Abstract
Disadvantaged students such as English language learners (ELLs) need additional education and support to help them keep up with their English speaking peers. A summer school program was designed and provided for ELLs in a school district in a US northwest city in 2010 and aimed to bridge the achievement gap. This study focuses on the implementation and instruction of a summer school program in a school district in a city in the US northwest. Based on the data analysis of interviews, documents, and classroom observations, three major findings were made: the unclear goals of the summer school, the limited information the teachers had about the ELLs, and varying teaching activities and language foci. Three suggestions about how to effectively implement summer school classes as elementary school remedial English education are provided.
Highlights
In the United States, out of every ten children in K-12 schools, four are children of color and two come from homes where languages other than English are spoken (U.S Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2006)
This study focuses on the implementation and instruction of a summer school program in a school district in a city in the US northwest
Based on the data analysis of interviews, documents, and classroom observations, three major findings were made: the unclear goals of the summer school, the limited information the teachers had about the English language learners (ELLs), and varying teaching activities and language foci
Summary
One in four (23 percent) of a northwest city’s public school district students were English language learners (ELLs) in 2005 and 2006 (Council of the Great City Schools, 2008). Many of these students are at risk of failure due to poverty, limited English proficiency, and race, or cultural and linguistic diversity, and require specific instructional strategies designed to meet their needs. While 61 percent of all district fourth graders were at or above math proficiency levels on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) tests in 2007, only 22 percent of ELLs reached the proficiency level. A summer school program was designed and provided for these students in 2010 and aimed to bridge the achievement gap
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