ELA Teacher Qualification
Training Program
Guidelines
Fall 2008
Table of Contents
1.
Overview
1.1. Alignment to Federal, State and National Professional Organization Standards
1.2. Performance-based Outcomes and Assessments
2.
Designations
2.1. 2008-2009 Designations
2.2. Designating a Teacher
2.3. Criteria for Designation
2.4. Instruction Guidelines
3.
ELA Teacher
Qualification Training Program
3.1. Requirements for ELA Teacher Qualification Training
3.2. Timeframes for Completing ELA Teacher Qualification Training
3.3. Registering for ELA Teacher Qualification Training courses
3.4. ELA Teacher Qualification Training Program Agreement
4.
PDUs
(Professional Development Units) for ELA Teacher Qualification Training courses
5.
Converting
University Credit for ELA Teacher Qualification Training courses offered
through UCD
5.1. Teachers With Master’s Degrees or Endorsements in ESL/Bilingual Education
5.2. ELA Teacher Qualification Training Program Requirements for Teachers Enrolled in a Masters or Endorsement Program
6. Teachers
Who Have Taught at the University Level
ELA Teacher Qualification Training
Program
The goal of the Denver Public
Schools (DPS) English Language Acquisition (ELA) program is to use efficient
and effective techniques to provide students with the English language skills
they need to meaningfully participate in the mainstream English language
instructional program.
ELA Teacher Qualification
Training courses are offered in partnership with the
The ELA Teacher Qualification Training courses offered through UCD are in compliance with Federal Guidelines for Programs for English Language Learners. They are aligned with the new Colorado Department of Education (CDE) Standards for the Preparation of Teachers of English Language Learners (ELL) and the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) ESL Standards for Pre-K-12 Students.
Performance-based learning
outcomes are clearly stated, observable, measurable and achievable. Learning outcomes
are closely correlated with real world performance expectations. There is
consistency among content, outcomes, practice and assessment. Policies and
procedures ensure the integrity of the participant’s work. Achievement of
learning outcomes is documented. Participants will receive the textbooks “on
loan” and resources needed for each course at their first live session. Course web resources are in accordance with
the Americans with Disabilities Act.
A teacher is designated when the ELA department
receives and approves a request for designation from a principal. A teacher is designated as one of the
following:
q
ELA-S
q
ELA-E
q
ELA-S/ELA-E
q
ELA-S Resource
q
ELA-E Resource
q
q
q
Facilitator
q
Approved Alternative Education Teachers
q
Special Education Resource Teacher (Mild Moderate Teacher)
q
q
Gifted and Talented Classroom Teacher
Each principal is responsible for designating a teacher by completing the required information on the ELA Web Page at http://ela.dpsk12.org, select ELA Principal’s Designations.
Teachers designated by their Principals as ELA- E (English), ELA-S (Spanish), ELA-S/ELA-E (Spanish and English) are required to complete the ELA Teacher Qualification Training program.
ELA-S Middle School Counselors are required to be fully qualified AND pass all portions of the Spanish Language Proficiency (SLP) Exam by 2/13/2009.
ELA-S High School Counselors are not required to be fully qualified; however, they must hold a Counselor’s Certificate and pass all portions of the Spanish Language Proficiency (SLP) Exam by 2/13/2009.
Special education teachers in ELA program schools who teach English language learners are required to be designated and complete the ELA Teacher Qualification Training program. ELA Teacher Qualification Training is required for special education teachers who are in ELA program schools and have been designated by their principals.
ELA Designations for Center Programs: Teachers in special education center programs (
Gifted and Talented full-time
classroom teachers in magnet Highly Gifted Program that are in ELA program
schools are required to be designated and complete the ELA Teacher
Qualification Training program. This
requirement applies only to the schools in the magnet Highly Gifted Program
that are ELA program schools. The current magnet
Highly Gifted Programs in ELA program schools are: Archuleta,
Facilitators are not required to be fully qualified. Those who choose to register for an ELA Teacher Qualification Training course offered through UCD, must complete it, otherwise they will be responsible for paying the tuition.
Alternative Education teachers: Non-program schools such as alternative education will be allowed to designate teachers only on approval from the ELA Department and their Instructional Superintendent.
Physical education, music, art teachers and librarians should not be designated and are not eligible.
The court order requires principals to designate ELA teachers based on the particular needs of a school. When designating teachers, a principal considers a variety of factors such as the number of English language learners at a school and the kind of ELA program at a school.
· ELA-S teachers are responsible for instruction in Spanish literacy and content areas in schools that have a Transitional Native Language Instruction (TNLI) program.
· ELA-E teachers instruct English language learners in English. These teachers include English as a Second Language (ESL) Resource Teachers and ELA-E classroom and content area teachers.
· ELA-S/ELA-E teachers are responsible for instruction in Spanish literacy and content areas for students who have not yet transitioned into English instruction. These teachers also provide English instruction for students in their classrooms who have transitioned from Spanish instruction to all English instruction.
At the elementary level, the following teachers are eligible for ELA-S, ELA-E, ELA-S/ELA-E designations:
q Classroom teachers who service English language learners (This includes both Special Educators at ELA program schools and Gifted and Talented teachers who are homeroom core content area teachers at ELA program schools.)
q ESL Resource teachers
At the secondary level, the following teachers are eligible for ELA-S, ELA-E,
ELA-S/ELA-E designations:
q Content area (language arts, math, science, social studies) teachers who service English language learners
1. Physical education, music, art teachers and librarians should not be designated and are not eligible.
ELA Professionals who are designated must attend the face-to-face seminars and complete their required coursework (based on their designation). The required ELA courses offered through UCD are:
q TED 5000: ELA Foundations (formerly Unit 1)
q LLC 5030: Language and Literacy: Acquisition, Processes and Cognition I, Part I (formerly Unit 2)
q LLC 5820: Techniques in Teaching English as a Second Language (formerly Unit 3)
q LLC 5770: Effective Literacy Instruction for English Language Learners
(formerly Unit 4)
NOTE: TED 5000: ELA Foundations (1 semester hour) replaces LLC 5160 (formerly Unit 1). Teachers who have previously completed LLC 5160 are exempt from
TED 5000.
ELA-S and ELA-S Resource and ELA-S/ELA-E qualified teachers and ELA-S Middle School Counselors must pass all portions of the Spanish Language Proficiency (SLP) Exam by February 13, 2009 and complete these four required courses:
TED 5000 (formerly Unit 1), LLC 5030 (formerly Unit 2), LLC 5820 (formerly Unit 3), and LLC 5770 (formerly Unit 4).
ELA-E and ELA-E Resource qualified teachers must complete these four required courses:
TED 5000 (formerly Unit 1), LLC 5030 (formerly Unit 2),
LLC 5820 (formerly Unit 3), and LLC 5770 (formerly Unit 4).
ELA-S High School Counselors must hold a Counselor’s Certificate and pass all portions of the Spanish Language Proficiency (SLP) Exam by February 13, 2009.
Special Education Resource Teachers (Mild Moderate Teachers) must complete these two required courses: TED 5000 (formerly Unit 1) and LLC 5820 (formerly Unit 3).
Special Education Center Program Teachers must complete these four required courses:
TED 5000 (formerly Unit 1), LLC 5030 (formerly Unit 2),
LLC 5820 (formerly Unit 3), and LLC 5770 (formerly Unit 4).
The recommended course sequence order is listed below; one course per semester. Two courses can be taken in the summer semester.
q LLC 5820: Techniques in Teaching English as a Second Language
(formerly Unit 3)
q LLC 5030: Language and Literacy: Acquisition, Processes & Cognition, Part I (formerly Unit 2)
q TED 5000: ELA Foundations (formerly LLC 5160/Unit 1)
q LLC 5770: Effective Literacy Instruction for English Language Learners (formerly Unit 4)
ELA
designated teachers are expected to complete a total of four courses (10 graduate
credit hours) in two years (dated from their first year designation start date)
to become fully qualified. Special
Education Mild Moderate teachers have three semesters (dated from their first
year designation start date) to complete the two required courses.
There are eight opportunities during the two years to
complete the four required courses. One
course can be taken each semester during the school year; teachers can complete
up to two courses in the summer semester.
Special Education Mild Moderate teachers have four
opportunities to complete the two required courses during their three semester
completion timeline.
Upon principal
designation, each teacher receives a letter and an ELA Qualification Training
Status Report from the ELA Department specifying which courses need to be
completed to be fully qualified for their designation. Teachers need to contact the ELA Department
if they have any questions about their ELA Qualification Training Status Report.
In order to complete a course, a teacher must register for
the course, receive course materials, attend the course face-to-face live
sessions and complete the course work.
Participants must receive a B or higher grade to be able to apply credit
towards a certificate, master’s program or endorsement with UCD. A grade of C is considered passing for DPS
purposes.
In
order to avoid corrective actions sanctioned by Human Resources, participants
must adhere to the above guidelines.
These corrective actions could include non-renewal of contract or
recommendation for dismissal.
As of fall
2007, online registration for ELA Teacher Qualification courses will be handled
through the
A teacher must be on record with the ELA Department
as a designated ELA teacher in order to register for any course. The district will pay the UCD course tuition
one time for the required coursework for designated teachers only. Please refer to the ELA Teacher Qualification
Training Program Agreement below for additional details.
3.4 ELA Teacher
Qualification Training Program Agreement
This document must signed by all designated teachers at
their first live meeting session for each required course.
4. PDUs (Professional Development Units) for ELA Teacher Qualification Training courses
ELA Teacher Qualification courses offered through UCD are eligible for
PDUs under ProComp:
Any ProComp participants successfully completing an ELA
Teacher Qualification Training course offered through UCD is eligible to
receive a PDU for their work. A report of the completed
PDU will be submitted to Payroll for payment or banked for
future years. ProComp participants can earn one PDU salary increase each
contract year. If another PDU is earned during the same contract year, it
will be banked.
Prerequisites for participating in an ELA
Teacher Qualification Pre-Approved PDU:
After a teacher in ProComp has attended the first live face-to-face
seminar, the ProComp process for earning the Pre-Approved PDU is as follows:
·
Each participant who wants to use the UCD/ELA
graduate course for a pre-approved PDU will need to logon and register using
the DPS online Professional Development registration system. To register for the pre-approved PDU, click
this link, MyDPS.org and follow the PDU registration
instructions.
·
Be sure to select the UCD/ELA graduate course
section that is being taught by your instructor to ensure that
you will be eligible to receive pay for completing the PDU. (This is the
UCD/ELA graduate course that you are registered for and have already attended
the first live face-to-face seminar.)
ProComp teachers complete Professional Development Units (PDUs) for salary increment. Please refer questions about ProComp to the ProComp Hotline at 720-423-3900 or http://www.denverprocomp.org/
For questions about the ELA-S teacher stipend, please refer to the ELA web site at http://ela.dpsk12.org/stories/storyReader$58.
ELA Program
teachers may receive credit toward the Department of English Language
Acquisition teacher qualification requirements for related university course work. Credit for courses is awarded for university
coursework the day the transcripts are reviewed and approved by the ELA
Department. Teachers seeking credit must
contact Roma Pitt at Roma_Pitt@dpsk12.org
Credit will be given to teachers who submit coursework from universities that reflects the content of the ELA Teacher Qualification Training courses.
In order for a teacher
to get credit for a course, he/she must have taken the actual graduate level course (in blue)
or have taken the mandatory
content courses (in red) and one other course that satisfies the topics listed under each course.
TED 5000 - Unit 1 Content
*Introduction to the historical and legal foundations of bilingual and English as a second language education at the federal, state, and district levels. |
LLC 5030 - Unit 2
Content
*Second Language Acquisition *Applications of Educational Technology *Methods for Teaching ESL *Curriculum and Materials Development |
LLC5820 - Unit 3 Content
*Methods for Teaching ESL * Multicultural and linguistically different *Parent/Community relationships
*Curriculum and Materials Development |
LLC 5770 - Unit 4
Content
*Literacy for the Linguistically Different *Second Language Acquisition * Multicultural and linguistically different *Assessment of ELLs |
Course Work:
*Course: Historical and Legal
Foundations of Bilingual Education (ELA Foundations) |
Course Work:
*Second Language Acquisition |
Course Work:
*Methods
for Teaching ESL or *Techniques in Teaching English
as a Second Language |
Course Work:
*Literacy for the
Linguistically Different |
|
|
Course Work: Educational Media and Classroom Computers or Application of Educational Technology |
Course
Work: Bilingual/Multicultural Education |
Course
Work: Second Language Acquisition |
|
|
Course Work: Methods for Teaching ESL or Techniques in Teaching English as a Second Language |
Course
Work: Parent/Community Involvement |
Course Work: Bilingual/Multicultural Education |
|
|
Course Work: Curriculum and Materials Development in Bilingual/ESL |
Course Work: Curriculum and Materials Development in Bilingual/ESL |
Course Work: Methods/Assessment of Bilingual Education and ESL or Linking Assessment/Instruction in Language and
Literacy |
*Mandatory Coursework
Teachers entering DPS with an ESL/Bilingual
or equivalent endorsement from
Teachers entering DPS with a master's degree in ESL/Bilingual education or an equivalent degree must send a copy of their transcript that lists confirmation of their degree to the ELA Department. The date the transcript is received and approved, the teacher will be listed as having completed the ELA Teacher Qualification Training requirements.
Teachers in Residence, Teach for
If you have completed a master’s degree in ESL/Bilingual education or have a state endorsement in linguistic diversity, or are in the process of earning either, please refer to the ELA Teacher Qualification Training Program Guidelines on the ELA website. You may be exempt from the district’s requirements for this program.
If you are designated ELA-S, ELA-S Resource or ELA-S/ELA-E and you have not yet passed all portions of the SLP, you must do so as soon as possible. You are expected to read the information about this exam found at http://ela.dpsk12.org/stories/storyReader$156/. Failure to pass all portions of the SLP by 2/13/2009 will require you to vacate your current position at the end of the school year and you will not be able to secure another ELA-S position until all parts of the SLP are passed.
5.2.1 Teachers enrolled in a university or college program leading to either a master's degree or state endorsement in ESL/Bilingual education or an equivalent master's or endorsement program, may receive a temporary deferment from the ELA Teacher Qualification Training requirements. Teachers are expected to complete their master’s program within three years of an assignment as an ELA teacher.
5.2.2 In order to receive a temporary deferment from the ELA Teacher Qualification Training program, teachers must send the ELA Department a transcript verifying progress in the program each semester. Receipt of this verification will extend the temporary deferment from the ELA Teacher Qualification Training requirements. Without semester updates, teachers will lose their temporary deferment from the requirements. Teachers who complete their university program and who earn either a master’s degree or state endorsement in ESL/Bilingual/Linguistically Diverse will not need to take the UCD/ELA coursework.
5.2.3 Upon completion of the program, teachers who receive an ESL/Bilingual endorsement from the Colorado Department of Education, must submit a copy of the endorsement to the ELA Department. At that time, teachers will be listed as having completed their ELA Teacher Qualification Training requirements.
5.2.4 Upon completion of the program, teachers who are not going to receive an ESL/Bilingual/Linguistically diverse endorsement from the Colorado Department of Education, must submit their final transcript that lists confirmation of their master’s degree. At that time, teachers will be listed as having completed their ELA Teacher Qualification Training requirements.
5.2.5 Teachers enrolled in the endorsement
or master's program at the
6. Teachers
Who Have Taught at the University Level
6.1 Teachers who have taught courses at the university level which align with the DPS' ELA Teacher Qualification Training program may submit adequate documentation (a copy of their honorarium, etc.) to the ELA Compliance Department for consideration of course credit for the ELA Teacher Qualification Training program. If approved, the teacher will receive credit for the course(s) but is not eligible for pay or DPS step-grade or university credit.