if so, could this be a way to strengthen support for our ELLs? How does this look at a union level? How does administration hiring work? What are the goals and qualities that our districts look for when they hire administrators? And how can they be encouraged and educated to focus on our ELLs?
Resource:
Elfers, A. and Stritikus, T. (2013).
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