Dive Brief:
- Liz Serrato, a principal in the Visalia Unified School District in California, has developed a method of supporting English learners that has garnered rapid achievement gains, and part of her drive stems from her own experience as an immigrant student.
- EdSource reports Serrato’s system is to analyze academic data on students to identify their strengths and weaknesses, collaborate with teachers on targeted interventions, track progress closely and develop close ties with students and their families to support student achievement.
- As a learning director at La Joya Middle School, where Serrato first implemented this system, students made a 10% jump in the portion meeting or exceeding English language arts standards from the 2014-15 to the 2015-16 school year — growth the superintendent attributes at least partly to Serrato’s system.
Dive Insight:
It takes more work to develop targeted interventions for every single student based on his or her learning needs, but this type of system is what gets results. Schools can use new data tracking systems to save teachers time and take advantage of personalized learning software that helps differentiate instruction. But there is much to be said for the portion of Serrato’s system that prizes relationships with students and families. Students respond better to people they trust.
That’s part of why students perform better and have fewer behavioral problems when they have teachers who share their race or ethnicity. With a severe shortage in nonwhite teachers and little evidence it’s going to go away anytime soon, schools have to develop alternative methods of reaching students and creating connections across cultures. Professional development that focuses on cross-cultural understanding is a good place to start.
