Research

CAL conducted a project aimed at improving instruction and preparation for post-secondary education in Central Valley high schools with high enrollments of language minority students whose achievement does not keep pace with that of other students. The project also developed mechanisms to guide more of these students into post-secondary education and help them succeed there.

CAL worked with two school districts and their high schools, as well as community colleges, UC Merced, and local branches of the National Writing Project, to implement and document the program, develop community support, study the program’s effects, and disseminate the program and the study’s findings. Teachers from Selma High School and the two Madera high schools implemented the CAL SIOP Model of sheltered instruction that research has found to be effective for supporting students’ language, literacy, and content area development. This model promotes development in all of the language modalities―speaking, listening, writing, and reading—but because writing is fundamental to school success and because writing tests are a barrier to high school graduation and progress through post-secondary education in California, the project foregrounded academic writing across the curriculum. This writing focus carried through into the post-secondary strand of the project in which CAL worked with developmental English instructors to address the particular needs of ELs. CAL also conducted a parent empowerment program to help parents understand the issues and navigate the procedures connected to enrolling their children in higher education.

In broad outline, this project aimed to improve schools’ ability to help students develop academic English skills so that they can succeed in content area classes, pass the exit exams, and go on to college.

With funding from The Goldman Sachs Foundation, CAL conducted research on the use of the SIOP model in a Spanish/English two-way immersion (dual language) program. Bringing together CAL's research on two-way immersion(TWI) and the SIOP Model, the study identified key modifications to the CAL SIOP Model for the TWI context. Learn more.

Under the Success Through Academic Interventions in Language and Literacy (SAILL) project funded by the U.S. Department of Education, CAL has been investigating the impact of the CAL SIOP Model on the math performance of Spanish-speaking English language learners in structured English immersion and transitional bilingual K-3 math classrooms. The goal of the project is to develop programs that optimize language learning in both kinds of classrooms. Visit the SAILL website for updates.

Under the Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE) funded by the U.S. Department of Education, CAL and California State University, Long Beach are investigating the impact of the CAL SIOP Model on student academic achievement in science, a subject area with high language demands. Visit the CREATE website for information

CAL has conducted research in the "Academic Literacy through Sheltered Instruction for Secondary English Language Learners" project. In the 30-month project, CAL worked intensively with approximately 60 educators in the Clifton, NJ district in partnership with the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Rockefeller Foundation. CAL collected and analyzed data to investigate the relationship between professional development in the SIOP Model and the academic achievement of secondary English language learners (ELLs). The project built on CAL's previous research on the CAL SIOP Model, an instructional approach to sheltered instruction in which teachers use specific strategies to promote language development and acquisition of grade-level content knowledge for ELLs.

Project Goals

The project studied the implementation of the CAL SIOP Model for sheltered instruction in Clifton middle and high schools in order to determine if the academic performance of secondary ELLs improves under the instruction of CAL SIOP-trained teachers. The following Major Research Questions guided the project:

• Do teachers reach high levels of implementation of the CAL SIOP Model during a sustained professional development program after 1 year? After 2 years?
• Does implementation of the CAL SIOP Model in subject area classrooms result in increased student achievement after 1 year? After 2 years?
• Does the level of implementation among teachers affect student achievement?

Research Design
CAL collected and analyzed data for students taught by CAL SIOP-trained and comparison group of teachers. The comparison group consisted of teachers from a different district in New Jersey who are not receiving training in the CAL SIOP Model. To measure the academic achievement of both groups of students, CAL staff analyzed their scores on standardized tests mandated by the state. CAL staff used a number of methodological techniques to examine the various data and respond to the research questions. Using the previously developed sheltered instruction observation protocol, CAL staff members also evaluated the teachers' level of implementation of the SIOP Model.

Professional Development
CAL staff worked with content area and ESL teachers in the middle and high schools in Clifton to foster understanding and implementation of the CAL SIOP Model. The CAL SIOP Model is not a prescriptive, one-size-fits-all approach, but a framework for effective instruction that brings together best practices for teaching content and academic literacy to English language learners. Teachers discover ways to enhance their teaching in order to make the content comprehensible and accessible for all students. The professional development and coaching activities provide a broad repertoire of instructional strategies for use in the classroom, the opportunity to promote a learning community among the team of teachers at each school, and many new ideas for activities, projects, and delivery methods to ensure that all students can learn challenging academic content.

The CAL-facilitated professional development program included summer institutes and follow-up workshops conducted during the school year. The sessions were highly interactive in nature, and provided teachers with a wide variety of strategies for teaching content to English language learners. Through hands-on activities, collaborative mini-projects, analysis of videotaped instruction, readings, and integration of research findings and theoretical principles, the sessions prepared the teachers to implement the CAL SIOP Model in their classrooms. Special attention was paid to writing effective CAL SIOP lesson plans and incorporating strategies that develop learners' academic literacy. The 2004 Clifton Summer  CAL SIOP Model Institute was held August 24-26. Four one-day follow up workshops were scheduled for the 2004-2005 school year with a second summer institute and follow-up workshops the following year.

Benefits and Expectations for Participants 
Teachers participating in the CAL SIOP Model research and professional development project received ongoing support as they learn to implement the CAL SIOP Model. In turn, teachers supported the research by participating in the staff development and classroom observations and by submitting lesson plans.

• Participating teachers were supported by three school-based CAL SIOP coaches throughout the year.
• Teachers received ongoing technical support from CAL staff through a Web-based distance learning program and an electronic listserv.
• Each participating teacher was observed at least twice, in the fall and in the spring. A randomly selected subset was observed in the winter as well. These observations were for data collection purposes. The observations were not evaluative and all information was kept at CAL. For each observation, CAL staff provided feedback to the teacher about his or her CAL SIOP lesson via conferencing and written summaries.
• Participating teachers submitted two lesson plans they developed, one from a lesson taught in the fall and one from a lesson in the spring.
• During the 2 years, CAL developed CAL SIOP lessons for use across the district.