Transmitted via satellite, produced by the State Education Department Satellite Broadcast Network; broadcast from the studios of NYNET

For additional information, call or write:

John Quinn
Room 668 EBA
Office of Curriculum and Instruction
New York State Education Department
Albany, NY 12234
(518) 474-5922
E-mail: jquinn@mail.nysed.gov

>> Rochelle: Good evening. I'm Rochelle Cassella. Welcome to "New York Learns, Teacher to Teacher."

In just a few minutes we'll begin with our program on helping limited English proficiency students prepare for the new English language arts standards.

But first we'll answer your questions on the English Regents exam, being given for the first time this June. With me to answer your questions this evening: Jacqueline Marino, Associate in English Language Arts from the State Education Department. Nice of you to come out on this rainy evening. And teacher Lillian Turner, and we thank you for coming back this evening to be with us tonight as well.

We have covered this exam pretty extensively in these conferences and on the parent night programs with Commissioner Rick Mills. But as the test draws near, people are still a little nervous and teachers preparing their students are still a little bit nervous. What kind of tips can you give to some of our teachers out there to make them feel more comfortable as they start to get the kids ready?

>> They need to feel comfortable with what the test is asking students to do. They need to know what the test looks like and obviously their students do as well. So the students probably should have an opportunity to work with the tests in the sampler provided by State Ed.

I know a lot of teachers are developing their own tasks that are modeled on the State sampler and embedding those tasks in their own curriculum. For example, we did some work with "The Red Badge of Courage" and developed tasks related to it specifically in terms of content, but tasks that look like what the assessment is going to look like in June, so students will have a chance to work with that format at the same time and enhance their understanding of "The Red Badge of Courage," for example, so it has a curricular base. So that's important.

But beyond that, just being alert to whether the activities of the class are moving students toward those performances. I don't think we need to be running kids through a whole series of those test clones at all, but I think we do need to make sure that the work students are doing in the classroom is going to be reinforcing those particular skills. So little pieces of it done in different ways and different kinds of combinations, I think, should help students and teachers feel more confident about the students' performance on the test when they sit for it in June.

>> Rochelle: Okay. I have a couple other questions for you, but I want to remind viewers of that phone number on the screen. That's the number to dial if you want to ask us a question. We have some faxed questions that came in, but we would like to hear from you directly if you have questions for Lillian or Jackie.

Something I have heard from teachers in talking to them in general, is that one thing everybody seems to be putting an emphasis on that they may not have in the past is listening skills. Very important, right?

>> I think so. I also think students enjoy being read to, so that makes for a pleasant situation in the classroom. I think kids appreciate that.

But in terms of what they need to be able to do and make sense of, more attention being paid to that. But taking the activity through a step that makes students really accountable for what they heard. I think sometimes we lecture or they watch videos or we read aloud to them and expect them to be taking notes on that, and that will contribute toward their work on the test, but we don't always have them reuse that information and reshape it in some way that allows us to assess what their understanding is and their ability to use that information. And I think that's -- in addition to having them do more listening, we also need to make sure that after they have done the listening, we have a way of identifying their success, some kind of accountability measure.

>> Rochelle: Beyond that traditional lecture in the classroom, students taking notes and at some point an exam down the line, listening to a specific passage or story and then dealing with that specifically.

>> Oh, sure. A teacher could extract a paragraph from a novel being read that students have not yet reached in their reading and could read it and pose questions pertaining to mood or atmosphere, for example. There are lots of different things.

We can also use videos and taping off-air and having students look at those for the information. Certainly any of the Biography series are very worthwhile in that regard, and then taking notes on what they heard and using those notes to in some way represent that information. So videos can be used for listening purposes as well.

>> Rochelle: I hear teachers saying they're placing more emphasis or paying more attention to using real-life, every day kinds of materials: The newspapers, current news magazines or current magazines and things, more than they have done in the past. Beyond the traditional literature that's read in the classrooms, they're using real-life things as well.

>> I think they're thinking of the second task, the second part of the exam, where students are asked to read non-fiction informational text and to extract, again, information from those sources and use it in some way. And I'm pretty sure that's why teachers are using those sources now more than they have in the past.

>> Rochelle: All rightie.

Once again, you have the opportunity to call in your questions about the English Regents exam. It's a toll-free number.

Jackie Marino, at the State Education Department, what kind of concerns are you hearing teachers still have despite all the information they have been receiving about the exam?

>> Well, probably the most frequently asked questions these days have to do with the actual scoring of the tests. I know there are a lot of workshops going on, and we have been one of the leaders of the area workshops on scoring itself. People are interested in what happens on scoring day and how long it will take.

It's true that the time frame is very, very tight this year, particularly for the second administration on Wednesday. Folks will be getting specific information about how they might best handle the paper and set those things up, but they want to know that you really need to probably allow two hours the day of the particular administration to get familiar with the materials that come with the test materials. People will be getting the official scoring rubrics. They'll be getting the tasks themselves, of course, and anchor papers and practice papers that go with the tests that the students are taking.

And it does take time to read those, to try to take them themselves so that they'll be familiar with them, and they can start that as soon after the administration as possible. So they'll be getting those materials and should plan on taking a couple of hours to look at those, and they should be able to start scoring about noon of that first day.

And people will want to know that they will be assigning holistic scores only. The training includes a close look at all of the qualities and the quality scores, but we want people to do that so that they have internalized the criteria that go with those qualities. But they'll only be assigning holistic scores.

Each paper will be double-scored, from two teachers. The scores will be entered into those. Those constructive response scores will be averaged and then those will be added then across all four parts at the end of both administrations, and they'll be added across all four parts and added to the multiple choice items, and teachers will have a conversion chart where they'll be able to look at the number of multiple choice items and look at the scores on their rubrics and then go to a chart and see on a 100-point scale what score people will get. That chart will be determined in the standards-setting process which will take place in April, and at that time we'll invite teachers in who will look at the rubrics and the field test results, and they'll agree among themselves which of that work at what level constitutes proficient work. And that information will be used to set the various points along that continuum. There will be certainly a 55 and 65 and 85, but they'll have multiple points along the continuum so they can use those scores for other purposes.

>> Rochelle: One question we received from Williamsville High School, in the western part of the state, dealt with the conversion chart. Teachers wanted to know if the grade conversion chart would be included in the scoring guide so they could do immediate conversions?

>> Yes, it will be.

>> Rochelle: All right. I have some questions that are faxed in and I'll get to those, but I want to let you know you can call in a question at 1-877-280-7400, a toll-free number.

The other questions -- most of them are dealing with hard-core specifics about the scoring. We still want to get the scoring down right.

The days that schools receive anchor papers and scoring guides for Part I of the exam, on June 18th? When can schools expect those?

>> I haven't seen the exact delivery schedule, but they'll be coming with the exams, those tasks that are administered on that first Friday, on the 18th. So the tasks -- the texts -- tests! (Laughing) The testing materials and the scoring terms for that first session will arrive together. That's my understanding anyway, at this point.

>> Rochelle: All of the paperwork for the tests -- is everything arriving at once or is there a packet that's going to come for the June 18th part of the exam and then another for the June 23rd part of the exam? That's another question.

>> I don't know when they will be delivered, but I'm sure there will be directions for when they can open them so that that question would have to go to the testing unit, and I don't know what the delivery schedule is.

>> Rochelle: So they'll get a packet that says "Do not open until..."

>> Something like that.

>> Rochelle: Now, once we have gotten the test, given the test, scored the test, when do we have to submit those final scores to the State Education Department? Is there a deadline for when schools have to have the scores in?

>> Probably the first deadline is the local one when you have to have the grade in -- I think it's July 15th. Does that sound --

>> I haven't seen it yet.

>> That's what I recall.

>> Rochelle: So we said July 15th and we'll check on that.

We want to remind you that we'll have a Test Review in April that deals with this exam as well. We'll double-check that and make sure we have that information for you that night as well. Once again, we'll put the phone number on the screen.

What are your recommendations about using the Regents exam grade as the final exam grade for the course?

>> Final exam grade for the course? I can mention the State's position, but it is a local decision finally.

>> Rochelle: Okay.

>> As you know, we've got exam requirements and we have course requirements, and the course requirements allow students to demonstrate their learning in multiple ways. Many of them are ways that aren't practical for assessment at the State level. And then there are those State requirements, the State tests which are administered under constrained conditions and limited time and so forth.

So we really recommend that people keep those requirements separate because the State test does not measure course objectives. And the more you mingle them, the more double jeopardy it is for any one student because if a student is really good at doing something over time and multilevel projects but not so great at the -- in the constraint situations, that allows them to show their learning in multiple ways. So for a number of reasons, a State exam is not a course exam; it's a comprehensive exam.

But having said all of that, I know this is a particularly difficult year because schools want the kids to have taken a familiar exam, but they also want to see how they'll do on a new exam, and so many of those schools are either requiring the January Regents as a midterm or the June Regents as a final, and that is their option. But we would still like to keep those separate...

>> Rochelle: Lillian?

>> We have dealt with that question in our department, and what we're going to do is not use the final -- not use the State exam as our final exam, for the reasons Jackie mentioned, and also because it's not content-based, will not test what we hope students have learned through the English program.

What we're going to do instead is not give a school final. We think that would be cruel and unusual punishment... after six hours for the State exam.

But we're actually following up on the State's idea of an extended task and we're having students do an extended task or part task. They'll do one part each quarter so that by the end of the year, they'll have completed that and that qualifies them to pass the course, let me put it that way. But it also gives teachers the opportunity to have assessed those parts well in advance of June. I think it's really, really important that teachers have all of their school-level grading done by that first Friday administration because teachers will not be able to score school exams and try to do the Regents at the same time. They just won't have the energy to do it.

So at any rate, we're going to use the extended task notion and then during our school exam block of time, our juniors will present oral reports on what they learned as a result of doing that four-part task. So that may be one alternative that schools could think of, too.

>> Rochelle: Interesting. You said earlier in our discussions before we came into this studio, there's been a lot of questions from teachers about the extended tasks.

>> Well, wondering whether or not, yes, the extended tasks that the State had been talking about requiring as of a year or so ago, whether or not that was still in the works or has it been abandoned? I don't know. But I do know that the State needed to dedicate some time to developing the resource guide, the curriculum resource guide and so forth. So I'm hopeful that it will, you know, come back to life as a State opportunity.

>> Rochelle: Any more word on this?

>> Well, it is part of -- it was part of the plan for the new assessment system, and I haven't heard that it's not any longer, and I would imagine that as soon as all of the new on-demand tests are in place that we'll be revisiting that. It certainly would allow for assessment of those standards that cannot or are not included in the on-demand test, like language for social interaction, much more appropriately assessed in the classroom, and writing for literary expression... the kinds of things that you really need time to --

>> Rochelle: Or produced over time?

>> That's right, and time for peer response and revision and those kinds of things. So there would be lots of good reasons for doing that.

>> Rochelle: Collaborative work. Those were nice issues looked at in that, so it will be nice to see it come back.

>> Well, it hasn't gone away. It's just had attention deflected.

>> Rochelle: A lot to deal with this year!

>> Yes.

>> Rochelle: If you have any questions about the comprehensive English Regents exam, given for the first time this June, you can call the toll-free number on the screen and we'll answer any of your questions.

Still a lot of questions about the logistics of scoring and what we need to score and how we go about scoring and how long is it going to take to train people? We have somebody calling in, faxing in a question saying, "We have approximately 320 students taking the exam. Each read twice, a total of 2,560 reads and 12 teachers grading it. Based on your discussion of time with the anchor papers and two reviews of each paper and a third reading of some, how many hours will it take to finish this exam?" This sounds like a task on the Math "A" exam! (Laughing) I don't know if we want to actually sit here and do the math for them, but is there a formula?

>> I hope the caller will forgive me for not doing that calculation in my head. I mentioned you should probably figure two hours for the orientation for each session, and then I would say a good estimate would be four minutes a paper. When we started out in the first scoring session for pre-test scorers, it probably took closer to five per paper, but the last group of scorers who came in, they were experienced, and they got it down to about two-and-a-half minutes a paper. Naturally, it's going to depend on how much the students write and how experienced the scorers are. But I would use four minutes a paper as a guideline for figuring that out.

I think probably you won't have to have a third scorer for a fifth of the papers, though. They don't have to come to consensus. If they're adjacent scores, the scores will be averaged, and then a third scorer will be averaged with the one adjacent or -- I hope not, but if they're all contiguous or whatever, they would end up averaging all three. At any rate, I think a fifth seems high to me. From the results we have had, most scores tend to be right on or contiguous after training.

So maybe those numbers will help. Two hours for orientation, four minutes a paper to score one, so 16 minutes to double-score parts 1 and 2 for each student. 16 minutes per student to do both parts. That will help them figure out how many teachers they need.

>> Rochelle: Certainly the training that day is designed to really help them feel comfortable with that, but is there anything that teachers can do ahead of time to prepare themselves even better so that the scoring goes quickly?

>> Well, I think all the regional training we have been doing is intended to do that because I think the regional training is really the learning. For many people, it's the first time they have tried to do this. So that the intention of that is to make things go more quickly. But I think once teachers have had some regional training or training within their department by people within the department who have had some experience, they are using the rubric for their class work and they're becoming more and more accustomed to the definitions, the descriptors, more readily able to match the paper to whatever that cell looks like... so that's one way they're training themselves to work more efficiently in June. That's one way to be more comfortable with everything.

If people haven't been using the rubric, I suggest they do. I don't think it has to be used for everything students do, but periodically, it's good training for the teacher and it's good information for the student as well.

>> Rochelle: We found several teachers who said, "I started to use the rubrics for grading in my class, and what's really nice about it is that it also helps students begin to understand what will be expected of them come test day so that they really become very acclimated to writing that way and to working that way, as well as making the teacher very comfortable with the rubric as well."

>> And that close look at the tasks that Lillian and Carol Reynolds demonstrated in the previous session, that kind of examination of what the task is really calling for -- as soon as the teacher becomes aware of exactly what those demands are, it makes it that much easier to look at a student's paper more quickly because they know that if this is just a summary, it's not a high-scoring paper, for the part one and part two, that it requires a transformation or interpretation of some kind. And part three, it requires the synthesis with a controlling idea.

So really knowing the demands of those tasks makes the actual scoring so much more efficient as well as thinking about ways of getting kids familiar with those concepts in other contexts as well.

>> Rochelle: Okay. Very good. We always have a question dealing with -- we have often had questions dealing with special ed students taking the exam and accommodations with regard to the exam and how they'll be scored.

What are the special accommodations for students on the listening passage, for students who may be hard of hearing?

>> Yes, what you don't want to do is eliminate that section because even hard-of-hearing students need to be able to show that they understand information that's not printed in front of them. So you can't eliminate that part, but you can follow the recommendations for accommodations that are in the I.E.P.s, and in addition to that, I know -- they have to be in the I.E.P.s, but some of those might include things like reading a passage more than once -- rather, more than twice. They can already hear it twice.

It can include things like stopping periodically to allow the student to take notes or to dictate notes to a scribe. It might mean asking to have part of the passage reread again if they've misheard or weren't sure what they heard.

So they can do whatever it is that allows them to be successful with non-print material in the rest of their coursework. But they do need to include that part on the test. They cannot use somebody else's notes because then it becomes that person's comprehension and not the student's comprehension. And you can't give the passage to the student because then it becomes a reading assessment.

>> Rochelle: Okay.

>> So whatever accommodations are in the I.E.P. that allow the student to demonstrate what they do understand from non-print material.

>> Rochelle: Would that include allowing a student to ask a question -- the "boxer socks" for example?

>> I think that seems rather specific to me, and I think that would probably best be answered in a specific case with whatever directions are in the I.E.P. Perhaps things like asking for a rereading of that line...

>> Rochelle: Okay. Very good. All right.

We have just a couple of minutes left. Any other final tips that we want to remind teachers of that will help get students ready? I know one of the good things that we talked about last month that was really good was to teach kids how to read directions and look for those key operative words in the directions. Terminology, literary terminology is really --

>> I think many of us are recognizing that we probably need to highlight a bit more some of the terminology and make sure students understand it and they recognize it when they see it. But I think we need to do it within the context of the literature that's being studied so that it is integrated rather than becoming an additional vocabulary list where they learn the term and learn the meaning but don't really -- are not really working with it and don't have any sense of its use or its practicalities because they're not actually reading passages that illustrate those terms.

But, yes, I would say that's something we're probably putting more attention to. I would say that's the case as well at the middle school level, as far as that goes, you know, because the whole system is so nicely integrated that what we learn at one level, I think, applies at the others as well.

>> Rochelle: Okay.

I want to remind viewers also that on Wednesday, April 7th, from 8 to 9 p.m., we'll also have a live Test Review that deals with the English Regents, and we'll again be answering any questions that you may have and we'll take a look at some scoring and look at some specifics.

(Transition to Teacher to Teacher session)

(Music)

>> Rochelle: Hello and welcome to "New York Learns, Teacher to Teacher." I'm your moderator, Rochelle Cassella.

Statistics show that nearly 8% of all students in New York State schools have limited English proficiency. That's more than 220,000 children in school classrooms whose native language is not English. In a report to members of the State Board of Regents last year, Deputy Education Commissioner Jim Kadamus stated that 30,000 of those limited English proficiency students are in Grades 9 and 10. That means they'll soon be taking the revised comprehensive English Regents exam being given for the first time this June.

Other limited English proficient students will be taking the fourth and eighth grade math and English assessments.

We have talked a great deal in these programs about what schools are doing to prepare English-speaking students for these new and challenging exams. Today, we'll talk in greater detail about how schools are handling the special challenge of preparing limited English proficiency students, not only for the English Regents and for the assessments, but for meeting the higher learning standards in general.

We begin with an overview of the various programs being used in New York State schools to teach LEP students, as we'll refer to them. We do so with the help of Carmen Perez-Hogan and Gloria Casar of the State Education Department's Office of Bilingual Education.

Carmen is going to start for us. Carmen?<>p> >> Those students with limited English proficiency are in school districts -- in just about every school district throughout the State, and they represent approximately 135 different languages, language backgrounds, although of course the majority of them speak Chinese, Spanish being the largest, Haitian Creole, Korean and Russian. Those are the majority language groups.

Many of them -- most of them are in the big cities. That's where the largest concentration of the youngsters are, and Long Island.

The programs that we have for the youngsters are under Commissioner's Regulations Part 154, and they are either an English as a second language freestanding program or a bilingual education program. But I want to emphasize that all of the youngsters receive instruction in English as a second language.

>> Rochelle: Okay.

>> I think that's a very important point for everyone to understand, just to avoid any confusion.

>> Rochelle: Okay.

>> Now, let me talk to you a little bit, and you can see the transparency, about what the two programs -- what the components are for those two programs under the Commissioner's Regulations Part 154.

As you will note, on the left-hand side we have the ESL program and on the right-hand side we have the bilingual program. In any school where there is a concentration of 20 or more youngsters who speak the same language on a grade level, then those youngsters should be receiving a bilingual education program. That's the one described on the right. Those youngsters who do not meet that requirement in terms of concentration in the school on a grade level, they would be provided with a freestanding English as a second language program.

Now, let's take a look at the two major components of these State-mandated programs. One would be the language arts component, and the second component is the instructional content area component. So that our expectation is that all youngsters will receive a full educational schedule of all of the subject areas that are required.

Now, if we go back to the transparency and we look at the instructional component, English as a second language, and you can see the first bullet under each, English as a second language is a requirement for both, and it's the same type of program, using the same approaches, the same techniques, the same materials, regardless of which one it is that you happen to be in. And then in a bilingual program, the youngsters receive also native language arts instruction so that they would receive Spanish, for example, or French or Haitian Creole or Chinese as a native language. They receive that native language arts.

The second component includes all of the other academic areas: Science, social studies, math, et cetera.

In a bilingual program, the youngsters receive that instruction through two languages: The native language and also English, another important point that needs to be made because sometimes there is confusion in that regard.

In the freestanding English as a second language program, the youngsters receive all of the content area primarily in English, through English, but with the use of very special strategies and instructional methodology that's appropriate for that. So overall, those are the two programs that we have that are required under the Commissioner's Regulations.

Now, within the bilingual program, we also have in some cases and in some schools a two-way bilingual education program, and that's one of the most exciting programs that we have in this state and actually in the nation, and the research tells us and has shown that in a two-way program, our youngsters are really doing better than your average, your general education student population of comparable background. In the two-way program, the youngsters are learning -- it includes students who are limited-English proficient as well as students who are English proficient, and they're both learning each other's languages, each other's cultures; there is a very nice interaction between the two groups, and they are learning for the purposes of becoming truly bilingual.

>> Rochelle: We're going to see some examples of that in today's program.

>> Yes.

>> Rochelle: Okay. I'm going to ask Gloria right now, as a result of recent literature and research on effective programs, such as Carmen was talking about, your office established what it considers to be the essential elements of effective limited-English proficiency programs. What are the elements and why are these elements so important?

>> First of all, let me tell you that we reviewed over 80 pieces of literature and spoke to 50 -- conducted 50 different telephone conferences across the nation of programs that are providing very high-quality, very effective programs for LEP students. And we came out with a set of seven essential elements. These were then validated by a group of practitioners in New York State who met with us. And if I could have the slide on the effective elements.

>> Rochelle: Okay.

>> The first one is that LEP students are being held to very high standards throughout the contents, through math, science, social studies, as well as English language development and native language arts development.

The second one is that there's a very strong English language literacy program for these students that helps them meet the English language arts standards and provides them with increased learning in English.

There is also -- we found that the teachers -- not only the bilingual teachers, not only the ESL teachers, but all teachers who impact on LEP students -- are well-trained and well-qualified and understand the principles of first and second language acquisition.

We also found that at both the district level and the school building level, the principals, the superintendents were very supportive of the programs and held these students to the standards and provided them with an equitable education.

The students themselves found that they were well accepted in the school; their language was valued; their culture was valued. So they found a very positive climate in the school.

And also parents were made to feel welcome. There was information about what the new requirements were, the new school system they were dealing with, and that information was provided in a language and format they understood.

And, finally, there was a very -- the assessment program was one that measured their skills in a fair and non-biased manner.

>> Rochelle: Okay. And, again, we're going to see some fine examples of how these elements are working in programs and classes during today's program.

The majority of our New York's limited-English proficiency students attend classes in New York City schools, as Carmen indicated. With us today is Dr. Lillian Hernandez, director of bilingual education for New York City. Welcome. Good to have you with us.

>> Thank you.

>> Rochelle: Could you give us an idea of some of the range of the programs that are available for LEP students in New York City?

>> Of course. We have about 150,000 children in New York City entitled to bilingual and ESL instruction, and those students make up about 17% of the total population. There are about 1 million students in New York City in this current school year.

Like Carmen said, most of the programs are bilingual, including ESL, native language arts instruction and concentration daily in the native language, and the other programs, the freestanding ESL programs. But in keeping with the reform efforts in education around the country, what we see in New York are wonderful examples, programmatic models and organizational designs that are meeting the needs of these students in our schools.

So we can see a program in a school that addresses dual-language literacy and dual-language instruction, using the two-way model that Carmen described just a few seconds ago. There are other ranges of student needs in the school system, so we will see students who have come into our schools with interrupted learning, no formal schooling, a little schooling, et cetera, for whatever reason in their native country, and the schools will accommodate those children with special instructional programs, instructional designs for them, instructional materials that are developed for them, and teachers who can address the needs of those student populations. These are very, very important designs because they're stepping stones to the mainstream in our school system.

We have superstar programs. Those are the little babies, the preschoolers, a wonderful model that was developed in New York City, for preschoolers coming into our school system, developed for monolingual children, English-speaking students, and adapted for bilingual students. So if a student comes into the school system, a preschooler, we have a program design that's available for him or her which includes a very strong family component and support for the family with social workers, psychologists and others involved.

We have gifted programs for children who are accelerated in either the math or the sciences, in their own literacy development, and can take advantage of a gifted program in any school that he or she comes into.

So there's a variety of programs. I think what's really important about this statement is that bilingual educators have kept up with the reform movement in this country and have looked for methods and very quality methods to address the needs of our incoming students.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. Let's take a look at some examples. The Newcomers High School on Long Island City is aptly named. Many of its students have come to the United States only recently. Their innovative, project-based programs use bilingual and English-as-a-second-language classes to help students learn English and also work toward what is required for all New York State graduates. Here's that video.

>> Wanda: Newcomer High School in Long Island City is known as a first port of entry into New York's school system for immigrant students.

>> We have students that come from every -- over 60 countries, and they speak over 40 different languages.

>> Wanda: Over 900 students are enrolled here. Newcomers' principal Lourdes Burrows says the school receives about 25 new students every week.

>> These are just students who are recent arrivals to the United States, and our purpose is to create an instructional program that would help the student learn English, earn a high school degree, and be able to enter college or the world of work.

>> Wanda: Burrows says you won't find a watered-down curriculum here. Students who are English language learners receive math, science, English and other subjects in addition to intensive ESL, native language and other bilingual content classes.

(Speaking in foreign language)

>> Wanda: This is a math sequence II class. The oral instruction is in Spanish. The students' text and notes are done in English. For today's logic lesson, the teacher is using an overhead projector.

>> A polygon of three sides...

>> All the information that I'm going to be speaking off, it's already on the transparencies. The students are able to see what I'm saying and it reinforces in their mind the vocabulary, the words, the configuration of the words and the actual exercises. In addition, I'm able to use colors which enhances the visual effects that they have when they're looking at the material.

>> Wanda: He knows first-hand the challenges English language learners face. As a Spanish-speaking student from El Salvador, he also struggled to learn English.

>> Many of the classes that I am teaching, I was a student. I am teaching the class, always trying to place myself in the position of the students and thinking, "What can I do? What can I possibly change to make sure that they understand?"

>> It's very important that he is speaking in Spanish because then I understand the teacher...

>> Wanda: Jose Perez says this math class and others are giving him confidence to face the State's new Regents exam. 30% of the 250 Newcomer students who took the current Regents exam in January passed the test. Vinjou is one of them.

>> (Speaking in foreign language) I took the English and I passed so...

>> Wanda: Students' English and listening skills generally improve in part because of ESL classes like this one.

>> What we're going to do is I want you to read both of those quotes...

>> Wanda: These students in Veronica Sanchez's ESL class today are studying documents to analyze and understand how people in the 1890s lived.

>> It helps with the performance standards based on what's in the red book where it just talks about reading, writing, speaking and listening. It also connects in the fact that they have to extrapolate information from primary and secondary source documents in order to come up with a writing that is based on something concrete and historical, which is also part of the performance standards.

>> Wanda: Sanchez says it can be difficult to find materials to help students pass performance standards, standards that are creating stronger links between teachers.

>> In order to find resources that we can use, we have to really struggle and help each other, and actually it forms a nice community in that you have to constantly be exchanging lessons with other teachers.

>> You can choose one of these people and write a speech from their point of view, looking at it through their eyes...

>> I tell the students that everyone is going to pass the exams. I place myself on the line; I place them on the line, and by doing that, we never take a step back; we always take a step forward. We never think that failure is an option.

>> Rochelle: Interesting. Failure is not an option because, as Carmen points out, these students have to pass all the Regents to graduate, don't they?

>> Yes, they do. They have to pass all of the Regents in math and science and social studies, and they must also pass the English Regents exam.

Now, of course, the ones in the content area are translated and they will be available in the native languages, but they still must pass that English Regents test, which is a challenge for all of us and is part of some of the fine work being done to address that challenge, which we'll discuss.

>> Rochelle: Which is probably why at Newcomers we don't have a watered-down program. But we do have with us Lourdes Burrows, school principal. Lourdes, delightful to see you today. Thank you for coming.

How did your program begin? How did the school get started?

>> Our school was created in 1995 as a school geared towards newly arrived immigrant students. It's a comprehensive high school from ninth to twelfth grade. Ninth and tenth graders have an opportunity to stay in the school for a year, and then we give them a comprehensive orientation to the multitude of schools and programs that they can participate throughout New York City. Eleventh and twelfth graders stay with us, and they graduate and go to either the school of work or go to college. We have over 95% of our students attending colleges.

>> Rochelle: That's wonderful. How does that come about when you have kids who are coming in, you know, just into the States and you said, what, 25 new students a week coming in?

>> Well, what we do is that we provide a three-day orientation program to our school and to New York City and the U.S. We think that orientation program, we have 25-hour blocks in which students receive an array of assessment practices but also lessons that deal with things like the subway map, how to get around in the city, also something that deals with their culture, because we want them to recognize the fact that they're coming into the United States and they're going to learn English; they are going to learn about a new culture, but we value their language; we value their rich heritage that they're bringing and they're going to continue contributing to our school and to our system. We empower them to really feel proud about themselves, and that is why we offer a very intensive bilingual program, together with ESL instruction, because what we want to show them is that we value who they are; we recognize that they have a lot to contribute to our country while at the same time we give them the English skills that they need because that is the only way that they can succeed in their new country.

>> Rochelle: Is there a lot of one-on-one work with students as well, for students who may need some extra support, or are you finding that the intensive program you have in the classroom is working well?

>> Well, we do offer an intensive program, and we also have tutorials and peer tutoring; we have student government, leadership classes that help the students. We also offer an after-school program, that we call the Star Program. And we call it Star because we think they're all going to be stars.

In that particular program, what we deal with is, in one part, additional instruction in subject matters that they might need to meet the new standards, and we also offer some extra classes that they cannot fit in during the day. Like if they're very artistically inclined, we want them to have arts, music and art in their program, and we can't offer it during the day because of the intensive ESL and English instruction that they receive during the day.

The curriculum for those courses is really special because we offer more practical applications. Sometimes they can go and travel and go to the many cultural opportunities that we have in New York City.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. That's wonderful. Congratulations and good luck.

>> Thank you.

>> Rochelle: Okay. New York's Liberty High School specializes in working with students whose education in their home countries has been interrupted. With us to provide some details on that is Bruce Schnur, Liberty's principal. Bruce, delighted to have you with us as well.

Tell us about your program at Liberty.

>> Well, Liberty High School is only a one-year program. We are basically a ninth grade school for newly arrived students with eight years or less of formal education. We have students anywhere from the ages of fourteen up to twenty.

What's happening is right now we have about 500 students representing 52 different countries. About 25% of these students are in our literacy programs. 75% of our students are at the ages of 17 or above, and many of them have very few high school credits. What's happening is we're beginning to take in more and more of the older students and those students with a lot of literacy problems in their own native language.

>> Rochelle: So what are you doing for these students? How can you help them along?

>> The main premise at Liberty High School is we create programs to meet the needs of the students, and every year we change. Every year we create new programs.

For instance, these students are new to the City of New York, so one of the courses we created was ESL New York City, where all the students learn about the city of New York, not only through readings and writings, but we take them out into the city and take them on trips. By the end of the semester, they have seen more of New York City than most New Yorkers have!

>> Rochelle: (Chuckling) I'll bet! You also talked about with some of your older students the G.E.D. prep course?

>> What we have done is because our over-age population is increasing and we're tending to take in more students that are 18, 19 years old, and when they leave us, there's really no place for them to continue their education, so we just started this semester a pre-G.E.D. program. Working with the Auxiliary Service High Schools, which are the G.E.D. programs, we're developing a pre-G.E.D. program because we found that many of our students when they left us and they went on to a G.E.D. program, they were completely lost; they had no idea what they were getting themselves into, and within two or three weeks they dropped out and were walking the streets. So now we're working very closely with Auxiliary Services, preparing the students in a pre-G.E.D. program.

In fact, hopefully we may even be able to give some of our students a chance at the exam in June.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. That's great. Terrific work. Thank you very much.

Students at the Isaac Young Middle School in New Rochelle have several years before they face the comprehensive English Regents exam that they'll have to pass before graduating, but meeting the State's learning standards is an important goal for all students. Isaac Young uses parallel classrooms, and we'll have an explanation of that, taught in English and Spanish, to teach both the significant Spanish-speaking population and native English-speaking pupils.

Here's our video.

>> All right. Ladies and gentlemen, I know in Mrs. Ripley's class yesterday, you talked about developments...

>> We're over 30% Spanish students in our school. So with our program, it made sense to choose Spanish as the language we were going to dig into.

>> Now, we're going to use these index cards and we're going to turn them into little greeting cards.

>> Wanda: Welcome to Martin White's social studies class at the Isaac Young Middle School in New Rochelle. Besides social studies, these six graders are learning English. Most of the students in this class are Spanish-speaking. Many came with their families to the U.S. without ever speaking a word of English. In this class, that's all that is spoken. Today's subject: The Fertile Crescent.

One floor down, the very same subject is being taught, different class, different language. Most of the students here speak English. Teacher Zenina Ripley is covering the exact same subject, the Fertile Crescent, entirely in Spanish.

English-dominant students are learning Spanish, and Spanish-speaking students learn English in a very intensive program.

>> We plan our curriculum to mirror each other as the year goes on. If I'm doing the Fertile Crescent today, she's doing the Fertile Crescent today.

>> I try to -- Social studies, we use notetaking, and so they're taking notes and after they take notes, we go through...

>> Wanda: The program is called dual-intensive language experience, DILE, and it's giving the students an opportunity to learn a new language in a new way, not by taking just one course a week for six weeks but by taking several courses a week in English or Spanish the entire year. They learn the language as well as the culture.

>> I'm very excited because I always wanted to learn Spanish. So now I can talk to my friend from Ecuador.

>> Well, I'm interested because of my mother, because she's in college and she's taking a Spanish course.

(Speaking in Spanish)

>> When I leave here, I can go to my country and I can help my country.

>> Wanda: But there's much more to this bilingual program than just teaching students a new language. They are also gearing up for the new State standards.

Sandra Morris is a math teacher at Isaac Young. She is preparing students for the new assessments in math. Students will take the higher standards in just two years. They're preparing now.

This is teacher Zenina Ripley's math class. She's teaching the very same subject to her Spanish-speaking students as Sandra Morris. They cover the same lessons only in Spanish. They too are preparing for the new State standards.

>> I'm very comfortable with these standards. As far as the math is concerned, the standards are needed. My stress to the students is that we're doing more application of problem-solving. They have to get the sense of the problem. And like Ms. Morris said, they know how to deal with different kinds of problems. We group the problems, so when they see a problem, they say, "Oh, we have to do this. This is the strategy..."

>> I think it's a good program because it helps the other kids that come from other countries.

>> They teach us better and you can find a better job.

>> I look for how are their reading skills, how is their comprehension, how fluent they can read, and also their writing.

>> These kids are very bright. They speak well; they write well; they learn well in their native language. To throw that out and start fresh with English, with no foundation -- it's like the saying "a house without a foundation doesn't stand."

>> Wanda: Parents have also been made aware of the new State standards. They're encouraged to learn as much English as they can. In order to help all parents, the school is reaching out.

>> We are telling them that the students have to meet standards, that there are a set of standards and a set of criteria that New York State has outlined for each student to meet.

>> As the year goes on and the program starts to kick in, seeing these children that only spoke Spanish not too long ago start to understand and participate in the class, I know it's satisfying for them because I can see it in their faces, and it's really satisfying to me.

>> The biggest challenge I think for myself in this program is for the students to see themselves as having a future.

>> I feel good because I'm doing good in school.

>> Rochelle: For more information about the program at Isaac Young, we have with us Thelma Esteves, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Schools for New Rochelle School District, and Carlos Sanchez. We welcome you both.

How did your program get started, Thelma?

>> Well, I hope you noticed in the video that we take great pride in our schools in New Rochelle. We consider quality to be part of our name. And we began to have new students, a greater number of limited-English proficient students, and we were looking for quality programs. That was back in 1994.

In 1994, a planning grant, and I thank the people from New York State, made it possible for us to really look at lots of different models, to look for the best model that would be a good fit for a city like New Rochelle and a school like Isaac Young, and it turned out to be the one that had the best fit of all.

But what we did in a community like this, which is a suburban area with some fabulously beautiful suburban streets and then some streets in some areas that have some city -- it's a small city here, just north of New York.

What we found was that we had to look at how we could get support in the community. And the planning grant was an excellent way to do that. People from all over the city, from all sectors of the city, those who did not have children with ESL needs, and all of the citizens, had an opportunity to participate in that planning grant. We went on for a year. We looked at research and, again, going back to the earlier statements, the statements that were said by Gloria earlier, the research was extremely impressive. The results, the academic results were there in subject areas for two-way bilingual programs. That began to emerge as the model that seemed to fit very, very well for our needs at Isaac Young.

So the research told us that we would have good results and we would be able to use children to be resources for each other. And what we did find is that's what began to happen. So the planning was an important part of it, not only because we found a good model, not only because we clarified our goals, but it became an essential part of getting the kind of support that is essential if a program is going to survive and thrive, and the support meant that we could then count on changing schedules if necessary, finding good materials, and most essential, finding a good staff to implement the ideas that this citywide committee had come to.

>> Rochelle: Okay.

>> As sort of a segue, I didn't introduce this man standing next to me, who is one of the teachers that met the criteria: Quality and a commitment to a quality curriculum with quality teaching strategies. And that became something that we sought from the very beginning due to our planning grant.

>> Rochelle: Carlos, tell me about some of those teaching strategies. What's it like for you and the other teachers in the classrooms?

>> It's pretty much regular teaching, except that we're doing it in both languages. There's a lot of planning involved; there's a lot of teamwork involved, and there's time allotted for that.

>> Rochelle: And that's also important, that not only do you have to have quality teachers, but you have to be able to go back to the administration and say, "This is what we need in order to accomplish what you want."

>> Absolutely.

>> Rochelle: Okay. What have you seen happen in the couple of years since you began the program here? Have you seen changes? Have things worked out exactly as planned?

>> Absolutely. Initially, whenever you start a program, there's certain difficulties, but as time has gone on, we have been incorporated very well into the school and things are really, really coming along really well.

>> Rochelle: I know that you talked about research, and one of the things that research has indicated is that students in two-way bilingual programs end up doing better academically in all of their subjects compared to children who are not in a traditional classroom. Are you finding this to be so at your school?

>> I think the first results that made us sort of jump is the fact that we had the sixth grade math test, and it turned out that the performance for the students that had been in the two-way bilingual program was far superior to what we had seen in the regular classrooms. It was very exciting to find that.

We also invited a research group that came in to observe us, and for a different purpose, not for reporting to the State but for national research, and found that -- she found the scores of the English-proficient students higher than what would have been anticipated under similar circumstances.

So I think some of the conclusions were that the attention to language made all speakers of language better. So we're seeing some of it.

Our greatest interest is not providing more research, although we're happy to cooperate, but it's really in seeing that excitement that comes from someone telling me, for instance, that one of our English students was doing a science project and was accompanying a doctor at the local medical center and suddenly this child that no one suspected could speak Spanish spoke Spanish and helped the doctor in his interview of the patient and did so in Spanish.

So we feel that all of this points to two-way bilingual as an exceptional way to do things, even in a community such as New Rochelle that might not at first appear to be a place that would need such an opportunity.

>> Rochelle: Wonderful. Carlos, what do you see happening in the next couple of years?

>> Well, hopefully, there's been talk that the bilingual program will be extended not only to the elementary schools, but also to the high school. It's a good program with a sound base.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. Congratulations. That's wonderful news. We'll check back with you.

I want to go to Gloria and Lillian. What you hear here, and when they said, "We're finding that kids are doing much better than we thought," a lot of nodding of heads here. What are we seeing here?

>> Well, that's absolutely true in New York and I'm glad and I commiserate with Thelma's response because in New York City we find that dual-language or two-way bilingual programs that are in place show tremendous academic success and achievement in our students, both the native-language child, the child who is entitled to bilingual and ESL services, and the English monolingual child. That's both at the early grades and the middle schools, by the way, because we have programs from "K" through 8. Unfortunately, we don't have any high school programs at this point, but we do plan to do that.

The other piece that I find is that the parents get so much more involved and start relating to one another and they come together in the school as a school community and parents of a school, not parents in the bilingual program or parents of special ed children or children in the mainstream. They are parents that belong to this school. So much more effort is made in the school to address the program. Resources come in because parents are demanding it.

There's one school in Queens, and this is a true story because the principal told me and it's been in the paper, where on the day of registration for two-way bilingual programs, parents line up at 5:30 in the morning, a.m., to make sure that their children are included.

So we're finding tremendous success, and we know that through the State Education Department, a lot of these programs are put in place or implemented through Title VII, federal grants. But we also find that after the money's run out, the superintendents and principals are so pleased with the success of the programs that they continue to support them. So they're wonderful models, and we need to get more and more schools to replicate them.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. Okay.

Before we move on, I want to ask you something. In your high schools in New York, how are you prepping students, particularly with regard to the English Regents exam, which Carmen has indicated they must pass in order to get a New York State diploma?

>> In New York City, there's been a tremendous emphasis on disseminating information related to the new English Regents requirements for graduation. And I want to highlight, and I think it's really important, that the chancellor of the New York City school system, Chancellor Prue, has put out a message to all his staff, superintendents, school staff, administrators, whoever, that these higher expectations are for all students, and the commitment from his level on down and up is that all students in the New York City school system will reach high standards. To do that, he's put in place a lot of professional development activities and dollars to support it.

Our superintendents have been incredibly active and visionary in terms of professional development programs they have put in place, after school, before school, weekends, whatever, in any school of course. And from our central offices, we also have a lot of professional development opportunities available, all with follow-up at the school level because we know that's the most appropriate and the most meaningful professional development that can take place.

And there's one model that I want to highlight, one model supported by the State Education Department, which is called the BESDARS model, the Bilingual ESL Staff Development Academy for Raising Standards.

And I'll tell you structurally what it looks like, but I think one of our schools here has implemented the model and you'll hear the success in action, but basically it has three components. There's a professional development component. The highlight there is that we insist that schools who participate in the program come in teams. The teachers have to come in teams: Bilingual teachers, ESL teachers, native language arts teachers, reading teachers, and English language arts teachers. And it's a rarity. That hasn't happened commonly in New York City Public Schools, where the English language arts teacher comes together with the bilingual and ESL teacher for professional development.

The second component is a student academy where these teachers then implement coaching to prepare the students to take the Regents, and not just the English Regents, by the way. We're also talking about the content area Regents.

>> Rochelle: Absolutely.

>> And the third and very important component is the Parent Academy. And what we do there is not bring the parents in for ESL, necessarily, or G.E.D., et cetera, but to inform them and make them active decision-makers in the school process so they too become leaders in the education of their children.

>> Rochelle: We're going to see some fine examples of both teachers working together and also parent involvement, as we continue in the program. And right now we're going to do that. We're going to move to the Upstate New York area -- Carmen? Go ahead.

>> Appropriate to that, I just wanted to add that the BESDARS model is in all of the big five cities across the State and I'm very pleased that it's working just as beautifully in all of those cities as it is in New York City. So we're very pleased to be able to support that, continue to support it. And at this point, as we speak, we are issuing also -- inviting other school districts to come in and implement this model. So it's a working model to help the districts address the needs of our youngsters.

>> Rochelle: Terrific.

>> And it exists at the middle schools, too. Middle school, high school professional development.

>> Rochelle: Great, terrific. Let's move to Syracuse, where there's also a significant non-English-speaking population. At Fowler High School, English as second language teachers work very closely with both students and their teacher counterparts in regular classrooms. And as we'll see on this videotape, they also developed a web site program accessible statewide that aids non-ESL teachers in working with their LEP students.

>> What we're going to do is I would like to share with you what you have already written about what you learned, and a lot of you did learn some important facts about William Shakespeare...

>> Fowler High School is a diverse school. We have 30% of the students are African-American, 47% are Caucasian; we have...other minorities, and 12% Latino, 4% are Asian. So we have a very diverse population here in the building.

>> The students, they really range as far as language abilities. Some of them have been here as little as four months to as long as five or six years.

>> We have three ESL teachers and two teaching assistants that work with the students. Also the students are included in the regular classes and we use those teaching assistants to give support to the students in the classes.

>> We decided to put the ninth graders together for the first time and not necessarily look at their levels, but that I could probably service them more efficiently so I would know their needs and be able to address them.

>> All right. We're going to identify four metaphors, and you're going to identify the meaning of those metaphors.

>> We have been focusing on Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," but really on the metaphoric language of Shakespeare. For an ESL student, it's probably a real difficult concept, to go beyond the literal to the figurative language. And this is one of the ways in which I would like to re-enforce that with them. Especially when we look at the ELA, there's a lot of metaphors in there. I tried to at least modify my lesson so that I'm thinking about what they are ultimately going to be asked to do, to prove that they have literacy, which includes the listening piece.

>> Number eight...

>> I really want to show you what I developed which will be very helpful, I think, for the ESL students where they get to the research paper...

>> We received a grant from the State Ed Department under the Division of Bilingual Education, and we were asked to come up with an idea that was using technology in a creative way. Or at least that was one of the options.

>> The ESL teachers and the English teachers, they've worked together to develop a unit to meet the needs of the students. We have some units for the primary students, or students at the primary level in ESL, also units for intermediate students, and then units for advanced students. The teacher can go there, do some research on their unit; there is some other work there that they can access. The standards are also listed in the unit so they know there are specific standards, and they can access that information.

>> One of the units -- we call it the risk-taker unit -- and we're looking at -- it's really addressing two of the standards pretty extensively.

Standard one, that they do a research paper on an individual who has demonstrated risk-taking in their life. And, standard two, in that we're reading a short story and really looking at the literary elements of the story in great detail, and they're doing a lot of writing.

>> I'm interested in the risk-takers unit because by doing that at the ninth grade level, it moves nicely into a lot of the literature we would do at the tenth grade level. I find myself moving more into non-fiction pieces for our students. They seem to me to be coming in better prepared. They certainly know the basic elements of a short story: Plot, character, theme...

>> I'm incorporating content right from day one into the ESL classroom. We're teaching language through content more and more, and the more we see the new assessments that the students are going to have to pass to graduate, and ESL kids are going to be held to those standards, just as native English speakers are, we're going to be doing a lot more of that.

>> I just hope that we continue to build on the skills, and I think by starting with the examples here in the risk-takers unit, which really acquaints them with writing, with the literary elements they need to understand, and also I think there's a nice crossover there with non-fiction... build that in ninth, tenth, and I'm hoping by the time they get to eleventh grade they'll be ready for whatever comes.

>> My expectation is that all my students in ESL are going to meet the standards, that they are going to be able to achieve and be successful and be productive citizens once they leave our high school. I know it's a lot of work, but hopefully we'll be able to do it.

>> Rochelle: Representing Fowler High School in our studio today, principal, Jaime Alicea. Jaime, delighted. And English as a second language teacher Areli Schermerhorn and English teacher Judy Fusco. We welcome all of you.

First of all, let's talk a little bit more about the web site. How did that come about? How did it get developed?

>> Last year we began to talk about the standards and what we were going to be doing in the building to include our ESL students so they could be successful in the program. We applied for two grants from the state, the BESDARS program and the Excel program. The Excel was to have our ESL teachers and our math teachers work together to help our students achieve. The BESDARS program was for our ESL teachers and English teachers to work together to make sure that our students also achieved in English.

>> Rochelle: Okay. And this is a web site that's accessible for any teacher out there, any English teacher out there?

>> It's accessible to anybody in the state, anybody in the world. We have some feedback from a lady in Australia who found out about our web site and then sent some E-mail to us. So it's out there for everyone to use.

>> Rochelle: Terrific.

Let's talk a little bit about the collaboration that we see going on between teachers like Areli and Judy. How does that work? A little bit more detail about how that works. Areli?

>> Okay. Well, first of all, I do find that this is the catalyst for us to open up doors and take down walls and be able to communicate what our objectives are. We work closely with the English language arts teachers to get an idea of exactly what our students are going to be expected to do. But we also work with other content area teachers and to support the students, for example, in the global studies, which is a very difficult exam for our ESL students. We actually go into the classroom with the ESL students and the global studies teacher and we work together. For example, I could be in a classroom with a social studies teacher that is giving a lecture, but in the background, I would be taking notes; I would be giving graphics to the students, organizing the information so that it is clear to them and it not only benefits our students, the ESL students, but it benefits all students.

So I think this is just a really interesting way for us to address the needs of all students. It's an inclusive program versus an exclusive program.

>> Rochelle: What about staff development in terms of time for this collaboration to go on? Judy, how do you see that working?

>> I think we really need to move in a direction of more and more staff development.

>> Rochelle: Stand up so we can see you.

>> I'm sorry. Staff development?

>> Rochelle: Staff development, how is that time available to you to work with Karen or to work with Areli?

>> I think that's something we're still working on at our school. We moved a year and a half ago to a semester block, so we have four classes each semester, and time is really our friend and our enemy at the same time.

>> Rochelle: As always.

>> For instance, I have worked with Areli and Karen through this year trying to carve out time. We have, for instance, a ninth and tenth grade citywide exam that mirrors the new ELA. So Karen and I spent a lot of time sort of hashing through that in January, because being on semester blocks, we got a sort of a sneak preview. But I think we need to work more and more together and just be aware of what is at stake for the kids.

>> Also, with the semester block schedule, we also have a half-hour at the end of the day that we can provide students with extra help, but once a month, every month, we have a day that we use for staff development. We have faculty meetings; we have department meetings, and at that time, the teachers also have the opportunity to work with each other.

>> Rochelle: And this is one of those elements that's absolutely necessary, this constant communication and collaboration.

>> Oh, absolutely. And I think it's coming about as a result of the standards and our state's new standards. Up until Commissioner Mills started this whole new program, really there was very little communication between the bilingual teachers and the rest of the teaching population, the ESL teacher and the rest of the teaching population.

Some of the grants that we have put out there, the funded programs that we have put out there, are precisely to try to address that and bring teachers together. We have an English teacher and an ESL teacher working together. This is a first in our state and we're very delighted and we celebrate that wonderful work that is being done in the big cities through the BESDARS program.

>> I sort of stumbled over that staff development question, but I think that we are sort of coming out of our rooms and doing a better job of working together. I have a greater appreciation for the role that the ESL teachers play, and I think more and more we're working together to try and help the kids.

>> Rochelle: Thank you. Great.

Jaime, anything you way to -- there's also a Math A web site?

>> Yes, and not only in English but also in Spanish because of the student population that we have in the building. So the students have an opportunity to see right in front of them the same text in English and in Spanish, or in English and or Vietnamese, and they get feedback back from the computer how they're doing.

>> Rochelle: So do you schedule students, your LEP students, with specific teachers, regular classroom teachers? Is that something that you try to do?

>> We try to schedule a group of kids with specific teachers not because these are the best teachers that we have, because we have a great staff in the building, but because it's easier and we don't have a big staff in ESL, so it's easier for one ESL teacher to go in and support the students in that classroom.

>> Rochelle: So someone like Areli or Karen can actually go into that classroom and work side by side, as they indicated?

>> Yes.

>> Rochelle: That's terrific. Great.

And parental involvement is another important element. Starr DiCurcio is an English as a second language teacher in the Schenectady School District. Starr also received a bilingual Excel Grant for her work. She's involved in a sheltered English class, but what we want to talk with Starr about today, and we're delighted that she's with us, is a little about the grant -- she also has a Title VII Grant, which is the federal grant, and that deals with getting parents involved with your LEP students. Tell us about that, Starr.

>> We were very concerned about not getting our parents into the schools. It's just a problem that we have always faced, and when I started in Schenectady, which is a small urban center, if you don't know, I had a much lower number of students and I was really able to get into the homes fairly easily. So we were looking for a way to do that again and more effectively.

This grant allows me to go with a translator into the homes of every Spanish and Pashtu-speaking student in our district. And I spend more than half of my time doing this. We take a lot of materials with us that we think will be interesting to Mom and Dad. We explain to them the structure of the school system in this country so they know who the superintendent of schools is, what the board of education does, and what their role is with all the personnel in their child's school, so they know when to contact a counselor as opposed to a teacher as opposed to a principal.

If they have questions, we really try to spend the time explaining these things to them as well as just handing them the literature. We also are giving them, of course, information on the new standards, and we give that to them in their native language, in writing as well as go over it orally with them in English, also, of course.

Now, we have particular concerns here because in families where there are a number of children, the older ones have gone through the system perhaps more easily than the ones coming up are going to be able to with the sets of exams that are ahead of them. So we really want Mom and Dad to understand what the challenges are for their students as they approach these new standards.

We give them information on the city, and something as simple as a city map is very much appreciated. But, also, information on the services that are available to them in the community. And we give them literature that they can enjoy with their children. We give them flashcards to use; we give them easy readers, or more advanced readers, depending upon the level of the child. And we give them a great deal of information on all the adult learner opportunities that are available for them because we really want to get them into the educational system, too.

Beyond all of that, one of our primary purposes of going into the home is to tell them how their own children are doing, and we do get a report from the ESL teacher on the child and we take that to Mom and Dad and we go over it very carefully, and we deal with things, not just their reading, writing skills, but we will tell them things such as their child seems tired. Is the child getting to bed at a good enough time? And if these are the first children, we might tell Mom and Dad, "You know, you really need to look in that backpack every day after school because there are important things the teacher is sending," and sometimes parents just aren't aware of these routines.

So we really try to be very specific. We let them know where those branches of the library are. We try to really help them know how to help their children.

Then we take any information that the parent has back to the teacher. We tell them we're very happy to do that. "Do you have any complaints or any concerns? Are you pleased with the program?" And we really try to give good feedback to the teacher in return.

We think all of this will make a difference for our students.

>> Rochelle: We certainly want parents to be involved in -- all parents to be involved in their child's education. Is there a particular importance with regard to LEP students to make sure that parents really understand what's going on? Carmen?

>> Oh, absolutely, and the Schenectady model is just wonderful; it's excellent.

We have to remember that the parents of limited-English proficient students are newly arrived to our country. They haven't experienced our New York educational system. It's all new to them. And the expectations that we have for parents of parental involvement in our educational system here in New York is very different from what the expectations were for many of the parents in many of the countries that they come from. By and large, they expect the educators to know what they're doing and to educate the students. Well, in our country, it's a little bit different. So they need to first learn all of that, so they need a head start.

In addition, many of them don't speak English. And so that's another challenge that we have to address. And there are wonderful models out there, just as the Schenectady model. In some cases, we bring parents to the school; we try to encourage that as well.

So a lot of wonderful ideas have really come up throughout the system as we go and try to address the new standards.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. Okay. Great program, Starr. Thanks for sharing with us.

As I indicated earlier, working with limited-English proficiency students at the high school level is a priority because of those exams, but programs for younger LEP students are abundant and of high quality as well. Take, for example, this two-way bilingual kindergarten class in New York City's District 4, which is home to the city's oldest Puerto Rican community.

>> We have 500 students, pre-K through second grade students, out of which 10% of our population is limited-English proficient. What we do is we identify the population and then we meet with parents, a general meeting with the parents, to explain that we offer a two-way bilingual program so that parents who wish to include their children who are not eligible, basically our English-proficient students, are then considered for that program. So we try to identify 50% of that population being limited-English proficient as well as English proficient students.

>> In the morning, I do English, and then in the afternoon we do everything in Spanish.

>> Good morning, 103.

>> Good morning, Ms. Rodriguez.

>> Time goes by so quickly and just imagine having one whole morning just doing English, all the content areas in English, and the activities that are planned for the day... in one language. So the students who are not proficient in that language have the opportunity to engage in activities with the students who are. Okay? And then in the afternoon, the same thing happens.

Knees and toes

>> We have a staff development person who comes on a weekly basis to observe, do demonstrations, and assist the teacher in improving her instruction.

>> I meet with my teachers once or twice a week and also on a monthly basis. On a monthly basis, we get together and we brainstorm themes that they would like to explore with the children, and then I ask them what vehicles are they going to utilize to bring across these themes and tie them in with the curriculum.

>> I'm going to explain to you what everyone is going to do at the different centers. Okay? Now, in this center, it's the math center.

>> We have center time, the time of the day, every day -- we do it in the morning and the afternoon -- to reinforce the concepts I have introduced throughout the day and throughout the week. We'll do different activities. And everybody gets a chance to visit these different centers. They start at one table and finish an activity and they move on to another one. They really look forward to it because you, as a teacher, you try to make this fun.

>> Beautiful, Kayla. That looks nice.

>> I want to see you count them...

>> Teachers will use total physical response, through games and play; through songs, rhymes, finger plays, teaching vocabulary. There's a use of visuals and slower speech, integrated instruction, in-context vocabulary...

Teachers are able to facilitate those connections for those children. (Speaking in Spanish)

>> Today, I showed them a picture of bats, so they already associate it with "Okay, baseball." And they'll say "Oh, yeah, one day I was playing baseball with my cousin," and they think about all the things that are involved, and this helps the students reach the higher levels.

>> There are many challenges that teachers face in helping English language learners. I think that one of the greatest obstacles is literacy and parental involvement. Many of the students that are English language learners don't have reinforcement at home of a parent who has mastered the language.

>> Parents must understand the importance of their role in their children's education. That's something that is really, really challenging.

>> Those children that have been in a dual-language program on a long-term basis, at least four to six years in a dual-language program, do better on the standardized tests. We have seen this when children who have been in the dual-language program at this school go on to take the C.T.B. tests and the math tests. They do better than their counterparts.

>> The dual-language program I believe will help out students, both the limited-English proficient as well as the English proficient students, meet the State standards through their acquisition of a second language, as well as becoming bilingual and biliterate. That's important to note.

>> When you speak two languages, there are many advantages. It helps to get a job. It's very, very important in life, bilingual education, 100%.

>> Okay. Keep going. You have four already...

>> Rochelle: As my grandfather used to say -- (Speaking foreign language). Carol Janda is head of the New York State Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. She's also a classroom teacher. We want to ask Carol today, what tips do you have that teachers can bring back into their classrooms right now and use with their LEP students?

>> I think the most important tip I could give to mainstream teachers is to look on the ESL teacher, the bilingual teacher in your school district, as a wonderful resource. The State asks all districts to provide training for all of their teachers in ESL techniques and methodologies, and lots of times the ESL teacher in a school is a person who can do that kind of training and, of course, the BETACs around the state do that also.

This is an example: Recently I was giving a very short staff development segment in a faculty meeting in my high school, and I was telling the teachers about the research that's been done on cultural differences in wait time. That's the amount of time that people will allow to pass in silence before they begin to feel uncomfortable and begin to talk just to fill the silence. The research shows that in Japan, for example, up to 21 seconds could pass as wait time, whereas in the United States, people begin to feel uncomfortable after 3 or 4 seconds. (Laughter) So when my teachers speak to me and say, "Why is Yun or Jehai not speaking out in class?," that could be part of the problem. And then, of course, another very important function of increased wait time is to give the students time to process the question and think about how they're going to answer the question. Because they don't have maybe the grammatical structures right at their fingertips or possibly vocabulary, they have to think about it a little longer than their monolingual English-speaking counterparts. They have the knowledge; they just need a little more time to get it out there.

And I did give my teachers also some suggestions about things they could ask the whole class to do so that the monolingual, English-speaking students aren't just sitting there antsy. For example, you might say to your class, "I'm going to expect your answer to be in a complete sentence." So that makes the monolingual English speakers have to think a little longer before they call out a one-word answer. And just some tips like that.

Another very important tip, I think, and very, very basic and beneficial to all students, not just the ESL students, and that is to give the students many kinds of information, many ways to get the information in the classroom, not just lecture, but lecture with a graphic organizer, with demonstration, with some kinesthetic activity, and that kind of tip can benefit every student in the classroom.

And I think that teachers have found this is true as they viewed some of these techniques.

>> Rochelle: Terrific.

>> And another very important tip is for the ESL teachers to work collaboratively with their mainstream colleagues. And this is a big challenge in a small district like mine where I'm the only ESL teacher in the middle schools and the high schools and it's very hard to find time to meet collaboratively, but because I have such wonderful colleagues who give me outlines and notes, I'm able to help my students.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. Thank you very much.

Another resource that's available right now to schools is BETAC: Bilingual Education Technical Assistance Centers. Dr. Ximena Zate is Director of the Eastern Suffolk BOCES BETAC. And, Ximena, what is that a BETAC can actually do for a school?

>> Well, I think they work very close to the school district in assisting them in implementing programs for limited-English proficient students, whether the programs are English as a second language programs or dual-language programs, as we mentioned in some of the videos, and bilingual programs and all Title VII programs.

We also provide a number of staff development activities that benefit the teachers and enhance the skills in working with the students, also in the light of the new standards and assessments.

Another area that we work, we provide staff development for parents, and we work collaboratively with the agencies in our area. And we have -- in the State of New York, we have ten Bilingual Education Technical Assistance Centers. It's a statewide network of Bilingual Education Technical Assistance centers. We have ten networks throughout the State, and we also have two language-specific BETACs. One is the AL-BETAC, which is the Asian Language BETAC, and the other one is the HAITI-TAC, the Haitian Language BETAC. And I think it's one of the best services that we provide. Our services are free because we're supported by the State of New York. So what's the best service of all, right?

>> Rochelle: Rumor has it that if I want to check into one of these grants that's available over here from Carmen's office, you can help a school do that as well, right?

>> Exactly. We help with all the grants that are either a statewide grant or a federal grant, with our districts.

>> Rochelle: I hear there's rumors of a resource document somewhere in the making. Tell me about that.

>> Yes, that's our baby! It's a resource document on the teaching of English language arts to LEP students, and we hope that it will provide English as a second language teachers, native language arts teachers, as well as English language arts teachers, and all teachers in fact, a practical resource for the implementation and integration of English language arts into the education of limited-English proficient student.

It's supposed to be a companion resource guide to the English Language Arts Resource Guides and Core Curriculum.

I think the most important aspect of this, besides being a practical guide for teachers and administrators, is that it will facilitate and also -- will facilitate the role of native language instruction and English as a second language in the acquisition of English language arts standards. So this guideline will help all teachers working with limited-English proficient students.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. We'll be checking back with you to find out when that resource guide will be available.

>> Hopefully it will be this spring, the spring of '99, and next year we'll try to provide a series of trainings throughout the state.

>> Rochelle: We'll be checking back with you on that one.

Also available to us is some other tips and information about what can be available to us for staff development, and for that I want to talk to Este Lopez. Este is the Director of BETAC for the Southern Westchester BOCES.

Tell me a little bit about what's available in professional development.

>> Well, you know that one of the core aspects of the education reform here in New York State is the staff development. New York State, through the office of Bilingual Ed, there has been tremendous movement in aligning the educational issues of children to the attention of all teachers in a variety of ways, from statewide activities, regional, local, and in school buildings.

One of the efforts through Carmen and Gloria Casar was a statewide presentation and training called All Roads Lead to Passing the English Regents Test, which has been a very, very helpful presentation accompanied with activities to assist the educators, from teachers all the way up to the superintendents, to understand how we can make the linkages and how things can really happen for LEP students.

One of the aspects in staff development that we see and has been mentioned through Lillian and some of the folks in Upstate, is that collaboration between the ESL teacher -- the native English language arts teacher and the ESL teacher. There was a time when what used to happen is that training was occurring in isolated -- there were these isolated islands of excellence, that I would call them. And what we're seeing now is the connection of these islands and the teachers learning from each other, working collaboratively for the benefit of the students.

The other piece of staff development that we find very helpful is that of parents, in particular that they're given information in the native language, that they are introduced to the educational system, but more importantly, the feedback that I hear from parents that say, "These reform efforts are wonderful; these standards are excellent. They remind me of what it was like in Europe." "It reminds me of what it was like in South America." So they see the connection of these high-achieving goals that we're seeking for students.

And the administration is always looking, for themselves, for staff development on how to redesign, revise, review and restrengthen those English components of the ESL programs, the native language arts components, and also how to strengthen the skills that teachers in mainstream classrooms develop. So staff development is critical for this effort.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. Thanks very much.

There was reference to a Haitian Language BETAC and to an Asian Language BETAC, and it just so happens that we have in our audience two people who are dealing with those. First of all, we go to Jean Plaisir. Jean is the Assistant Professor at City College of New York, and he also works with the Haitian BETAC. Tell us a little bit about your program.

>> First, I would like to start off by saying that the City College of New York is the greatest provider of teachers to the New York City school system, where many Haitian language students and other English language learners go to school. We take seriously the English standards.

We have concentrated our efforts in three critical areas. First, we have redesigned our school of education so that we can have seamless teacher preparation programs that help teachers acquire the kind of knowledge they need to teach in depth, and we also have revisited our courses to see if they are aligned with the expectations that the district has for our students and teachers.

Secondly, we believe that material development is a critical area as well. Therefore, we have worked with the Office of Bilingual Education at the Education Department to create various types of materials such as glossaries that the students can use to pass the Regents exams, curriculum guides such as curriculum for English language arts and native language arts, which are pretty much aligned and provide very clear expectations for the teachers. And we do provide training for the teachers on how to use the guides with students in the classroom.

And, thirdly, we know that parents are partners in education. Therefore, we concentrate a lot of our efforts to prepare parents to have a voice in the decision-making process. We give them training on how to help their children at home so that they can, these children can pass the Regents. We also make sure that the parents understand the school system and the changes that are occurring in this school system.

Therefore, what we do is not simply a shallow, you know, quick initiative addressing the problems, but we try to treat all the areas in a kind of seamless manner, a very holistic approach. We cannot simply do teacher training, not looking at the roles of parents and not looking at the availability of materials, of which the Haitian students need a good deal of in order to succeed in the traditional school system.

>> Rochelle: Everything works together.

>> Yes, definitely.

>> Rochelle: And you have to work in any planning and work that you do to tie that all together.

>> That's right. We cannot work in isolation. We also have worked with other community members such as certain professionals that go to our students, Haitian students, and speak to them about career choices, other opportunities that they can have. And many of these Haitian professionals were ESL students or bilingual students in the public school system, so it's good to have models of success for all our students.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. Thank you very much. Glad you could join us today.

And now I want to turn to Florence Pu-Folkes, who is with the Asian BETAC. Florence is going to talk to us about her program, and also, we're going to make sure that Florence talks to us about parent leadership as well. So, Florence, tell us about the Asian BETAC.

>> I would be glad to. Thank you.

The Asian Languages BETAC is undertaking a monumental task, in my opinion, because it helps students from a whole continent of Asia, which includes several countries such as China, Japan, Hong Kong -- of course, Hong Kong is now part of China -- Korea, India, Pakistan... et cetera, et cetera.

What we're doing with the funds from the -- the categorical funds from the New York State Office of Bilingual Education is develop materials that are disseminated, and at this point we are pilot-testing the math glossary. It is in English as well as Chinese, Burmese, Bengali, Korean, Vietnamese, Russian, Spanish and Haitian.

>> Rochelle: Wow.

>> And in addition, we have the glossaries in other subject areas which are not really being tested but have been used before the standard-based materials are developed.

Of course, the math is very comprehensive material which is standard-based. This material is not only being used as reference material, but it is also very appropriate for students to use at a test site because the translation is very word-by-word and does not really give other information -- how do you call it?

>> Rochelle: Wouldn't be considered being able to help the students...

>> Yes. I'm speaking English as a second language! (Laughter)

>> If I could continue. We also have worked with colleges, to inform parents as well as students what they need in order to get to college, in Chinese, Korean, Russian, as well as Haitian and Spanish.

We have native language arts in Chinese for the middle schools, secondaries and K-1.

We also have what we call Heritage and Culture Manuals, to inform them in terms of working with these LEP students, what Carol was talking about earlier in terms of cultural variance. How do you work with these children and help them in their classroom?

In terms of staff development, we also provide staff development workshops with the different districts as well as statewide to other BETACs. We are a big family and every time there's a need, we go there to provide workshops and talk about the cultures of the students that they work with.

Also we have what you call workshops for prospective teachers because we do need many new bilingual teachers. So in order to recruit and train them, we have workshops for these. We have what we call the Intensive Teacher Institute, a State Ed program where we provide training and stipend for these teachers so that they can be certified by the State, and we can work in the school system throughout the city as well as the other states.

>> Rochelle: I don't mean to cut you short, but I want to talk about parent leadership very quickly before we run out of time.

>> Okay. One more thing, and I have to say this: We have what's called a mini- -- how do you call it? A mini-research program or needs-assessment program where we try to assess the needs of the Asian teachers and we'll come up with a document which will provide meaningful experience and staff development activities.

As far as the parents' leadership, what we have is using the model from the Parent Leadership Institute. We are having workshops and conferences for parents, and the workshops lead to promoting -- providing parents in developing leadership skills.

>> Rochelle: Okay. Great. We're way out of time! I do want to make sure that we let you know there is a web site available. It's www.nysben.org, and that's the New York State Bilingual ESL Network where you can get some more information. I know we have only scratched the surface of all the great programs that are out there, but we'll revisit this topic; I promise you.

That is all the time we have for today. I would like to thank our panelists for taking time to be with us, for their excellent preparation. My thanks also to the schools who allowed our video crews into their classrooms, to the students for their willingness to share their time, and to everybody here today for their excellent participation.

"New York Learns, Teacher to Teacher" returns in May when we'll show you how technology has made a big difference in classrooms and is especially important in aiding some of our students with disabilities. We'll also answer your questions about ESL on that evening as well. That program airs Wednesday, May 5th, from 8:30 to 10 p.m. Be sure to join us.

Don't think we're taking the month of April off, however. Between now and May, we'll be offering you three "New York Learns Test Reviews." Next Wednesday, March 10, from 8 to 9 p.m., we'll focus on the fourth and eighth grade math assessments that are being given for the first time this June. Lynn Richbart from the State Education Department will be with us, as will a fourth and eighth grade math teacher. We'll talk about the rubrics for grading the exam; we'll look at some students' work, and we'll offer tips for preparing students.

Look for copies of the accompanying manual that will go along with that program so you can take full advantage of all the important information we're offering.

On Wednesday, April 7th, we offer you a test review on the English Regents exam, and on Wednesday, April 28th, we'll feature the new Math A Regents. Both those programs run from 8 to 9 p.m.

April also features the last of Education Commissioner Rick Mills' Parent Night programs for this school year. Thursday, April 8th, from 6 to 7 p.m., we'll talk about school report cards and we'll offer parents the opportunity to call in their questions about the school grading process. That program will air on PBS stations throughout New York.

And we're in the planning process for our next series of "New York Learns, Teacher to Teacher" programs so feedback from you is very important. Call and let us know how you feel about the programs, what suggestions you have for how we can make them more accessible to you, what you'd like to see more of. Call us at 518-477-6749, or E-mail me directly at rcassel1@twcny.rr.com. Or you can write us at Satellite Broadcast Network, care of Questar III, 1580 Columbia Turnpike, Building 1, Box 8, Castleton, New York, 12033.

I'm Rochelle Cassella. I look forward to seeing you all next week for our "Test Review." Have a good evening.