Alabama's CNA for English Language Learners

The Alabama Department of Education’s Title III Language Instruction for Limited English Proficient and Immigrant Students Program partnered with ESCORT to facilitate a Comprehensive Needs Assessment for English Language Learners(ELLs). This CNA was conducted to more effectively address the needs of ELLs in Alabama’s K-12 schools.

The needs assessment was modeled after the CNA process used for the Alabama Migrant Education Program. A committee of more than 30 members was assembled to participate in the CNA. Members included ESL education professors, ELL teachers, Title III coordinators, content-area teachers, community representatives and State Department of Education (SDE) specialists.

Under the direction of ESCORT staff, the SDE charged the committee members with the following tasks:

• Deliberate and prioritize measurable concerns of ELLs within the focus areas of literacy, math, school readiness, and graduation;
• Collect and analyze data to validate or refute concerns;
• Identify achievement gaps and subsequent needs of ELLs;
• Determine research-based solutions to address the needs; and
• Prioritize and formalize a strategic action plan.

The CNA process culminated with the identification of academic needs of ELLs and recommended solutions based on widely accepted research in the field of second language acquisition and the instruction and assessment of language minority students. The final phase was to create an action plan for designing and delivering ongoing professional development services.

As a result of the CNA, ESCORT worked closely with the AL SDE to put in place a three year, three phase professional development pilot program designed to increase teacher and administrator knowledge and skills for educating ELLs. Click here for more information about that project.

Source: Final Report: Alabama English Language Learners Comprehensive Needs Assessment (August 2006)