Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Education El Training topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
ADE outlines K–3 EL standards, training push and request for five specialists
Summary
Arizona Department of Education officials told the K–3 literacy subcommittee they have revised English‑learner standards and are expanding targeted teacher training statewide; staff said demand for training now exceeds capacity and the office has requested five additional specialists to increase monitoring and professional learning.
Adella Santa Cruz, deputy associate superintendent for the Arizona Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition Services, told the K–3 literacy subcommittee the office’s mission is to ensure English learners achieve academically by aligning language instruction to the state’s ELA standards and accelerating reclassification in the early years.
Santa Cruz described the office’s history in developing the state’s English language proficiency standards (ELPs) and the AELLA assessment. ‘‘The Early Childhood years are the years when we can affect the quickest changes,’’ she said, adding that teachers’ professional learning is the central lever for improving outcomes.
Danella Kirkland, the department’s director of professional learning, walked members through Arizona’s four‑prong Language Development Approach—asset‑based practice, integrated instruction, targeted explicit language instruction, and assessment/monitoring—and stressed targeted ELD for K–3. She detailed the five language components that ground training (phonology, morphology, lexicon, syntax and semantics) and showed how targeted instruction feeds kindergarten reading foundational skills into mainstream ELA work.
Kirkland said the department revised its instructional resource guide and produced an Appendix B crosswalk showing side‑by‑side alignment between the ELP and ELA standards in response to teacher feedback. She described July training activity across the state: ‘‘We provided 15 trainings across the state in the month of July and reached about 400 teachers,’’ she said, noting that trainings emphasized immediate classroom application—choral reading, kinesthetic strategies and small‑group modeling—to help teachers put language work into content contexts.
During questions, members pressed ADE on capacity and results. Kirkland said ‘‘the demand is starting to outweigh our capacity,’’ and Santa Cruz said the office has requested five additional full‑time specialists to expand training and monitoring. On proficiency, ADE staff said EL students’ proficiency on the state assessment rose from earlier single digits to about 9% at the start of 2023 and to roughly 12% in the most recent internal counts; ADE said final reclassification tallies for the latest year were not yet specified.
Committee members raised concerns about program alignment and monitoring burdens—specifically how targeted EL models, AZELLA assessment requirements and Move On When Reading interventions fit together in K–3 schedules. ADE staff confirmed crosswalk resources exist but said there is not yet a separate departmental guidance document tying the new language‑development approach directly to Move On When Reading implementation. The subcommittee scheduled follow‑up work on cut scores and alignment at future meetings.
The subcommittee did not take formal action at the meeting; staff said they would circulate follow‑up materials and incorporate these discussions into recommendations to the State Board.
