Two reports recently prepared for the United States Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) by the Regional Educational Laboratory Pacific (REL Pacific) administered by Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) focus on English language proficiency in the Pacific region and high quality teachers.
English Language Proficiency Assessment in the Pacific Region, by Don Burger, EdD; Rodrigo Mauricio; and Jennifer Ryan, reports that “Using various approaches to identify English language learners, several Pacific region jurisdictions are developing English language proficiency standards and assessments aligned with those standards. Others are working on content standards, including language arts, and have expressed interest in developing English language proficiency standards but lack formal assessment mechanisms."
“Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 [NCLB] requires that all students in a school, including English language learners, take the same state academic assessments in reading/language arts, mathematics, and science beginning with school year 2007–2008. This mandate is of special concern to the REL Pacific, because all jurisdictions within its service region have large numbers of English language learners or limited English proficiency students in their school systems. Although English is used as a language of instruction in schools across the region, each jurisdiction has an official language or languages other than English. Children often do not receive sustained exposure to English until they begin formal schooling.”
According to the report, “Based on the findings on the status of English language proficiency standards and assessments across the Pacific region, several recommendations can be made to improve the development of services and programs.” These include the development of clear language development policies, reviewing content standards, collecting student information, developing programs to address the specific needs of English language learners, conducting research, and providing professional development.
The findings of the second report, Preparing and Licensing High-Quality Teachers in Pacific Region Jurisdictions, prepared by Hilda C. Heine, EdD, and Masa-Aki Emesiochl, confirm that “The Pacific Region needs more highly qualified teachers, but current teacher preparation and training programs and certification and licensing processes are not meeting this need.”
The provisions of NCLB for teacher quality direct that all students be taught by “highly qualified” teachers. To meet that mandate, teachers must satisfy state/jurisdictional certification requirements and demonstrate mastery of the subject area they teach.
What can be done to develop new cohorts of certified and highly qualified teachers? Answering this question will take further study, especially given the complexities of the Pacific region. Better data collection on teacher supply, teacher demand, and teacher qualifications will be vital.
To view, download, and print the full reports as PDF files, please visit:
English Language Proficiency Assessment in the Pacific Region
and
Preparing and Licensing High Quality Teachers in Pacific Region Jurisdictions.
PREL is an independent, nonprofit 501 (c)(3) corporation that serves the educational community in the U.S.-affiliated Pacific, the continental United States, and countries throughout the world. PREL bridges the gap between research, theory, and practice in education and works collaboratively with schools and school systems to provide services that range from curriculum development to assessment and evaluation. In addition, PREL administers the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Pacific, 1 of 10 Regional Educational Laboratories funded through the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. With a commitment to ensuring that all students have an equal opportunity to develop a strong academic foundation, regardless of circumstances or geographic location, PREL has service centers in the U.S.-affiliated Pacific islands, including American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM: Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap), Guam, Hawai‘i, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), and the Republic of Palau.
For additional information about this media release or PREL and its work, please contact Javier Elizondo, Director of Communications, by telephone at (808) 441-1300 or by email at elizondoj@prel.org, or visit our website at www.prel.org.
(Posted Thursday, February 12, 2009)
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