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Pre-K-12 ESL Standards: Interview With Dr. Timothy J. Boals, a Leader in the Field of K-12 Standards

TESOL’s Pre-K-12 English Language Proficiency Standards in the Core Content Areas will be published in 2006. To guide its work, TESOL’s standards revision team has used the framework developed by the World-class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) consortium, a project involving nine U.S. states and the District of Columbia. In this interview, Dr. Timothy J. Boals, WIDA consortium director, shares his insights on key issues in the pre-K-12 ESL field.

Dr. Boals, please briefly describe the WIDA framework. What are the most important issues it seeks to address?
The WIDA English language proficiency standards provide model performance indicators for classroom and accountability purposes in five broad areas across grade levels. Those areas, or standards, comprise the social and instructional language of classrooms, the language of mathematics, the language of English language arts, the language of science, and the language of social studies. The standards are fully aligned with the academic standards of states participating in the WIDA program in those five areas, but they focus on the language skills (not the content knowledge, per se) that English language learners need to successfully navigate challenging academic classes. Focusing on language skills is the fundamental way in which the WIDA standards, soon to be conflated with TESOL’s ESL standards, differ from previous iterations of ESL standards. Whereas the standards published in 1997 address academic language, WIDA took that one step further to the specific academic subjects required under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation and added social studies because WIDA member states were equally committed to ensuring that English language learners have access to the language needed to do well in social studies classrooms.

What have you learned so far?
We’ve learned that most pre-K-12 ESL teachers are very excited about the potential of these standards to drive teaching and learning toward more content-based methods and better alignment with mainstream academic standards. The ESL field has been headed in this direction since the 1980s, and ESL teachers now have a very practical set of tools to assist with that alignment. The response has really been outstanding as teachers become more familiar with the standards and how they can use them as a resource.

What core best practices or success stories would you like to share?
Here in Wisconsin, I have had more time to see the successes of this effort and our previous work creating alternate performance indicators aligned to academic content standards. I think that most of the program coordinators and teachers here would agree with me that ESL and bilingual practice in this state is much more aligned to mainstream standards than it was 10 years ago. We can’t take all the credit for that, but we believe accessible standards and good professional development on how to use them make a tremendous difference. As a case in point, Sheboygan Area School District can point to data from the past 4 years showing that their former English language learners, after 5-6 years of quality content-based support, can outperform the district average in four out of five tested content areas. Other districts such as Wausau and Milwaukee are beginning to document similar successes with ESL and bilingual methodologies. Attention to grade-level academic standards and a focus on literacy and biliteracy development makes all the difference.

What are the biggest challenges right now regarding NCLB and its impact on English language learners? What are the biggest gaps at the national, state, and local levels in the coming year?
People have noted that NCLB’s most positive aspect is that it has forced administrators and school boards to finally notice English language learners and begin to address the achievement gap. Unfortunately, that is not enough. The misconceptions about learning English, what it takes and how long it takes, still exist. Until we fundamentally change how ESL and bilingual programs work with educators schoolwide to address the needs of English language learners, and until we are willing to consistently make that investment with each English language learner for 5-6 years on average, we will not solve the problem. The very real danger of NCLB is that schools making this kind of long-term commitment end up looking bad simply because the English language learners they started out with, who also often come from the lowest socioeconomic groups, cannot catch up fast enough. The WIDA member states intend to set forth high expectations for academic success, but within the 5-6 years that research recommends as necessary for most English language learners to fully close the gap. If we don’t acknowledge how long it truly takes to become academically proficient, we risk dropping the support that English language learners need to be truly literate and biliterate members of our society.

What other issues do some of the states in the WIDA consortium face?
Funding is a perpetual problem. Local schools are hurting because the state and federal investment in programs for English language learners specifically, or school budgets in general, is not enough to meet the current demands.

TESOL’s revised Pre-K-12 English Language Proficiency Standards in the Core Content Areas will help facilitate enhanced coordination and integration of ESL and content standards and teaching at the national level. Two to three years from now, where would you like to see the Pre-K-12 ESL field in the United States?
These standards are a tool for schoolwide collaboration. I hope that, in providing staff development for all teachers, the new TESOL standards, like our WIDA standards, can guide the teaching of language through content and with content, allowing regular classroom teachers to develop the high-level awareness of language necessary to assist their English language learners with the English of their specific academic subjects.

What can ESL educators and other key stakeholders begin doing now to help make that vision become a reality?
Schoolwide and districtwide professional development around these issues is essential, but ESL educators are too often the lone voices crying for this. Now that administrators are concerned about the NCLB penalties (as they should be), we should at least try to use that to our advantage by familiarizing them with solid research and practical strategies. An excellent guide is Brown University’s (2003) Claiming Opportunities: A Handbook for Improving Education for English Language Learners Through Comprehensive School Reform. Highlight some of your favorite recommendations and then slip it under the principal’s door with a nice note. The only choice is to keep fighting for our kids!

Reference
The Education Alliance. (2003). Claiming opportunities: A handbook for improving education for English language learners through comprehensive school reform. Providence, RI: Brown University.

Do you have insights on teaching you'd like to share with the community? Share your stories: e-mail submissions (250-500 words) to tesolstories@tesol.org. Include a photo or art relevant to your story, if available. Selected entries will appear on TESOL's home page.