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Jeanne Taylor is old school in the education world.
The Franke Park Elementary teacher has traveled around the world teaching children English and to figure out the best ways for them to learn.
She taught children in Taiwan and later traveled to refugee camps from Thailand to the Philippines to pick up teaching skills she could bring back to her Fort Wayne classroom to help her own foreign students learn her language.
The 30-year veteran is now entrusted with helping students learn to read and write in a language they’ve never spoken.
Her degree in education allows her to teach limited-English-speaking students, but Taylor does not hold a specialty license in teaching English as a New Language and has never completed the college courses required to achieve that certification.
And she’s in the majority. Most of the teachers in Indiana assigned to teach English as a New Language do not hold a certification in the subject, according to data provided by the Indiana Department of Education and local school districts.
Unless Hoosier educators obtained a teaching license after 2006, when a new set of guidelines were implemented, that educator is not required to obtain additional training to teach English as a New Language. Even then, it’s only required for middle and high school teachers.
Students with limited English skills receive a lot of attention around the state ISTEP+ exam time. Even though many can’t read or write English, they’re taking the same standardized tests as American-born students. The results sometimes cost their schools a passing grade under state and federal standards.
“I think it’s important that teachers who teach their subject areas be licensed in that area,” said April Steury, English as a Second Language coordinator for East Allen County Schools, who is certified.
Others agree with Taylor and believe as long as teachers have experience in teaching the subject and attempt to learn more through conferences and professional development opportunities, they’re fine.
“Anecdotally, I would say there’s not a whole lot of difference. We have very experienced (English as a New Language) teachers who don’t have the certification,” said Emily Schwartz Keirns, English Language Learners coordinator for Fort Wayne Community Schools. “A couple of our outstanding teachers that get really good results with their kids are not certified. It’s a good thing, but it’s not the only way to become excellent teachers.”
In Fort Wayne Community Schools, there are 38 English as a New Language teachers. Seven of those are certified to teach the subject.
There are 19 schools that offer language services to students with limited English-speaking skills and about 80 languages are spoken in the district. There were nearly 1,950 limited English-speaking students in the district last school year.
Their scores on the English portion of the state ISTEP+ exam ranged from 8 percent passing in 10th grade to 47 percent in fifth grade. The limited-English-speaking population is one of five reasons why FWCS did not meet the standards set forth by the federal No Child Left Behind law last year.
Students spend the majority of the school day in class with the rest of the student body and spend between 30 minutes to an hour each day with their English as a New Language teacher.
The situation is similar at East Allen Community Schools, though the district has a higher population of Burmese refugees and must structure their instruction differently. Those students spend nearly all day with an English as a New Language teacher, not only learning English but also basic social skills. Many have never had any formal schooling.
Of the 18 English as a New Language teachers at East Allen, five have the certification, including the district coordinator.
Other districts with fewer limited-English-speaking students don’t have certified teachers working with the students. Northwest Allen County Schools has one English as a New Language teacher, at Maple Creek Middle School, who is a licensed teacher and certified to teach limited-English-speaking students.
The rest of the district’s schools employ a teacher’s aide, known as a paraprofessional, to work with the students. The reason Northwest Allen doesn’t employ more licensed teachers is because the aides are paid less than teachers and funding for the English as a New Language program is limited, said Nancy Leininger, English as a second language coordinator.
Until 2006, teachers who graduated from an Indiana college with a degree in education and an intent to teach limited-English-speaking students were not required to have taken any classes to prepare them. But then the Indiana Department of Education established new guidelines, and any teacher holding a new license would have to be certified in English as a New Language if that teacher wanted to teach it at the middle or high school level.
Elementary school teachers are still not required to be certified, according to the state.
For a long time, the certification was offered only at Indiana State University, Ball State University and the Bloomington, Northwest and South Bend campuses of Indiana University, said Jim Beard, director of licensing and advising for the school of education at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. IPFW began offering the certification last year, and so far, only one student has received it, Beard said.
A teacher who holds the old license who is interested in obtaining the certification would have to take six courses worth three credit hours each at IPFW, Beard said. The more aggressive student could finish the courses within a year but most take longer, he said.
It costs nearly $4,000 to complete the 18 credit hours at the undergraduate level and nearly $4,900 at the graduate level. The Fort Wayne district does not reimburse teachers for the cost, Schwartz Keirns said.
Officials at FWCS and EACS encourage their teachers to obtain the certification.
“We do prefer that our (English as a New Language) teachers have the certification and when we post positions, it’s always posted that the certification is preferred,” Schwartz Keirns said.
It’s a question of experience versus training. Is taking some additional college-level courses on how to teach limited-English-speaking students the only way to make a teacher more qualified?
Katie Otto says yes. The 38-year-old Forest Park Elementary School English as a New Language teacher has a degree in Spanish and history from Indiana University and received her teaching certificate along with an endorsement in bilingual education from IPFW.
“I think there’s a big advantage to it,” Otto said of holding the certification. “There’s a difference in understanding how language is acquired and teaching English.”
And that’s what it comes down to for many students. Teachers need to figure out how they learn the language and be sensitive to their home cultures, Otto said.
Teachers with the appropriate training understand that many foreign students will go through a silent period and not talk for months and educators can eventually help pull them out of that, Otto said.
The lack of a requirement is comparable to allowing a teacher licensed in art to teach Spanish just because she speaks the language, Steury said. That’s the current setup: as long as teachers speak English and have a teaching degree, they are considered qualified enough to help non-English-speaking students learn the language.
But it’s more than that, she said.
A teacher who has been trained on how to teach English would understand the natural approach to learning a foreign language, emphasizing vocabulary, listening and speaking, Steury said. A person with no training might approach the classroom differently, pushing phonics and reading right off the bat instead of helping the students learn the necessary vocabulary and listening skills before jumping into reading, she said.
“I think there’s a good element to getting that language background,” Otto said. “Whether you’ve been a teacher for so many years or not, I think it’s helpful.”
But for now, a majority of area teachers still rely on their world and classroom experiences, along with any outside training they receive.
“It’s always nice to have the professionalism of a certification, but I always say too that experience is also a good teacher,” Taylor said.
ksoderlund@jg.net
