Date of Award

Fall 2023

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Educational Studies

First Advisor

Kathleen Cunningham

Abstract

ABSTRACT This problem of practice addresses creating more positive outcomes for multilingual learners in achievement data for English Proficiency Progress matching or exceeding achievement data patterns of the general student population in a suburban middle school. Improvement science is the framework used to help solve this problem. The improvement team consisted of an assistant principal of instruction, a multilanguage learner teacher assigned to this school along with four additional schools, and the principal. The team began their work with the goal of understanding the current system by learning from students, families, and teachers about their experiences with multilingual learning. Potential areas of change were selected based on how they directly impact student learning and how much access the team had to influence or make changes. Areas explored as potential pathways for solutions included professional development and teacher training, master scheduling, school culture, and family outreach. Based on what the team learned about their local system in combination with published resources and research, they determined that professional development could offer a potential solution to help our multilingual learners to grow in language acquisition while also showing what they know in content acquisition. This problem of practice outlines the process and power of improvement science to improve outcomes for multilingual learners.

Rights

© 2024, Stephanie Corley Huckabee

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