Aligning English Language Proficiency Standards With Content Standards: Shared Opportunity and Responsibility Across English Learner Education and Content Areas

The Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 mandates that English language proficiency (ELP) standards align with content standards. As the fast-growing population of English learners (ELs) is expected to meet college- and career-ready content standards, the purpose of this article is to highlight key issues in aligning ELP standards with content standards. The overarching question is how to align ELP standards with academically rigorous and language-intensive disciplinary practices of content standards while respecting and maintaining the nature of the discipline within each area. I begin by describing contributions and shortcomings of content standards and ELP standards. Next, I propose consideration of three components in aligning ELP standards with content standards: (a) norms of disciplinary practices across content areas, (b) developmental progressions of disciplinary practices across K–12 grade levels or bands and across content areas, and (c) language use across levels of English proficiency. For each component, the challenges in establishing alignment and potential trade-offs in addressing these challenges are discussed. Finally, I highlight how these challenges present opportunities for substantive collaboration between EL education and content areas to move these fields forward and ensure ELs achieve academically rigorous content standards while developing ELP.

Borrowing legitimacy as English learner (EL) leaders: Indiana’s 14-year history with English language proficiency standards

English language proficiency or English language development (ELP/D) standards guide how content-specific instruction and assessment is practiced by teachers and how English learners (ELs) at varying levels of English proficiency can perform grade-level-specific academic standards in K–12 US schools. With the transition from the state-developed Indiana ELP/D standards adopted in 2003 to the World Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) English language development standards adopted in 2013, this paper explores Indiana’s ELP/D standard’s 14-year history and how its district EL/Bilingual district leaders have interpreted and implemented these two sets of standards between the school years 2002–03 and 2015–16. Using critical leadership and feminism within a narrative design, EL/Bilingual leaders illuminate distinct leadership logics as they mediate and implement ELP/D standards in their districts. Academic content standards are regarded with greater privilege, complicating how EL/Bilingual leaders can position ELP/D standards. Restricted by this standards hierarchy, EL/Bilingual leaders found limited educational venues in which to discuss the performance-based nature of ELP/D standards. Implications for assessment, policy, and leadership preparation are discussed.