Abstract This article describes the...

Abstract

This article describes the implementation and assessment of the contentment Area Program Enhancement (CAPE) design Based on the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach, CAPE furthers a collaborative environment among teachers, administrators, and practitioners to improve instruction and achievement for English language learners. Specifically, the CAPE implementation in a predominantly Hispanic instruct district in south Texas is examined in word s of program goals, instructional support, administrator and teacher program critical assessment, and scholar assessment through the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, a high-stakes, statemandated standard The CAPE approach was originate effective with English language learning scholars including those who were at-risk of dropping disclosed of the school. Through several paired-samples t-test forward the students' reading and mathematics Texas Learning Indexes, the program was fix to improve the student scores in the two domains. The research also confirms that educate commitment to improve their teacher instructional approach was crucial to the succes of program implementation.

Introduction

The meaning of this article is to describe the implementation and assessment of the easy in mind Area Program Enhancement (CAPE) pattern The main concern for the program was to find an instructional approach that increased English language learning (ELL) students' chances of academic succes Finding like an instructional approach is paramount because the number of ELL scholars continues to increase nationwide and their academic performance to decrease. According to a scrutinize of state education agencies bearinged by the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) for the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs (OBEMLA), the total number of ELL observers enrolled in public and non-public institutes reached 3,184,696 students in the 1994-95 teach year, a 4.8 percent increase from the previous year. According to the same scrutinize (MacIas & Kelly, 1996), Texas has the inferior largest enrollment of ELL scholars in the country. There were 514 139 ELL scholars enrolled in Texas public drills in 1996-97, or 13% of all the observers in the state. The Texas Education Agency (TEA, 1999) also reported that 119% of the state scholars participated in bilingual or English as asecond language (ESL) programs. This amounted to 463 134 bookish mans for the school year 1997-98 when the reflection started. This percentage has been increasing steadily to 121 125 and 126 percent for exercise years 1998-99, 1999-2000, and 2000-01 respectively (Texas Education Agency, 2000; 2001; 2002)

An analysis of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS), a high-stakes, state-mandated trial shows that the gap between the percentage of ELL learners that passed the test and that of non-ELL passing increased with the grade of the same height (TEA, 1998). At thesecondary on a level the gap ranges from 42 percentage points to 48 percentage points in sixth and tithe grades, respectively. Likewise, the percentage of ELL learners passing the 1997 TAAS decreased markedly as these bookish mans progressed through the grade plains Thus in the third grade, 60% of ELL bookish mans passed the test compared to and nothing else 22% in the tenth grade. These findings move a systematic weeding out of ELL scholars from the educational system. This weeding disclosed is in part the issue of schools not meeting the ELL povertys (Green & Solfs, 1997).

Part of the moot point as reported by the TEA (1998) is a stern shortage of bilingual and ESL certified teachers, from kindergarten to the twelfth grades. Seventy-four districts reported needing more than 2000 additional bilingual/ESL teachers. In a teacher demand view for school year 2001-02 prepared by dint of Texas A&M University's Institute for School-University Partnerships, the greatest teacher emergencys were in the areas of elementary bilingual/ESL education with 2906 teachers (Institute for School-University Partnerships, 2002) The cogitation also found acute demands forsecondary easy in mind area teachers for mathematics (2508) and science (2191) and for special education teachers in elementary (2267) and secondary (2273) seminarys State policy requires districts to assign bilingual/ESL teachers to the lower grades when there is a shortage. As a inference higher-grade instruction for ELL close examiners is inadequate in many drill districts. Through a variety of instructional supports, CAPE attempted to help ameliorate this problem

The CAPE Model

The CAPE program is a collaborative between the Intercultural evolution Research Association (IDRA) of San Antonio, Texas, and a predominantly Hispanic (96%) train district in South Texas. In this district, common of every four students registered is ELL and virtually all (934%) of its more than 14000 bookish mans are economically disadvantaged.

"In 1997 IDRA was awarded a Title VII grant to implement CAPE. CAPE sponsors a teaching training program based forward the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA). CAPE training was designed to come together the needs of ELL bookish mans at the intermediate grade plains CAPE focuses on using learning strategies in cooperative settings to accelerate the acquisition of the two language skills and academic peace Based on the work of Cummins (1980; 1981) and Collier (1987; 1989) CALLA is supported through a strong research base in the areas of cognition and metacognition (Anderson, 1976; Gagne, Yekovich, & Yekovich, 1993) and other language research (O'Malley, Chamot, & Kupper 1989; Chamot & O'Malley, 1994; Chamot, 1995) According to this research, CALLA can help to qualified the academic needs of observers who (a) have English communicative ability, moreover who find it difficult to use English as a tool for acquiring academic content; (b) have acquired academic universals in their native language, if it were not that who need help in transferring them to English; or (c) are English dominant bilinguals and have not acquired academic language skills in their family circle language.