English Language Development

The Corrective Action Plan for English Language Learners(ELL) addresses the following two areas in which Sunnyside has not made adequate progress:

• At the middle and high school levels, Sunnyside did not reach the required 13% of students reclassified as Fluent English Proficient.
• At the middle and high school levels, Sunnyside did not meet AYP under the No Child Left Behind Act.

In 2006, the Arizona Legislature passed a new English Language Learner law to comply with federal court requirements in the Flores court case. The law established a task force that was required to develop ELL model programs that school districts and charter schools would be required to adopt. The task force adopted a single model in September 2007 and school districts and charters must implement the
model in the 2008-09 school year. The model developed by the state ELL Task Force includes a four-hour block of English language development.

The Arizona Department of Education has stipulated that districts under corrective action include the fourhour Structured English Immersion (SEI) Program Model developed by the ELL Task Force as one way to help ELL students make significant progress. As the model was presented by the state, Sunnyside as well as other
districts throughout the state expressed concerns about the educational value and financial impact of the model. SUSD has identified the following concerns regarding the state model:

• ELL students would not be getting the same curriculum as their English-speaking peers.
• Spanish-speaking students would be segregated.
• Staffing levels for implementing a four-hour block would be cost-prohibitive.
• There is not sufficient classroom space to implement a four-hour model.
• The budget request process is not timely and does not address the material needs of the district to implement the model.

As a result of our concerns, the Sunnyside District has submitted an alternative SEI model to the state task force. In anticipation of approval, all Sunnyside schools will be required to implement the alternative SEI model in grades K-12. The following are the elements of the Sunnyside Alternative SEI Program Model:

• Students will be identified for participation in and exit from the model through the use of the Arizona English Language Learner Assessment (AZELLA) test.
• ELL students will have a two-hour block of English language development.
• ELL students will have an additional two hours of applied English language development through the content areas of science and math. In the applied language development classes, students will have the opportunity to practice the skills they are learning in the language development block.

Over the next few months, the SUSD Language Acquisition and Development Department will continue to work with school site staff to implement the components of the alternative model program, including scheduling, identifying and scheduling
students, and aligning the English Language Development curriculum with the content area curriculum.