ECELL Case Study
Weaving a Rug with Words: Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum with Native American Middle School Students
Marcia Brenden, Ph.D.
Introduction
The Center for the Education and Study of Diverse Populations (CESDP), in partnership with the New Mexico State Department of Education (NMSDE), used federal funds to create a new initiative in 2000 called Project ECELL: Equal Chance, Equal Learning through Literacy. The goal of ECELL was to increase the literacy skills of Native American students in middle schools.
Project ECELL worked with selected middle schools with high Native American populations to develop a comprehensive student-centered literacy model using instructional practices grounded in scientifically-based reading research (SBRR). ECELL functioned as a support for the schools’ existing literacy models and assisted the schools in creating a new model to meet the literacy needs of students. This project provided an avenue to train content area teachers in the reading and writing processes so that a science or social studies teacher would have the background to assist students in developing reading and writing skills through all core content work. The project was designed to provide high quality, evidenced-based technical assistance, training, coaching, and on-site institutes for classroom teachers, instructional assistants, administrators, and families.
Four of the ECELL sites became focus sites with intensive work conducted in literacy skills for all content areas. The work at these sites often included initial assessment and data analysis to determine school and student reading needs, test-taking skills, and best practices for instruction with Native American students, as well as setting directions for comprehensive reform efforts.
In the last year of the ECELL initiative, we conducted a case study research project in one of the focus schools in order to find out what teachers, administrators, school staff, and parents thought about the ECELL initiative as part of the school improvement process. Driving our inquiry was the leading question of what conditions need to be in place to best support a teacher’s willingness to change instructional practice? We were also interested in the beliefs educators have concerning the motivation, knowledge, and cultural experiences that Native American students bring to their learning. (See entire interview protocol in Appendix).
Methodology
The school site chosen as the focus of the case study was one of the four schools in which the staff of CESDP worked most intensively. In addition, this particular school instituted the most comprehensive plan to address the literacy needs of the students. The site was also open to the case study process and the staff and administration agreed to be interviewed and observed. As insiders in the school improvement process, the staff felt it was important to have their voices heard as they reflected on the accomplishments and challenges of the past three years. As outside technical assistance providers, we were invested in understanding the impact of our guidance and technical support.
The teachers and staff who were interviewed were selected randomly. Of the 38 staff members, we interviewed 6 teachers, one counselor, one librarian, two site administrators, two district administrators, and three parents. We also interviewed the two CESDP associates who spent the most time working with the school staff in the ECELL project. All the interviews were conducted between March and June, 2004. The names of the school and the interviewees have been changed for reasons of confidentiality.
Caprock Middle School: The Context
The school is situated among red rock buttes in rural, western New Mexico. Scrub piňon trees, grey-green sage, and tall cottonwoods encircle the red brick school building on the edge of the small town. The main street is lined with pawn shops, a trading post, and several churches, cafes, and gas stations. Signs along the road advertise Indian jewelry, cash pawn, Navajo bread, and hay for sale. The local radio station broadcasts in Navajo and English. In the residential areas, there is a mix of mobile homes, government housing, and small rentals.
The demographics of the middle school are similar to those in many of the area schools with a vast majority of the 380 students self identifying as Native Americans. Many of them live outside the town as far away as 40 or 50 miles and endure bus rides as long as two hours each way. Some of their families may still maintain traditional livelihoods centered around sheep herding and ranching activities while others travel to the city for employment opportunities. In relation to language, most of the students are at least receptive bilinguals who understand some words in Navajo but do not produce the language fluently. Data show that 85% of the students at Caprock Middle have language needs especially in the area of academic English development. Due to these language differences there has been an over-identification of Caprock students as qualifying for special education.
Regardless of the level of proficiency in the Navajo language, whether they and their families live off or on the reservation, the majority of Caprock students’ cultural identity is Navajo. But culture is lived and the students live in a world that requires them to walk the often conflicting path among Western and Navajo and youth cultures, searching to find a balance in school, within their families, among peers, and in the larger world off the reservation. One parent employs the metaphor of the braid to describe what the young people are facing:
“What we need to do is bring Western culture and Navajo culture together like a braid. You have two sides and in the middle is you. If you braid too much of one, the braid will not lay down right. (Kids) need to re-evaluate priorities so they come out balanced.”
The demographics of the teachers and administrators at Caprock Middle School show that the majority of the 53 staff members are Hispanic and Anglo and do not share the linguistic and cultural background of their students. There are five Native American teachers and five of the six teaching assistants are Navajo. On average, the teachers have 12 years teaching experience and most of them have Master’s degrees. New teachers are given an orientation that includes a tour of the area, a visit to the Navajo Chapter houses, and cultural sensitivity training. Many of the teachers who have come from “off-reservation” continue to choose to teach in schools with Native American students. One teacher stressed the importance of the caring role of teachers in the lives of the students, regardless of the teacher’s cultural background:
“The number one factor in student motivation and student achievement is the teachers and where the teachers’ hearts are. If you don’t care, you won’t make a difference. I’m here to make a difference.”
During the course of “making a difference” and the ECELL Initiative (2000 – 2004), Caprock Middle School underwent multiple transitions and challenges. The Corrective Action process involving NM Public Education Department intervention and the development and execution of the Corrective Action Plan framed the teaching and leadership context. Teachers often felt besieged by the immediate focus of raising the test scores of their students and implementing strategies school-wide. Principals were transferred to other schools in the district. The superintendent and other district leadership personnel shifted. School leadership teams were formed and reformed. Literacy liaisons were put in place. And parents struggled to understand the implications of the reform measures.
What role did the ECELL staff play in supporting Caprock’s reform efforts during these years of transition? What lessons were learned about what works in supporting teacher and systems change?
ECELL Project Strategies and Activities
The following curricular and pedagogical interventions were initiated during the ECELL Project.
- All teachers attended a data summit to identify student needs and select relevant strategies to meet those needs school-wide.
- All teachers participated in reading fluency training.
- Teachers worked at vertical curriculum planning and alignment with the NM State Standards
- Across all content area classes, every teacher did vocabulary and decoding exercises with their students daily.
- A reading class was instituted for those students who were identified as needing focused intervention.
- All teachers were trained in sheltered English instruction strategies.
- Teachers met regularly in study groups to plan lessons and extend learning in sheltered instruction.
- Many content teachers implemented Six Traits writing strategies.
- Parent workshops and dinners were held regularly to bring parents in as partners in the literacy initiatives and to keep them informed about the positive results.
What are the Results?: Research Findings
The following are the principle findings of the Case Study research. Each finding is followed by quotes gleaned from the interviews. The findings should help answer the research questions: How do the teachers and administrators feel about the reform efforts? What does it take to support teachers in changing classroom pedagogy? Did the reading and writing skills of the students improve? What worked and what didn’t?
Finding #1) Teachers are more open to changing instructional strategies and pedagogy when their expertise is honored and they are included in the improvement process during all of its phases.
For teacher buy-in, teachers must be a part of the change/restructuring process at all phases from planning to implementation and evaluation. Otherwise teachers can become resistant and overwhelmed. The following comments represent the teachers’ attitudes concerning their role in structuring the reform efforts:
“The whole process should have been more structured to make more people feel like they had input. We needed more time to discuss problems rather than hearing ‘Here are some research-based methods to fix the problems.’ There are plenty of people who understand the problems – the problems are fairly obvious. It’s more an issue of the teachers’ feelings of being overlooked or ignored as part of the solution.”
“When you’re on Corrective Action there is so much stress and anger and chaos. We weren’t in control of the help we needed to get from the beginning so we were frustrated when it seemed like we were just handed a new program. We resented it.”
“There needed to be more concensus, more team building in the beginning. Teachers have a lot of expertise that just isn’t being acknowledged.”
“There are so many teachers that feel they are swimming upstream, doing everything we can, and the district, the state, the nation doesn’t appreciate it. Instead of letting the programs we already have try to work, they just keep piling on more.”
Finding # 2) When the teachers learned how to collectively analyze data, discuss the implications, and make action plans based on the evidence, they were more open to changing their classroom practice and trying new strategies.
Teachers are constantly analyzing classroom data such as spelling tests, midterm exams, and chapter quizzes and then shaping their lesson plans accordingly. They also know something about demographic data -- which students ride the bus for an hour to get to school or which students have a first language different than English and how that might impact student learning. However teachers have historically been excluded from the analysis of comprehensive test data. More important, they have not participated in analyzing and comparing all the types of school data – outcome, perception, demographic, and program data – and then basing curricular and pedagogical decisions on this analysis. There is power in “cracking open the data”, as evidenced by the following quotes from teachers and administrators:
“We started the data piece at the mid point of the project, rather than at the beginning to underscore the need for the project. So when the whole staff analyzed the data, they were dragging their feet and feeling overwhelmed. But eventually teachers became more reflective and were willing to do what it took to make changes.”
“With the data analysis, it showed all of us what we needed to do because it was right in front of us. And we could see how much progress and how much regression some students were making. We analyzed it in our in-services. We really went through it and tried to analyze each kid as to what is going on. It really helps us understand the kids a lot more.”
“Data plays a large role in understanding why school reform is necessary. But data analysis could have played a more important role. Did data inform my practice? Some, but it also shows us the incredible deficits. And I know increases can be so slow. I also depend a lot on personal classroom observation”
“We got down deep looking at our school data. Before we just gave it lip service, but as a Corrective Action school, you have to look at your data. You have to get beyond ‘I think and I feel’”.
“The ECELL data summit moved us from depression to empowerment.”
Finding # 3) School-wide implementation of the same literacy strategies across all content area classes resulted in school-wide improvement in student reading achievement. Additionally, students with the most need were placed in a reading class that employed the metaphor of “breaking the code” to become better readers to the honored work of the Navajo Code Talkers.
After analyzing student reading/language arts data, all the teachers at the middle school were educated in chunking (e.g. marking syllables or noting prefixes and suffixes), decoding vocabulary words, and fluency strategies so that all teachers could participate in improving the reading skills of the students. As all of the teachers became more proficient in working with the word of the day, the students also became more proficient in word attack and analysis skills. The SSR (sustained silent reading) time was used to work with fluency. As a result, writing and reading comprehension improved during the second year of this school-wide strategy.
Two teachers were ultimately trained as Reading Specialists and worked with the students who struggled the most with reading comprehension and fluency. All the students in the reading class improved their reading and some students raised their reading comprehension by two or three grade levels during a single year (for complete results see Mark Head’s Reading Study Report in the Appendix). The following quotes from teachers attest to the positive results of a school-wide effort to improve reading.
“The majority of teachers coming out of colleges and universities are not prepared to teach reading. And as far as doing any diagnostics, few teachers, especially at the middle school level, have the skills and need explicit instruction. Universities are not keeping in step with the needs.”
“The chunking and decoding training helped teachers become reading teachers. It was a great addition. It focused them on language in all the content areas. It gave us a common language.”
“Content area teachers are much more open to teaching reading, being a partner with reading and writing instruction than before. It helps us work together on curriculum and lesson plans.”
“I was unsure of chunking and decoding at first but every student is aware of it now. When it’s done on a school-wide level, it is very powerful.”
Finding # 4) Teachers need to feel supported by principals and other district administrators as they work to implement new strategies and teaching methods.
During the course of the Ecell Project, the principal who assisted in implementing the school-wide literacy strategies was promoted to a district level position. Administrative turnover is a constant in schools like Caprock Middle. The teachers reported that the shift in leadership affected the school’s reform efforts. They also underscored the importance of receiving consistent feedback from the principal.
“There needed to be more consensus, more team building, and better transfer between the old and new administration. The lack of continuity of leadership set the reform back.”
“When we did the data summit with the whole staff, the principal leadership was key. When that leadership left, it felt like the whole project caved in and had to be re-established with the new principal. It caused a lot of frustration with the teachers.”
“Principal leadership is so important! But can most principals recognize engaging pedagogy when they see it? It takes more than a four minute walk through a classroom.”
“When we started the administration was very involved in discussing issues, providing summaries, and giving us all the information from the leadership team meetings. There was good communication. This year it’s the opposite. There’s very little input or communication. I never expected the change in administration would be so drastic.”