Eco-Resilience NPD Program: Synergistically Connecting Multiple Environments for the Success of English Learners

Abstract

Success of English Learners reflects the priority of integrating evidence-based pedagogical practices along with research-based cultural, linguistic, and family/community components into K-12 school campuses. This is a collaborative proposal with a consortium of six independent school districts in North Texas, Region 10 Education Service Center, non-profits in Dallas and Guatemala, and the Center for Research on Education Diversity and Excellence (CREDE) in Hawaii as well as an independent school district in the State of Louisiana. Goal (1) Provide targeted and differentiated professional development activities for teachers, school principals, and other school professionals (e.g., Counselors, Specialists, School Psychologies and Instructional Coaches) through (a) ESL supplemental certification, (b) University graduate-level courses on assessment of diverse students, cultural, linguistic, pedagogical, leadership, coaching, and community engagement for educators (e.g., bilingual, ESL and other educators), (c) A yearly Academy and Institute on PD for educators serving ELs, as well as (d) Summer international education and leadership program (The Global Educator). This goal of the project addresses Competitive Priority # 1 on Providing Professional Development to Improve Instruction for English Learners by increasing the opportunities for high-quality professional development for teachers and other educators. Goal (2) Provide targeted and differentiated capacity building activities for parents, students and locally serving community organizations. This goal will involve parents/family’s training and capacity building activities (including nonprofit organization serving in the area of education) on how they can play a significant role in the education of the children through resilience building activities at home, community, and classroom that can serve as ELs protective factors. This goal addresses Competitive Priority #2 on Improving Parent, Family, and Community Engagement. And Goal (3), Development of the “Eco-Resilience Synergetic App” as an integrated multiple environment technology tools for families, community organizations, teachers, school principals, and students. This App will incorporate strategies for building resilience among students through activities specifically designed for parent, teachers and school principals as well as other educators working with EL students and who can become protective factors for students’ academic success. The proposed project will use established protocols for summative and formative evaluations (e.g., student achievement data, surveys, classroom observations to examine fidelity of implementation of PD, resilience and learning environment scales). This is an interconnected evaluation component for data-driven decision making in order to inform formative and summative aspects of the Eco-Resilience PD program. In addition, the proposed evaluation also includes a Randomized Control Trial method using a Delayed Treatment Control Group Design in which participating 18 schools will be randomly selected (from partner districts) into the control(C) (business as usual) or experimental (E) (Eco-Resilience NPD program) during years 2 and 3. Then, the control group will receive the Eco-Resilience PD program in years 4 and 5. A random sample of teachers (n = 936 C+E groups), student/parent dyads (n = 585 C+E groups) will also be followed for the purpose of collecting data and comparing the effectiveness of the Eco-Resilience NPD program on students’ achievement, teachers’ quality of instruction/PD growth and parent/community engagement as well as students’ resilience development (e.g., college readiness, leadership, self-efficacy, self-regulation, etc.).