Grace B. Wilson Elementary School’s vision is for its students to master Navajo literacy and grammar with relative ease and become literate in the Navajo language. Grace B. Wilson Elementary School has put into practice a heritage language program model in order to achieve its vision. The Grace B. Wilson Elementary School teachers’ program goals also align to its vision to help students become bilingual in Navajo.

Grace B. Wilson Elementary’s school community has an open door policy inviting families “to come by and see us” any time during the school year. All parents are encouraged to become involved in their child’s education. Parents are ALWAYS WELCOME at Grace B. Wilson Elementary School!

Grace B. Wilson Elementary School’s Navajo language classes implement unique instructional strategies, which are:

1. Emphasis on Navajo literacy.
2. Integrating culture-based arts/activities into language instruction.
3. Navajo Literacy Nights.
4. Use of realia, visual aids, reading materials in Navajo.

Grace B. Wilson Elementary School received a school grade of B. Twenty-three percent (23%) of English learners attained English language proficiency as measured by the ACCESS for ELLs©, which is above the state target. The school staff is very committed to helping and working with all students.

The vision of La Academia Dolores Huerta Charter School is to encourage students’ development of social identity through language, cultural values, and global realities. La Academia Dolores Huerta Charter School serves students in grades 6-8 from the greater Las Cruces area whose population is socio-economically and linguistically diverse. The school’s curriculum, goals and objectives and methods provide its students with an education based on dual language and multicultural education. The school’s mission is to build a curriculum that enables middle school students to achieve high academic standards and personal growth through:

1. promoting multiculturalism and bilingualism;
2. nurturing diverse cultural awareness and appreciation;
3. recognizing and developing the gifts and skills of each student;
4. providing an education equal to or better than that provided by other public or private schools;
5. promoting nonviolence by emulating the principles and spirit of such leaders as Martin L. King, Cesar Chavez, and Dolores Huerta;
6. encouraging students and their parents to maximize their involvement in an interfacing relationship with the school's staff and thereby assisting them to grow in self-motivation, competency, experiences, independence, knowledge and self-worth.

At La Academia Dolores Huerta Charter School students build their self-identity and self-confidence through their performances in mariachi, baile folklórico, for example, and become proud of who they are. Principal Octavio Casillas believes that it is important for middle school students to leave the school with a strong cultural background with the provision of forming a positive self-identity. La Academia Dolores Huerta Charter School has maintained a school grade of B. Sixty-one percent (61%) of English learners demonstrated proficiency in Reading.

See also: Video: ALD4ALL facilitators dancing with students

Ojo Amarillo Elementary School’s Navajo language program’s goals are for all children to become bilingual in Navajo. Ojo Amarillo Elementary School recognizes its students’ strengths by acknowledging all students at the quarterly school wide awards recognition assemblies. The principal and staff make every effort to recognize students in some way for their efforts and success.

Ojo Amarillo Elementary School’s Navajo language classes implement multiple unique instructional strategies, which are:

1. Hands on experiential learning;
2. Integrating Culture-Based Arts/Activities into target language instruction;
3. Navajo Literacy Nights;
4. Use of realia, visual aids, and reading materials in Navajo.

Ojo Amarillo Elementary School has established an upward trajectory from being a D school in 2011-2012 to being a B school. The school has maintained this school grade of B for two academic school years now. Fifty-three percent (53%) of English learners showed proficiency in Reading and 48% in Math. The school community is enthusiastic and dedicated to their profession. Additionally, teachers are striving to create a more culturally sensitive environment in order to work with diverse, and particularly Native American, students.

The Santa Teresa Middle School’s vision is Striving Toward Mastering Standards. The mission is to create and maintain an environment and system of support that ensures that every member of the learning community reaches a high level of academic achievement as determined by state and national standards.

PAL program – Program for Acquiring Language: This program is a “school within a school” for newcomers or recent immigrant students. The PAL students are not isolated and are able to participate in all programs such as art and sports. The goal of the program is intensive literacy instruction for English learners so they can be mainstreamed in all content classes before they attend high school. Principal Rosa Lovelace encourages parents new to New Mexico to enroll their child in the PAL program “so we don’t lose kids” and we accelerate their learning in English and in Spanish.”

All teachers at Santa Teresa Middle School have a TESOL or Bilingual Endorsement. There is minimal teacher turnover since teachers report that they “want to be here at STMS.” Santa Teresa Middle School received a school grade of A. Ninety-two percent (92%) of English learners achieved proficiency in Reading and 74% in Math!

Culturally responsive pedagogy emerged over the last few decades as a response to address the underachievement of minority students. According to some researchers, teachers can improve ELs’ learning outcomes by using culturally and linguistically responsive teaching practices (Tharp et. al., 2000; Villegas & Lucas, 2002). Culturally responsive teaching practices (a) are based on a socio-constructivist approach to teaching and learning; (b) build on students’ cultural and linguistic resources by accessing prior knowledge and relevant experiences; (c) help students examine curriculum from multiple perspectives; (d) use a variety of assessment practices that promote learning; and (e) make the classroom culturally inclusive of all students (Villegas and Lucas, 2002).

Culturally responsive pedagogy offers a potential solution for addressing the challenges associated with educating ELs. Findings from the 2006 National Literacy Panel’s Report—a comprehensive review of the research on developing literacy among second language learners—suggest that a culturally responsive approach to teaching and learning may be a promising practice for teaching ELs (August and Shanahan, 2006). But the report noted that there is little empirical work to serve as guide for the implementation of effective PD on culturally responsive teaching practices.

The ALD4ALL project inquiry and PL is grounded in sociocultural theory, a social constructivist perspective of teaching and learning. Researchers from this perspective recognize that learning is not only an individual endeavor, it is also socially mediated and context-dependent (Vygotsky, 1978). Individuals are recognized to possess valuable funds of knowledge (Gonzalez, Moll & Amanti, 2005). As a critical component of—and to model a sociocultural approach to —PL, teacher coaching and on-going support are integral components of intervention design (Walqui, 2011). Furthermore, the inquiry takes a generative theoretical approach (Ball, 2009) to designing and delivering professional development.

A generative approach to PL encourages teachers to connect their personal and professional knowledge with what they learn about their students to implement instruction that meets their students’ educational needs, interests, and inquiries (Ball, 2009). The inquiry and the PL is anchored in the research and scholarship pertaining to bilingual education and school improvement including the indicators of effective practices for improving the education of CLD/EL students (Cadiero-Kaplan, 2004). The indicators of effective practices —value of learners, academic language orientation, expectations for learners, instructional goals, resources, and assessment and accountability (Cadiero-Kaplan, 2004)—are the source of inquiry providing a lens and setting the foundation for the ALD4ALL project’s inquiry and PL.

Project Theory of Change

Given the learning from the first year of the project and the feedback of the program officer at the time, the ALD4ALL project worked early in the second year to clarify and document the project’s theory of change. The ALD4ALL project’s theory of change is that by focusing on culturally and linguistically responsive (CLR) pedagogy, collaboration, effective practices, generative learning, and professional growth, at all levels of the school system, we will be able to improve the teaching-learning process for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students and English Learners (ELs) in our state. The ALD4ALL project began with an inquiry into how effective schools with bilingual multicultural education programs serving CLD and EL students sustain gains in student achievement. The ALD4ALL project aims to sustain the process by providing ongoing resources and support from the PED, and by disseminating information for fostering increased collaboration within each school community.

Drawing from Generative Theory and a Model of Generative Change, the ALD4ALL project developed a Generative Professional Learning process for participating schools.

Generative Theory: The processes through which teachers and students develop voice, generativity, and efficacy in their thinking and practice (Ball, 2009, p. 66).

• Stages of Generative Professional Learning
• Clarity: Observing, Listening & Identifying
• Ownership: Developing
• Action 1: Customizing
• Action 2: Planning
• Efficacy: Implementing

Stage 1 CLARITY: We began the inquiry phase of the project with site visits, that involved classroom observations followed by interviews and focus group with parents, students, teachers, and administrators. We listened to their needs, wishes, interests, and inquiries about their school community. The data collected from these experiences was used to inform our collaboration and development of a professional learning action plan for their schools and programs.

Stage 2 OWNERSHIP: The professional learning plans were developed in collaboration with educators who remained engaged throughout the process. We learned from each other as we went along. The project schools were introduced to the effective practices framework we were using to study bilingual and multicultural education programs (BMEPs) in New Mexico. These effective practices provided the project schools with the same framework with which to self-examine their own instructional and systemic educational practices.

Stage 3 & Stage 4 ACTION: The professional learning action plan was customized for each local context and the list of effective practices were reviewed by each school in their action plan. The ALD4ALL inquiry team facilitated and differentiated each professional learning activity to provide a space for generative thinking about the areas of growth the school identified as needing support, in turn transforming their instructional practices to better meet the educational needs of their students. Each teacher created a Lesson Plan of Action. The ALD4ALL facilitator’s responsibility was to support the planning and share resources pertaining to culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy.

Stage 5 EFFICACY: When teachers implemented their plans of action, they were in effect combining theory, best practices, and their knowledge of their students and local community. Each professional learning session with an ALD4ALL facilitator allowed for collaborative reflection, problem solving and generative professional learning, all essential ingredients for becoming an efficacious teacher, and one who perseveres in improving the education of his or her students.

Ball, A.F. (2009). Toward a theory of generative change in culturally and linguistically complex classrooms. American Education Research Journal, 46(1), 45-72.

YouTube Description.  Neddy Vigil, research professor in UNM's Department of Spanish and Portuguese and director of UNM's Language Learning Center, and Garland Bills, UNM professor emeritus of linguistics and of Spanish and Portuguese, discuss their book, "The Spanish Language of New Mexico and Southern Colorado," a linguistic atlas that delves into Spanish as it is spoken by the Hispanic population of New Mexico and southern Colorado.

If you're looking for the PED ALD4ALL data collection and sharing site, you came to the right place.  Here are some links to help you get started.

Online Entry for the Teacher Self-Assessment Scales: ald4all.positivepractices.com/ald4all.html

Teacher Self-Assessment Scales (PDF for printing) Download: ald4all.positivepractices.com/ald4all-scales.pdf

Training packet (PDF for printing): Download: ald4all.positivepractices.com/ald4all.pdf

NMTEACH Educator Effectiveness Rubrics (reformatted by CPP): Download: ald4all.positivepractices.com/nmteach-rubrics-cpp.pdf

NMTEACH Rubrics Summary Sheet (reformatted by CPP): Download: ald4all.positivepractices.com/nmteach-summary.pdf

NMPED NMTEACH: Portal Entry: ped.state.nm.us/ped/NMTeachIndex.html

All links above in one place: ald4all.positivepractices.com/ped-links/

ALD4ALL facilitators Dr. Elisabeth Valenzuela and Dr. Susana Ibarra Johnson join students in dancing folklorico.