Team Teaching Among Mixed Messages: Implementing Two-Way Enrichment Bilingual Education at Third Grade in Texas

• In Event: From No Child Left Behind to Common Core: How Do New Standards Affect Practices and Policies for English Learners?

Abstract

Objectives
Texas has not adopted CCSS, opting to maintain the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). TEKS and their concomitant STAAR tests appear more constraining than CCSS, frequently leaving teachers of ELs with little space for curricular or instructional agency (Palmer & Snodgrass-Rangel, 2011; Valenzuela, 2005). At the same time, Texas mandates use of students’ L1 in elementary school, thus supporting language and literacy development in research-supported bilingual education programs (Gandara & Rumberger, 2009).
In this context, as schools attempt to move from transitional bilingual education (TBE) to an enrichment-oriented two-way bilingual model, tensions emerge between teaching to the STAAR tests through mastery of the TEKS, and teaching for bilingualism and biliteracy. How do teams of bilingual and ESL teachers work together to implement the new bilingual program while sustaining mastery of unchanged curricular standards? In this analysis, we explore the connections and tensions between language acquisition and content learning.
Theoretical Framework
We appeal to Ricento and Hornberger’s (1996) language policy implementation “onion.” Teachers draw on personal beliefs and past experiences as they interpret and implement policy mandates; thus teachers are on-the-ground policy-makers (Menken & Garcia, 2010). Furthermore, assessment policy and the implementation of curriculum related to standards essentially operate as de facto language policy, with implications for the educational opportunities of ELs (Menken, 2008).
Methods
We conducted an ethnography of policy implementation (Hornberger & Johnson, 2007; Johnson, 2009) at two small elementary schools in a large urban district working to implement two-way enrichment “Gomez-Gomez” (Gomez, Freeman, & Freeman, 2005) bilingual programs for mixed populations of Spanish and English dominant students.
Data Sources
For one school year, we focused on two third-grade teaching teams (a bilingual and an ESL classroom teacher), one at each school, in their first year moving from TBE to enrichment bilingual education. We observed teacher planning meetings and classroom instruction in both English and Spanish classrooms, mainly focusing on language arts.
Results
Because of pressures for students to reach content standards for high stakes testing in L1 (either English or Spanish), teachers struggled to negotiate spaces for students’ academic language development in L2. Both schools ultimately abandoned L2 goals in favor of test-based content mastery, thus undermining language policy implementation.
Scholarly Significance
This paper explores the inextricable connection and oft-perceived tension between teaching content and investing in language acquisition; mastering this tension is crucial for teacher success with EL students, regardless of context. However, the Texas third grade context –simultaneously encouraging investment in bilingualism/biliteracy and narrowly defining curricular success as mastery of multiple-choice math/reading tests– provides a valuable laboratory for such exploration. Team teaching and two-way enrichment bilingual education make this tension between content and language goals more explicit: both encourage teachers to delineate boundaries and build bridges between languages and content areas.

Authors

• Deborah K. Palmer, The University of Texas - Austin

• Kathryn I. Henderson, The University of Texas - Austin

• Dorothy Wall, The University of Texas - Austin