ELE Services: A Complete Restructuring Robert M. Louzan Director of Student Services Wareham Public Schools

Problem Statement Upon taking the position of Director of Student Services for Wareham Public Schools on 7/1/2008, oversight of ESL (now ELE) services was transferred from the Office of Curriculum & Instruction to Student Services. With the exception of some MELA-O trainings attended by a scattering of staff, there were no services provided for ESL students, no processes in place, no instruments to assess English proficiency and no outreach. The District underwent a Coordinated Program Review, beginning in the Fall, ELE was one area of review. The findings supported the concerns I had when taking this on during the summer. Given the low priority & poor management of this service, there were no funds available to correct the problem. The breadth of the problem required a full restructuring of all components of ELE service delivery

Problem Summary Care: What was the concern? –A very small number of students were identified with limited english proficiency –No process for identification of LEP or FLEP students, translations or outreach was in place –No process for staff training, funding or assuring a continuum of ELE services was in place –The district was seriously out of compliance in essentially all areas of ELE services as we entered the CPR Relate: Who were/are the stakeholders? –ELE and FLEP students, parents –Wareham administration & school committee –Classroom teachers & support service providers Examine: Provide a concise problem statement and baseline status. –The District was not provided adequate identification, assessment, intervention, outreach, translation/interpreter services and follow-up for students with limited English proficiency Acquire: What resources did you need? What help did you get? –Resources included use of ARRA funds to support a two year long restructuring project –Help and support for the project to include vote of the School Committee to go forward with the project, administrative team support and the support of teachers that aligned with with continuum of service mapping to participate in the project as ELE service providers & steering committee.

Try: What was your intervention strategy? To gain the support and joint ownership of the problem by the stakeholders To gather a steering committee of stakeholders to create a two year plan To secure funding for the corrective action activities To present the plan, including identification of stakeholders, funding sources, SMART goals and timeline to the School Committee and Administrative Team

Evaluation/Results: What happened? (Show us your data.) (To Date): 1.Steering Committee is established and has met 3 times 1.Reviewed (via demonstration) various assessment instruments and selected (by consensus) the instruments to be purchased (meeting minutes, purchase orders) 2.Visited 3 districts to observe their ELE programs, procedures and outcomes (visiting teams’ notes from visits) 3.Established a pre-K to grade 12 continuum of services, assuring that all grade levels have appropriate ELE services (document on record) 4.Addressed the School Committee at the first School Committee meeting in October. (school committee agenda for that meeting 5.Corrective Action Plan (in corrective of areas of non-compliance found in the Coordinated Program Review) was developed and approved by PQA.

Extend and Renew: What will you do to keep things going? ARRA funds will support year two of activities FY11 budget includes a.5 teaching position that will include a leadership stipend so this individual can begin to utilize the processes and procedures established by the steering committee Anticipated to have the FY12 budget (when ARRA funds are no longer available) support 1.0 position, instructional & assessment supplies/materials Race to the Top funds will be sought to support some components of the project beyond FY11

Lessons Learned (For both ELE and other system initiatives), the District needs (and our CPR/eCAP reflects) the need to formalize an “Internal Audit” process and committee to avoid similar oversight in the future. There are simply too many things going on that will demand immediate attention in a way that distracts from “big picture” view of what needs to be done in a school district. To be effective in creating change, administrators always need to be ambassadors of initiatives that will not go away if they are ignored and recognize the need to pursue funding sources continuously.