Whole School English Learner Reform: A Heuristic Approach to Professional Learning in Middle Schools.

The ripple effects of the immigration wave have resulted in rapid and substantial demographic changes in the United States' school-aged population. An estimated 25%-one-in-four-children in America are from immigrant families and live in households where a language other than English is spoken (Mather, 2009). The number of English language learners in public schools increased by 51% while the general population of students grew by just 7% between the 1997-98 and 2008-09 school years (National Center for English Language Acquisition (NCELA), 2006). The Pew Hispanic Center projects that the number of school-age children will increase by 5.4 million by 2020 with children of immigrants comprising the growth (Fry, 2008).Schools are seeing expanding enrollments of students whose primary language is not English at an exponential rate. These changing demographics make for the inarguable realization that the nation can no longer afford to ignore the pressing needs of the English learners in public schools (Short & Fitzsimmons, 2007). Additionally, these demographic changes bring to bear the linguistic achievement gap: the difference in academic performance between English-proficient students and English learners (Thomas & Collier, 2002). Given the increase in the number of English learners in the United States, many U.S. teachers can anticipate a growing number of English learners in their classrooms (Samson & Collins, 2012).This evolving makeup of the public school student population in the U.S. is concomitantly bringing a sobering reality to the forefront. Several well-developed bodies of literature have concluded that teachers are not prepared for the changing demographics of their classrooms. As schools entered the 21st century, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) (2002) found that of 41% of teachers who taught English language learners, less than 13% had received eight or more hours of training in the last three years in how to teach English learners. In a more recent study, in a survey of 5,300 teachers of English learners in California, Gandara, Maxwell-Jolly, and Driscoll (2005) found that more than half of teachers, with 26-50% of their students designated English learners, had either one or no in-service training devoted to the instruction of English learners over a period of five years. Clearly, teachers of English learners need the appropriate training to be able to meet their students' language and learning needs and to facilitate academic growth, yet most teachers lack this training (Gandara et al., 2005). While some research has found that there are promising teaching methods for working with English learners, the actual knowledge and skills that teachers need to support effective instruction for English learners does not always reach them (Samson & Collins, 2012).Callahan (2005) argues that English learners experience U.S. schools and schooling differently than their native English-speaking counterparts. English learner educators often focus on teaching English to the extent that entry into content-area academics is delayed until enough English has been acquired. As a result, English learners often find themselves on the periphery, physically and pcdagogically outside of the richest academic discourse. Freeman, Freeman, and Mercuri (2003) contend that middle school-age English learners in particular, present a challenge for teachers as some arrive with adequate formal schooling while others have limited formal or interrupted schooling.This study examines the interaction of the dynamics of a whole school English learner reform initiative that resulted in the development of a heuristic model for professional learning in a middle school with a notable English learner population. The heuristic model enabled persons to discover or learn something for themselves. The hypothesis undergirding this study is that teacher professional learning promotes, supports, and sustains whole school reform to address the academic needs of English learners. …