and guidance in making meaning of the standards, understanding the shifts from previous practice, looking at the linguistic demands of academic tasks and content, and learning how to actually use the standards to plan instruction—in Designated ELD settings and in the context of Integrated ELD throughout the curriculum.
This is an era of extraordinary promise and support for addressing the needs of our English Language Learner students. In July of 2017, the California State Board of Education unanimously passed a new sweeping English Language Learner policy superseding the 1998 policy and leading our state into the 21st century. Hailed as “revolutionary,” the new policy sets a comprehensive and aspirational vision for our state of schools that affirm, welcome, and respond to the needs of English Language Learners, preparing them with the linguistic, academic, and social skills needed for college, career, and civic participation in a global, diverse, and multilingual world. The policy centers on four research-based principles:
1 Assets Oriented and Needs-Responsive schools that value and build upon the cultural and linguistic assets students bring
2 A commitment to Intellectual Quality of Instruction and Meaningful Access through experiences that foster high levels of English proficiency, integrate language development and content learning, and provide for comprehension and participation through native language instruction and scaffolding
3 Systems Conditions that Support Effectiveness including building the capacity of educators to be knowledgeable of and able to leverage the strengths and meet the needs of English Language Learners
4 To ensure Alignment and Articulation Within and Across Systems beginning with a strong foundation in early childhood and continuing through to reclassification, graduation, and higher education.
This book, The California ELD Standards Companion, is a powerful tool for enacting the new visionary EL Roadmap policy. The work of this book is central to two of the principles. Principle #2, calling for meaningful access and intellectual quality of instruction, explicitly names ELD as a crucial element, reading as follows: “language development occurs in and through content and is integrated across the curriculum, including integrated ELD and designated content-based ELD.” And Principle #3, seeking to build strong systems of support for English Language Learner services, explicitly calls for professional development and collaboration time for teachers to enable them to plan for responsive instruction.
That’s why The California ELD Standards Companion is so important. It provides a step-by-step path for teachers to make meaning of how the set of ELD Standards are put together, dissect the standards, and then delve into what it actually looks like in instruction to address the standards. Teachers are provided definitions for key words and phrases that demystify the standards and provide support for reading the text of the ELD Standards, which are laden with linguistic terminology. And each section of the book includes a highly practical description of what teachers actually DO in the process of implementing standards-based ELD. This book is exactly the kind of bridge teachers need between standards and what it means for them in the classroom with their students. Concrete and practical, The California ELD Standards Companion guides teachers to be able to use the standards to forge a path that gives English Language Learners the power of language they need for educational participation, access, and success.
Laurie Olsen, PhD
Strategic Advisor to the Sobrato Early Academic Language (SEAL) Initiative
Sobrato Family Foundation
Prologue
To teachers of English learners (and we are all teachers of English learners)
At this point in history, we are well poised in California to ensure language equity on behalf of English Language Learners (ELLs). Key leverage points and systems—including the CA ELD Standards, ELA/ELD Framework, the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC), the EL Roadmap, and Proposition 58—make this a pivotal time for ELLs to make measurable academic progress, in the manner that they have always deserved.
Figure 1 Leverage Points for Language Literacy (Soto, 2017)
The CA ELD standards provide rigorous language expectations that our ELLs have needed to succeed in both language and across content areas. As educators, we have the gift of having the ELD standards align with the ELA standards, as well as the ELA/ELD Framework. We no longer need to learn a whole new set of standards that do not connect with our teaching throughout the school day. There is also no longer a disconnect between what is expected of native English speakers and ELLs. Instead, the two sets of standards—ELD and ELA—should work in tandem with each other. During Integrated ELD, content area standards are at the forefront, but we use the ELD standards to provide a language scaffold for that content. The focus, then, of Designated ELD should be language with the ELD standards at the forefront, but instruction should be connected to content instruction. That is, teachers are now free to do what we have known was best all along: connect language to content, so that language instruction is not disconnected from what happens throughout the rest of the school day.
Figure 2 ELD Working in Tandem (CDE, 2016)
The ELA/ELD Framework provides both the research base and practical examples via snapshots (individual lessons) and vignettes (units of study) of both Integrated and Designated ELD in action, as well as across grade levels and content areas. We have included key snapshots and vignettes that correspond to the standards being addressed throughout this companion series. The framework can assist us with making sure that we are appropriately integrating and teaching to the rigorous expectations of the ELD Standards.
The English Learner Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) is aligned with the ELD Standards, and assesses listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Instead of assessing language out of context, this rigorous language assessment is also contextualized and embedded in content. For example, ELLs are no longer expected to listen to and retell a story about chocolate chip cookies, but instead must actively listen to an academic presentation and paraphrase key content. This suggests that we must know and teach the ELD Standards deeply, in order for ELLs to be successful with this new assessment.
The California English Learner Roadmap State Board of Education Policy: Educational Programs and Services for English Learners was passed by the State Board of Education on July 12, 2017. This policy is intended to provide guidance to local educational agencies (LEAs) in order to welcome, understand, and educate the diverse population of students who are English learners attending California public schools (CDE, 2017). There are four principles, which undergird this new policy, which include the following:
Principle One: Assets-Oriented and Needs Responsive Schools
Principle Two: Intellectual Quality of Instruction and Meaningful Access
Principle Three: System Conditions that Support Effectiveness
Principle Four: Alignment and Articulation Within and Across Systems
The vision and mission of the EL Roadmap, according to the California Department of Education website, are as follows, and further provide direction for educational systems regarding how to create equitable educational environments for ELLs.
Vision
