Schools are full of adults who aren’t classroom teachers, but a classroom teacher can go through their entire career without really understanding what those other adults do every day. How are they helping students? What can they do to help me? What can I do to help them? This is the first in an occasional series of “explorations” into the sometimes mysterious roles beyond the realm of the “classroom teacher.” In this exploration, Sara Kennedy will take you into the world of the English Language Learner (ELL) Coordinator.

I taught elementary Spanish for a decade before transitioning to a full-time support role as English Language Learner (ELL) Coordinator at High Tech High International. Though I have my Masters degree in TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language), until moving to California from the Midwest, most of my English teaching experience was limited to my year in elementary classrooms in Spain through a Fulbright grant. Once in California, as a Spanish teacher working with fairly small populations of students classified as English Language Learners, especially in an area where many of those students are from Spanish-speaking families, I found myself filling my prep periods and evenings with bits and pieces of what is now my full-time role: supporting English Language Learners and their families. Teaching multiple grades and levels of Spanish meant that free time was in short supply, so it was just the students and families with the most obvious needs for support who were getting direct time and attention. Even dedicating every moment of free time to supporting students, it was frustrating to realize that most were not getting the support they needed.  After my Spanish program was cut due to funding, I jumped at the chance to work as an ELL Coordinator full-time at High Tech High schools.

A Note on Terminology

Although the state of California uses the official classification of “English Language Learner” to describe students who have a legal right to a set of state- and federally-mandated supports from their school, High Tech High is one of many organizations that now use the term “Emergent Multilingual Learners” instead of “English Language Learners.”  We do so with the understanding that being multilingual is an ongoing process, looks different for each student and family, and is something to be celebrated! Thus, in this piece, I’ll do what I do every day, which is describe myself using my official title of “ELL Coordinator,” and describe the young people I serve as “emergent multilingual learners.” 

Shifting our terms we use to describe these students from “English Language Learner” to “Emergent Multilingual Learner” may seem cosmetic, but it cuts to the heart of my role. Unfortunately, many school programs still treat students learning English from a deficit standpoint: they are lacking English proficiency and need that to be corrected. While getting students proficiency in English allows them access to our school curriculum and is empowering in itself, it is also important to recognize multilingualism as an asset and not a deficit. Emphasizing multilingualism (and bilingualism, for that matter) as a student “superpower” is an ongoing area of growth in education, even though speaking more than one language is self-evidently impressive! Some of the ways I have tried to emphasize bilingualism or multilingualism is by advocating for more opportunities to gain proficiency in languages other than English. I have taught a Spanish 3 Honors elective class in the past, particularly tailoring it to my students who are native Spanish speakers. Recently, California has also expanded the options available for students to receive the State Seal of Biliteracy, and I am working on developing the support for as many students as possible to qualify for that seal by graduation. Supporting clubs like our school branch of MEChA (a Chicanx student organization) is a way to support identity beyond literacy. These specific options are tailored for our Spanish-speaking students, who make up the majority (but not the entirety) of our multilingual students.

Empowerment is not just for our students, but for their families. Building relationships with families is an important part of my job (as it is for any educator) but in particular I have advocated for increased access for families who speak languages other than English. This means helping staff provide information to non-English speaking parents, and collaborating with administration to plan events that are accessible to all families. In addition to the work within the school, I also support our newly formed English Language Advisory Committee, or ELAC, a family-led committee that offers both information to families and a formal structure for families to give input on school support and programming. I hope that by emphasizing and developing opportunities where multilingualism is an advantage, and by continuing to advocate for more accessibility for all parents, I can continue to empower students.

Who are “Emergent Multilingual Learners”?

California’s official designation of students as “English Language Learners” happens when a student first enrolls in a public school in the state. If the family indicates there is any other language other than English in the home, the student is given an English test. If that initial test shows any deficits in proficiency, students are classified as “English Language Learners” and tested yearly until they have demonstrated proficiency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

To go beyond the rather dry language of official designation, there are many reasons that students come to our schools with the classification of “English Language Learner.” Across the United States, just over 10% of students in public schools are classified as English Language Learners. California has the highest percentage, with over 19%. What that classification means varies broadly. Some students are new to US schools, and gaining proficiency in spoken English along with using it for academic subjects. In our border community, some students are technically new to US schools but are fully bilingual and nearly biliterate when they arrive. Some students have not been able to reclassify due to a disability, especially when separating language differences from language-based disabilities can be complicated. Some students do not reclassify quickly due to interruptions in their education, whether that is civil war, displacement, or just a lack of resources in schools for adequate support. Some students have come to us after years of formal education in another language, and can benefit from supporting texts in another language. Others may have only had classes and literacy support in English, and may not even speak any other language at home. All these students might be on my caseload, but need vastly different supports. In addition, there are many students who need support even though they have been “reclassified” as a result of their most recent test scores. There are also bilingual and multilingual students who may never have been classified as such, due to families indicating that only English is spoken in the home. A wider understanding of literacy and what it means to be an “Emergent Multilingual Learner” means that beyond a label on paperwork, educators may find commonalities in what works to support multilingual students: scaffolds in writing, small group to read and discuss, use of audiobooks to access grade level texts, and—most importantly—a recognition of the richness they and their families bring to our communities.

The Goals and Responsibilities of the ELL Coordinator 

When I first interviewed for the role of English Language Learner Coordinator at High Tech High International, it was presented to me as a three-part role: supporting students, supporting families, and supporting staff. 

Many of the specifics of this role change day to day, but in general the year can be broken down into a few big picture themes. The beginning of the year is dedicated to identifying students who need support, planning those supports, and looping in staff and families. For returning students, at the beginning of the school year my focus is making sure teachers know who is in their class and what support they need. This means I collaborate with the education specialists to meet with classroom teachers by grade level about students on both of our caseloads, especially as there are students where there is overlap—students with disabilities who are also emergent multilingual learners. A lot of time is also spent getting to know incoming freshmen. Unless students are coming from our schools, it can take a while for records to arrive, meaning that we don’t always know which students are emergent multilingual learners at the beginning of the year. I try to find that out in the first weeks of school in a variety of ways: spending time in ninth grade classrooms to get to know students, combing through PowerSchool for clues when it comes to home language, calling schools to track down records, and checking in with individual families and students.

Once I have a sense of which students I will be supporting and what they need, I can plan out the necessary supports, whether that is collaborating with education specialists to make sure our academic coaches are in specific classes with specific groups, planning out small-group support for classes or individual projects, scheduling individual check ins with students, or working with individual teachers to plan supports in their classroom. I use any available information during the school year to identify how to adjust that support. Looking at attendance, grades, and getting feedback from teachers, students, and families lets me know where the levels of support need to be adjusted.

Assessment and reclassification has its own arc. The initial English ELPAC test has to be administered within the first 30 days of school, to any students with another language in the home who are attending school for the first time in California. At our high school level, that is normally only a handful of students—much fewer than at the kindergarten level, for example. The Summative ELPAC is administered in the Spring to all students still classified as ELL, to check their proficiency levels. After each round of assessments, I evaluate test scores of my students to see who might be eligible for reclassification, based on the state ELPAC test, another norm referenced test like the MAP, grades, and parent consultation. 

One day in the life:

After teaching in a classroom role for over a decade, I have often tried (without much success) to plot this support onto a weekly calendar, like the grids of classes and preps that I’ve always had to guide my planning. The reality is that while this role does involve lots of scheduling, it rarely is the same from day to day or week to week. I have a constantly evolving daily checklist that sometimes is endless but is never boring. Here is an example of what that might look like:

• 7:00 a.m. On the way out the door, I raid my bookshelf for a poetry book to loan to one of my seniors. She is feeling overwhelmed by the need to choose a book to read for honors English, and I remember her loving poetry back in ninth grade.
• 7:30 a.m. I attend one of my students’ IEP meetings to interpret for her mom who does not speak much English. Many of the staff attending understand Spanish, but I also interpret for the ones who do not. During the course of the IEP I also share information about the student’s current English levels and accommodations for the annualELPAC test. 
• 8:15 a.m. When I get back to my office, a few juniors are there waiting for me. As freshmen they were in my reading group and now they stop by frequently to use my electric kettle to make tea. I ask one student about how his sister is doing in college. Last year she ran into some financial aid roadblocks, and I’m trying to help her younger siblings avoid similar obstacles—and see college as possible for them—as we near the application process.
• 8:25 a.m. At the beginning of first period, during KBAR (Kick Back and Read) time in ninth grade, I read out loud with a small group while the rest of the class reads silently. After 20 minutes of reading, I hang out in the classroom to hear the instructions for their project work time.
• 9:00 a.m. I pull up PowerSchool and scroll through the attendance and grade summary for the students on my caseload. I make a list of students I want to check in with in the next few days, including a junior who has been absent recently and is missing assignments.
• 9:25 a.m. I call the director of ELL programming across our schools to troubleshoot some issues getting access to last year’s test results. It always takes time at the beginning of the school year to get access to the ELPAC results for students coming in from other schools (usually in ninth grade.)
• 9:35 a.m. During second period I have scheduled time to support one of our ninth grade humanities teachers. The class is reading some articles to prepare for a socratic seminar that will be happening during third period. A small group of students—including several of my emergent multilingual students but sometimes including others who need support—read the article out loud with me in my office, and we take notes together. During break, one of the students stays behind to run through her ideas with me one more time so she feels ready to speak in class.
• 10:40 a.m. An education specialist stops by to ask if I can help reach out to a Spanish-speaking parent about an IEP meeting, after not getting an email response. We call together and get the IEP scheduled. The junior who I noticed was absent earlier walks by my office and I call him in to check in quickly—he was out sick. I have his spring test results printed out to send home, so I show them to him—he scored high and is ready to reclassify! We call his mom together. I tell her how proud I am of him and he hides a grin inside his hoodie.
• 11:45 a.m. Some of my students stop by to use my electric kettle at the beginning of lunch, and I check in with one student who has been brainstorming internship ideas with me. I send him the link to a friend’s business that I think would be a good fit, then head to the grade level lunch meeting, where we check in about students of concern and plan an upcoming family night.
• 12:30 p.m. I have family communications to draft, but I also want to check in on some tenth graders. I go upstairs to work in the tenth grade commons, to see if I can find a spot where I won’t be interrupting instruction. I draft communications in English and Spanish, and then use a translator for Arabic and Russian. When I see that students are doing independent work, I pop in to check that my student has received access to the audiobook he needs. I see one of my students leave class to go to the bathroom and don’t see him come back for a while, so I take a quick stroll through the building to intercept him and chat on the way back to class.
• 1:30 p.m. I meet with one of my colleagues to plan out the next few sessions of our College and Career Writing X-Block, an elective class that we are co-teaching. This class is open to all students to help them prepare for college and internships, but is also a place for me to directly support the students on my caseload.
• 2:40 p.m. During advisory period at the end of the day, I don’t have an advisory of my own as I am one of the support staff helping plan for ninth grade advisories—a combination of community building and college readiness activities.
• 3:30 p.m. This is my day to staff after school tutoring, so I go to help any students who show up with assignments. One of my students who promised to come and work with me doesn’t show. I text him and find out he is quarantining. We set up a time the next day to work on some things over Zoom so he can keep up with his honors work.
• 4:30 p.m. I go back to my office to sort through any emails, texts, and voicemails I have not been able to address during the day. I call a parent of one of my juniors back and talk through some concerns about some of her classes this year. I call two parents to share the good news that their students are ready to be reclassified. I look over the agenda draft for an upcoming ELAC meeting and send some texts about it to some parents I met at a recent parent coffee.
• 5:30 p.m. I have a non-school meeting via Zoom, which I attend from my office to avoid traffic and so I can finish stuffing envelopes for the annual family letters.
• 6:00 p.m. I finish the Zoom meeting on the phone so I can leave work and drop off new bus passes at a student’s house on the way home, so she does not have to pay to get to school the next day.
• 6:30 p.m. At home, I briefly log in to check that all students have correctly loaded for MAP testing the next day, and email teachers to remind them and make sure they have the information necessary for testing.

For me, being a full-time staff member responsible for ELL support has meant that even with other roles, I have had the flexibility to adapt to what is needed by administration, teachers, students, and families. I have the schedule flexibility to collaborate with other staff, communicate and meet with parents who work full-time, plan evening parent meetings and workshops, be available when needed for meetings between monolingual staff and families, schedule testing across grades, and work with small groups as needed. All these things could be distributed among a variety of staff and in between teaching another subject, but the fact that I am doing this full-time has provided cohesiveness and relationships that would be more difficult to achieve otherwise. Especially in a year when a global pandemic shuts down schools and schools need to completely reinvent the way they teach, and when the environment of students’ learning experiences are so often beyond our locus of control, I have appreciated this flexibility. 

How we can all work together

The ultimate goal is to support all of our students to the best of our ability. We are able to do this when we all work together and draw on each other’s expertise and experiences. 

As the duties of this role shift with each academic year and group of students, I am constantly trying to better define and replicate what is working and adapt what is not. At the same time, I have tried to make the details of this support quantifiable, since I know schools are constantly trying to juggle staffing, time, and funding in order to support students. It isn’t always easy to advocate for support that is sometimes hard to define—like a full-time ELL coordinator! With the ways the pandemic has forced us all to reexamine education, I hope that I can continue to advocate for student-centered roles.