Anchorage School District Christine Garbe Supervisor, English Language Learners

Presentation This presentation was a collaborative effort among the Superintendent’s Office, Title I, the English Language Learner Program and staff at Williwaw Elementary School

Anchorage Facts Anchorage has 1/2 the population of the entire state State capital, Juneau not accessible by road Average state teacher salary is $59, Least densely populated US state Less than 1% of Alaska land is privately owned Entire state population is 600,000, roughly same as Austin, TX

Anchorage School District Student population is 49,091 11% LEP 8 comprehensive high schools 10 middle schools 60 elementary schools 8 charter schools School district area is the size of Deleware square miles

Alaska Schools’ Top 5 Languages (including Anchorage) Yup’ik Inupiaq Spanish Filipino Hmong

Top 5 languages in the ASD Spanish Hmong Samoan Filipino Yup’ik

Williwaw Elementary K-5 School

Williwaw School Information K-5, Title I School with close to 400 students Pre-school program 2 Autism Classrooms 2 Hard of hearing classrooms one preK and one primary Facility built about 10 years ago Walking school 21st Century After School Program 100% breakfast and lunch program

More School Information 41.8% LEP Hmong is dominant non-English language Samoan is second 12 Caucasian students out of 181 took the state test in Made AYP only once and currently are at level 5

Williwaw Timeline Develop the new plan

Restructuring/ Alternative Governance Options Option 5 was chosen which reads –5) Any other major restructuring of a school governance arrangement that makes fundamental reforms, such as significant changes in the school, staffing and governance, to improve student academic achievement and that has substantial promise of enabling the school to make AYP.

Description of Plan Planning team included Title I, ELL, CORE, Elementary Education, leadership coaching, and the established site leadership team at Williwaw –Reflected on school improvement plan Team attended the CGCS Bilingual conference Team looked at previously used strategies: –LEP Planning sheets –Front loading HM vocabulary –Ongoing PD –Pullout for alternative curriculum

Team Determinations Schoolwide approach needed Focus on vocabulary for ALL students Acquire language acquisition materials Train staff in use of materials

Williwaw Timeline Develop the new plan First Year of Imple- mentation

Action Buy in by all staff Dedicated 30 min ELL time-built into the master schedule Core instruction-explicit and systematic with infused SIOP Universal Screening and progress monitoring 90 minutes of Tier 1, intervention block-30 minutes-Tier 2 as well as a 30 minute ELD time Used Carousel of Ideas Kits as language acquisition materials

Continued RTI Model incorporated –Training in collaborative SST meetings with emphasis on strategies for ELL students ELL Coach (ARRA) Strategically placed ELL staff according to student needs

Example Of Master Schedule

Williwaw Timeline Develop the new plan First Year of Imple- mentation Summer 2010 Review Results

Williwaw Timeline Develop the new plan First Year of Imple- mentation Summer 2010 Review Results Second year of plan

Second Year Implementation Elementary Newcomers’ Center Plan for sustainability Coach’s Role Professional Development –Monthly professional development

Williwaw Timeline Develop the new plan First Year of Imple- mentation Summer 2010 Review Results Second year of plan Spring 2010 develop a plan for sustain- ability

Sustainability Built a strong team of teachers who will easily be able to bring in new teachers and work with them on strategies for ELL students Grade level meetings are developed and conversations will continue around needs and strategies PD will continue at the building level

Ah Ha Moments Williwaw students are surpassing the other LEP students in the district on State standardized assessments It was involved process whereby the staff embraced that the instruction presented was not working for all students-Evolution!! Collaborative efforts- WORK!

Key Factors for Success Uniform approach- BUY IN Collaborative support-ELL, School, Title I, extended school day, summer school Professional Development Sustainability