Running head: ADDRESSING THE ACHIVEMENT GAP

Addressing the Achievement Gap in

English Second Language Students

Through Professional Development

Hunter Beach

ETHS 2430

11/30/2017

Salt Lake Community College

Running head: ADDRESSING THE ACHIVEMENT GAP

The student will submit a 7-8 page final paper (not including the bibliography) consisting

of the information from their research project and poster. An additional page

consisting of a bibliography with at least three separate sources supporting the issue

that needs to be resolved and an additional reference for the interview resulting in

at least 4sources. The bibliography does not count as a page of the text.
 Running head: ADDRESSING THE ACHIVEMENT GAP

We are bad at teaching Latino students. This isnt an opinion; this is a fact. In the year 2000 Latino

students had just shy of a 30% dropout rate, this has improved since then to 9.8% in

2015(Nces.ed.gov, 2017). This in and of itself should be proof of the problem, but it doesnt

paint the entire picture of why and how my plan makes sense. Latino students made up 37.5% of

Salt Lake City School Districts student population in 2016 which is compared to the 43.8% for

Caucasian students.(Ethnicity Report 2016, 2016). This is one of the more extreme examples in

school districts in Utah, but throughout the state the Latino population has been on the rise, a

large portion of this increase being births(Davidson, 2016). We cant talk about Latino students

and not address the elephant in the room, English Second Language (ESL and English Language

Learners (ELL). The reason they are so intrinsically linked is that 77.1% of ELL students speak

Spanish ("Fast Facts: English Language Learners," 2017). Current ELL students make up 6.2%

of the states k-12 population. To give you an idea, this is a group that we are really bad at

teaching, to show you how bad we are at this. In 2016 the best school or district for proficiency

in science for ELL students was the Wallace Stenger Academy which clocked in at a nice 28.6%

proficiency; for Mathematics the best was the North Summit District which had 29.3%, and in

language arts Carbon School District was best at 28.8%("Data Gateway", 2016). That was our

best, for Granite School District and their 8387 ELL students 8.9% were proficient in language

arts, 12.8% in Mathematics, and 6.9% in science("Data Gateway," 2016). Those numbers are

across all their schools and grades, but they arent just sad, they are depressing.

How do we address this issue? With how systemic the issue is in our schools by the Utah Board of

Educations data where our best is bad, and our larger school districts are worse. This level of

bad suggests to me our madness is in our method. Currently in Utah to we have 27900 teachers,
 Running head: ADDRESSING THE ACHIVEMENT GAP

for our 633,896 students in public education. This averages out to about 22.5 students for every

teacher, but the number of teachers is artificially inflated as in response to our habitual teacher

shortage our state government and board of education has lowered the requirements to hire

someone as a teacher this results in underqualified teachers.

Nationally only 2.5% of teachers teaching ESL had the appropriate endorsement ("Hispanics: Education

Issues," 2017). Studies have linked the professional development of teachers to better outcomes

for at-risk students like English language learners (Darling-Hammond, Hyler & Gardner, 2017).

Consider that ELL students can graduate from ESL and into the general student population and

the number of students in an ESL program drops dramatically as the students advance in grade

level. The requirements to graduate from ESL are set by the local school board, meaning that two

schools just a few miles apart could have entirely different graduation requirements. I bring this

up because while ELL students make up a small percentage of the population at any one time if

we include the number of former ELL students the number rises dramatically. There are many

specific strategies intended for teaching ELL students that encourage cultural sensitivity

(Kauchak & Eggen, 2017).

My proposal is simple, we create a specific tax increase and earmark the 26 million dollars from that

increase for professional development of teachers for at-risk students. Currently, we do not have

any funds earmarked for this purpose. The reason we would want all funds from this tax

earmarked for the program is this would reduce the likelihood of the funds being diverted to

other projects. We would accomplish this through the use of a house bill in the Utah, state

legislator. We would use this budget for professional development of teachers.

Specifically, we would aim to get every single teacher in Utah an ESL endorsement. An ESL

endorsement is a qualification a teacher can get that says that they are qualified to teach students
 Running head: ADDRESSING THE ACHIVEMENT GAP

who are learning English as a second language. This endorsement is like a mini degree; it takes

15 credit hours through the University of Utah, it is designed for working professionals like

teachers and can be completed over a five year period. Through the University of Utah, it costs

3200 dollars to pay for every single course required for an ESL endorsement, given our current

teacher population that would cost the state approximately 90 million dollars to have every single

one of our current teachers get that endorsement. With this being an optional program and the

fact that no school could handle a 100% increase in its student population overnight a budget 18

million dollars per year would easily fund this. My plan for funding this would end up with an

additional 8 million dollars left in its budget for other professional development opportunities for

teachers. I interviewed a teacher who did her student teaching in Utah about her thoughts on

ESL endorsements and their effects in the classroom. She explained that while she was currently

working on hers, she felt that it was already having a positive impact in her classroom.

How do we pay for that much professional development each year? Well, this is something that was

looked at by the state of Utah in the 2016 general session with two separate bills. H.B. 28 which

wanted to divert 30 million dollars from the general education fund for professional development

of teachers(Utah.gov, 2017). My suggestion generates a similar amount of funding by passing a

tiny increase to the Utah sales tax. Other similar bills have accomplished similar results by

proposing taxes on those making more than 250k a year or by increasing a property taxes by

1%(Utah.gov, 2017). My proposed tax increase is .06%. If someone spent the median income for

the state of Utah ($62,912) on things subject to the current state sales tax of 4.7%, they would

pay $2956.86 in sales tax, under this proposal they would pay an additional $37.75. But that

37.75 would generate approximately 26 Million dollars per year.

 Running head: ADDRESSING THE ACHIVEMENT GAP

The bill was voted on favorably multiple times, but by the end of the 2016 general session the bill was

not brought to a final vote and died in the Senate rules committee who tabled the bill to be

discussed in a future session. The bill has not been reintroduced, and the Senate rules committee

has made no moves to revive it. The bills early version passed the Utah house of representatives

with an impressive 61-12-2 vote(Utah.gov, 2017). It passed the Utah state senate with a 25-2-2

vote, due to some differences between the two passed bills it was passed off to the Senate rules

committee to hammer out the differences(Utah.gov, 2017).

There are many areas where people may be resistant to this idea. The state Legislator may be an area of

resistance for the funding we would encounter some resistance in the legislation, as shown by the

history on other similar bills, one of the largest objections in the past was based largely on

increasing spending per student instead of having funds earmarked for specific education

programs.

Another area of resistance would be the teachers themselves; any professional development is something

that would consume the precious little time teachers have rather quickly. Considering my

example of ELL endorsements requiring six three-credit hour courses to be completed within a

five year period(Continue.utah.edu, 2017). I spoke with several teachers from the granite school

district, their number one concern with a program like this was not so much the cost of the

program but the cost of regarding additional work. When presented that this particular program

is available online and a teacher could take a single class each semester and still finish it in three

years the teachers I spoke with showed interest.

The third area of resistance we could encounter is the ever-present I hate taxes crowd. There isnt

much of a counter-argument for this group. The point I made earlier where it came out to about
 Running head: ADDRESSING THE ACHIVEMENT GAP

37.75 per year based on the median income is misleading; the real number would be lower

averaging out to 8.52 per person per year.

A fourth area where I would expect resistance would be from people who dont have children in the

Utah education system. I honestly have no real argument to convince these people.

And a final area where I would expect resistance would be from bigots and racists opposed to this idea

purely from a racial standpoint, to whom I have nothing to say.

Overall professional development is, in my opinion, the best way to approach this issue, as it provides us

with additional flexibility to implement the latest teaching methods possible as research becomes

available. The other benefit to this approach is it addresses the issue in Utahs education system

of under-qualified teachers by providing them with the training they need. Finally, it ensures that

every single current and former ELL student has a teacher that is prepared for the specific

challenges that these students present.

 Running head: ADDRESSING THE ACHIVEMENT GAP

References

Continuing Education at the University of Utah: Classes for All Ages!. (2017). Continue.utah.edu.
Retrieved 1 November 2017, from
https://continue.utah.edu/proed/academy/certificate/professional-tesol-certificate
Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective Teacher Professional
Development. Learning Policy Institute. Retrieved 1 November 2017, from
https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/effective-teacher-professional-development-brief
Data Gateway. (2016). Retrieved 1 November 2017, from
https://datagateway.schools.utah.gov/Assessment/StudentGrowth/2017?testSubject=S&engl
ishLearners=Y&schoolYear=2017&group=LEA
Davidson, L. (2016). Census: Utah's Latino population grows to more than 400,000. The Salt Lake
Tribune. Retrieved 1 November 2017, from
http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=4035282&itype=CMSID
Ethnicity Report 2016. (2016). Salt Lake City. Retrieved from
http://www.slcschools.org/schools/documents/Fall-Ethnicity-2016.pdf
Fast Facts: Dropout Rates. (2017). Nces.ed.gov. Retrieved 1 November 2017, from
https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=16
Fast Facts: English Language Learners. (2017). Nces.ed.gov. Retrieved 1 November 2017, from
https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=96
Grants for Educator Professional Learning. (2017). Utah.gov. Retrieved 1 November 2017, from
https://le.utah.gov/~2016/bills/static/HB0028.html
Hispanics: Education Issues. (2017). NEA. Retrieved 1 November 2017, from
http://www.nea.org/home/HispanicsEducation%20Issues.htm
Kauchak, D., & Eggen, P. (2017). Introduction to teaching (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
The Condition of Education - Participation in Education - Elementary/Secondary - English
Language Learners in Public Schools - Indicator March (2017). (2017). Nces.ed.gov.
Retrieved 3 November 2017, from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cgf.asp