System/School Improvement Initiatives

LADDER for ELLs™

LADDER for ELLs™ requires a one-two year commitment from a school team of at least one administrator, one general education teacher, and one ESL and/or bilingual teacher (limit of 45-75 participants). These teams of educators will convene for three days of meetings twice per year.

Objectives:

Learn to analyze and understand data from standardized, state, local, and classroom assessments
Identify areas of strength and need in the curriculum, instruction, and assessment of ELLs
Create goals for curriculum, instruction, and assessment of ELLs based in the areas of need identified
Develop a plan and monitoring of progress to achieve the goals set for the school site

Learn about the research being conducted through the LADDER grant in the Research section of our website.

WIDA ELL Data Retreats

The ELL Data Retreat is a process-oriented, reflective approach to utilizing ACCESS for ELLs® and other test data in commitment to academic language achievement improvement planning for English Language Learners. Based on a professional learning community concept and a cyclical model of implementation, the ELL Data retreat incorporates identified school and district leaders and collected data on ELLs to observe and improve effectiveness in the delivery of ELL support services.

Specifically, participant teams do the following:

engage in readiness for the retreat through reflection and understanding;
gather ELL data for analysis;
summarize collected data in tables;
graphically represent and highlight the data;
pose hypotheses of practice;
strategize classroom connections for improving data patterns;
articulate an improvement plan based on clearly defined criteria, timeline for roll out and monitoring, and procedures for ongoing clarification.

Technical Retreats

Designed for teams of district/school ESL and mainstream educators to address AMAOs, this two-day professional development retreat examines the ingredients for qualitative ELL support services and best classroom practices for ELLs, with the goal of rewriting a plan for improving ELL services.

Specifically, teams engage in addressing school/district ELL program services by:

examining beliefs and values affecting the support of ELLs;
differentiating and identifying the subcategories of ELLs;
reflecting on the challenges inhibiting ELL academic success;
analyzing ACCESS for ELLs® data trends that require specific support;
reviewing the procedures for targeted interventions to address special needs;
reviewing entry, delivery and exit procedures;
determining areas of strength and of concern in curriculum and instruction;
exploring the areas of best practices for ELLs;
writing an improvement plan;
addressing issues related to WIDA, ACCESS and SEA services.

For More Information...

If you are interested in offering any of these trainings in your state or district, please make an initial inquiry by using our PD Request Form. This will allow our professional development team to guage your needs and check the calendar so that we can give you more informed answers during your first contact with us for planning purposes.