Decatur ELL students showing progress on state test – The Decatur Daily

HUNTSVILLE English Language Learners in Decatur City Schools have made progress, but significant challenges remain and this is why administrators spent the second day of their administrative retreat Tuesday receiving training.

For almost 90 minutes, a group from the University of Alabama Huntsvilles College of Education talked with school officials about simplifying messages and using fewer words to deliver the same message.

Eudoxia Tsimika Chronis opened the retreat at Burritt on the Mountain talking to administrators in Greek. The point: She wanted principals to know what ELL students may be experiencing on the first day of school.

The result: We got the message, Brookhaven Middle School Principal Anita Clarke said. We get at least one student to enroll each week that speaks no English. The student and parent just stand there and stare.

Decatur has been aware of issues ELL students face, and last year the school system opened the EXCEL Center at Austin High. The site serves students who are not proficient in English and helps immigrant students who speak no English transition to their new schools, administrator Ressa Chittam said.

The center served about 170 students, and Chittam said 87 percent of the high school students had gains on the ACCESS (Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State) test, while 84 percent of middle school students had gains.

ACCESS is a proficiency test designed to measure ELL students' social academic proficiency and to monitor their progress in mastering the English language.

While public attention has been directed toward Decaturs Hispanic student population because it increased from 1 percent in 1996 to about 25 percent last year, school leaders said the center is helping students from seven countries who speak various levels of English.

Spanish-speaking students receive the majority of the help, but the center has students from Japan, Vietnam, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Honduras and Yemen.

DCS testing coordinator Wanda Davis said students who have not reached proficiency on ACCESS have problems reaching proficiency on standardized state tests.

Its not that they can't do; we just have the language issues, she said.

Regardless of the language barriers, students who are not proficient in English are exempt for only one year from taking the states standardized test, which is why DCS, instead of having ELL teachers in every school, opened the EXCEL Center, Chittam said.

UAH professor Andrea Word said ELL students may not have access to academic content because of gaps in language. She told DCS administrators that they and teachers can use simple language without losing the message.

When Chronis was speaking in Greek, for example, she said: Good morning everyone. Welcome to our presentation.

Word said a simpler way to deliver the same message is to say: Good morning. Welcome.

ELL challenges for Decatur, however, go beyond the classroom, said DCS Director of Operations and Safety Dwight Satterfield. This is why the district went to centralized enrollment last year.

Satterfield said it was impossible for the school system to put interpreters in each school, so they send students to the central office to enroll if they come after school starts. Before school starts, students either enroll online or at the Central for Alternative Programs near Banks-Caddell Elementary.

If students check that they speak any language other than English, Satterfield said, the district does a home-language survey to determine which language is spoken in the home. Once the district knows this, he said, material is sent home in the native language.

View post:

Decatur ELL students showing progress on state test - The Decatur Daily