Teachers' Perceptions of the Efficacy of the Open Court Program for English Proficient and English Language Learners.

Abstract

Introduction The civil-rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s was instrumental in the clamor for change in an educational system that failed to provide equal opportunities for learning. The dismantling of segregation policy was essentially to ensure that all students had equal access to education. However, this goal remains largely elusive because significant disparity in academic achievement among students of various racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds persists today. Responding to the myriad of problems in education in California, the state government proposed and passed Senate Bill 2042 (1998) titled Preparation Is Changing. The bill was enacted to overhaul teacher preparation programs in the state. The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) publicly announced that it was concerned with the quality and effectiveness of the preparation of teachers and other school practitioners and that it was determined to establish and implement strong, effective standards of quality for the preparation and assessment of credential candidates by setting specific standards individual teachers were expected to meet before they could be licensed to teach (2004, p. 1). A committee was formed to study California schools. The committee in its report, California's Lowest-Performing Schools: Who they are, the challenges they face, and how they are improving, classified 109 elementary schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) among the lowest-performing schools in the state. The report identified the challenges: According to the report, compared to secondary schools, elementary schools as a whole faced slightly greater challenges. In addition, more challenges were found among English (EdSource, 2003 p. 34). The Committee recommended reforms in elementary education in the form of adoptions of a unified, well-integrated curriculum and instructional approach (EdSource, 2003, p. 34). This school-wide focus meant that all teachers were to use the same books, receive the same training on how to use the curriculum effectively, share a common set of expectations for student performance, and use the same methods to assess student progress as well as help students who are experiencing difficulties in reading and language arts. The adoption of the recommendation meant changes in kindergarten through third grade curricula that included adoption of a structured English program; i.e., Open Court. The adoption of LAUSD's recommendations also included mainstreaming ELL students into English classes, reducing class-size to 20 pupils per teacher, developing school intervention programs, and offering district-sponsored workshops and seminars. With the implementation of these reforms, LAUSD (2001) reported that students' achievement scores in Reading/Language Arts in Stanford 9 examinations went up for five consecutive years in second grade through fifth (K and first grade pupils were not tested) (see Figure 1 below). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Nevertheless, further analysis of achievement scores showed that the average scores of ELLs consistently lagged behind that of their English proficient counterparts during the five year period. Criticisms of the current situation include school policies and practices that have prevented teachers from integrating their professional competencies and resources in planning English language programs for students and methods that are not suitable for integrating and coordinating instructions for English proficient and ELL in the same classes (Genesee 1994). Similarly Ajayi (2005a) in a study of meaning-making activities in a second-grade, mixed elementary classroom in Los Angeles concluded that instructional practices did not teach English to construct vocabulary meanings to reflect their identities and subjectivities in terms of their interests, needs, priorities, and expectations. Furthermore, Toohey (2003) noted that the practices in English mixed schools appear in effect to prevent the increasing empowerment and active participation of some of those defined as second language learners (p. …