MIDTESOL Matters Summer 2001

By Ron Long 

For the last decade, several collaborative groups within our national professional organization, TESOL, have been working to develop standards for different concentrations of teachers and learners within our profession. After years of work at the national level, the time is ripe for discussions at the local level about how these standards will be implemented. In keeping with this goal, I invite you to come to the MIDTESOL Fall Conference near Kansas City (actually Lee’s Summit) on October 19 and 20, 2001 and learn much more about what is going on in our field. The theme of this year’s conference will be Understanding and Using Standards for English Language Learners.

As this work has developed, different types of standards have been articulated: curriculum standards, assessment standards, program standards, and teacher education standards to name a few. One of the first major efforts focused on the instruction of English language learners, and ESL Standards for Pre-K-12 Students was published in 1997. This publication states, “The ESL standards articulate the developmental English language needs of ESOL learners and highlight special instructional and assessment considerations that must be given to ESOL learners if they are to benefit from and achieve the high standards proposed for other subjects.”

In 2000, Implementing the ESL Standards for Pre-K-12 Students Through Teacher Education was published, focusing on using the pre-K-12 standards in teacher education efforts. Then this past spring at TESOL 2001 in St Louis, the eagerly awaited Scenarios for ESL Standards-Based Assessment was presented. This publication details a variety of ways in which teachers are using the standards to guide the assessment of teaching and learning by English language learners in the schools. Several other publications and some textbooks are also beginning to appear which use the pre-K-12 standards in very practical, hands-on ways. One of these published by TESOL is titled Integrating the ESL Standards into Classroom Practice.

The development of standards within TESOL has not been limited to the pre-K-12 arena. Additional work has been done and is continuing in the areas of adult education and teacher preparation. Both program and teacher preparation standards are being developed. These projects are described in some detail on the TESOL web site. For more information, visit TESOL Online (www.tesol.org). Click on the “The ESL Standards for Pre-K-12” link on the main page, or go to the bottom of the home page and look for the links to “Special Projects.”

Other professional organizations have been involved in developing both program and accreditation standards for intensive English over the past decade. Three important efforts in this arena have been carried out by the American Association of Intensive English Programs (AAIEP), the Commission on English Language Program Accreditation (CEA) and the Consortium of University and College Intensive English Programs in the USA (UCIEP). Each of these programs has established standards for programs serving English language learners at the post-secondary level. For more information, go to the AAIEP web site at: http://www.aaiep.org/, CAE at http://www.cea-accredit.org/, or UCIEP at: http://www.uciep.org/.

In addition to the usual wide variety of presentations on different aspects of teaching ESL, MIDTESOL’s Fall Conference will include a number of presentations on the theme of standards. The plenary address on Saturday titled “Using Standards to Refocus Instruction and Assessment” will be given by Anne Katz. Anne Katz led the TESOL-sponsored team that developed the assessment guidelines that go with the pre-K-12 ESL Standards. A former EFL/ESL teacher in Brazil and the US, she is currently working on several assessment and evaluation projects in Brazil from her home base in California. Anne will lead us in exploring a series of questions about our teaching: What do we teach? How do we teach it? How can we measure student outcomes? How well are we doing our jobs? and What do we need to do our jobs better?

A special feature of this fall’s conference will be a Pre-Conference Workshop led by Anne Katz and Janet Orr. To begin at 8:30 AM on Friday, October 19^th, this workshop will focus on the TESOL’s ESL Standards for Pre-K-12 Students. Anne will guide participants in understanding both how and why the standards were developed and how they are being used in states, districts and schools across the nation. She will also outline how the standards are being utilized in the assessment of English language learners across the country.

Janet Orr will also present and explain how the National Study for School Evaluation project is working with the North Central Association to develop accreditation standards for ESL programs in the public schools based on the TESOL Standards. Janet Orr is the Associate Director at The Center for Equity and Excellence in Education at The George Washington University. She has extensive experience in program management, teacher training, second and foreign language acquisition as well as student assessment and program evaluation. She has K-12^th grade instructional programs in Fairfax County, Virginia, and in Denver and Boulder, Colorado. She has also served as the Director of the American Language Center in Amman, Jordan, which offers English language courses for both adults and children.

The MIDTESOL Fall Conference will begin with registration at 5:30 PM on Friday, October 19^th with concurrent sessions beginning at 6:00 PM. We will gather for a networking reception at 8:00 PM. The conference will continue on Saturday, October 20^th from 8:30 AM until 3:15 PM. 

Ron Long is a Professor of English/TESL at Central Missouri State University, First Vice President of MIDTESOL, and Program Chair for MIDTESOL 2001. 

RETURN TO