Equity Center Training Offers

Strategies To Help English Learners Succeed

By Gwen McNeir

Educators throughout the Northwest and Pacific regions are gaining new tools and strategies to improve education for English language learners, thanks to Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) training offered by the Equity Center at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.

Developed at the Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence (CREDE) at the University of California-Santa Cruz, the SIOP is a research-based model of instruction designed to help teachers make grade-level academic content more accessible for English learners while promoting their English language development.

"What we like best about this model is that it's based on good teaching practices," notes Equity Center Director Joyce Harris. "The developers have combined current research with strategies that have been proven to work in the classroom. It's an instructional approach that is effective for all learners, not just those learning English."

After becoming certified SIOP trainers, the Equity Center staff created a four-day SIOP Equity Academy that uses the SIOP model while incorporating key components of educational equity. The dynamic, activity-based training covers the eight components of the model and includes hands-on lesson plan development. Since the Equity Center began offering the academy in June 2003, nearly 600 public school personnel in Oregon, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, and the Pacific islands have been trained in the SIOP model.

Participant feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. In follow-up surveys conducted earlier this year, participants indicated that they had successfully implemented SIOP components in their classrooms and had noticed increased student achievement and/or performance as a result.

The SIOP Equity Academy has become one of the center's most requested trainings, with workshops already scheduled well into the 2004-2005 school year. In addition to planned workshops for districts in Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, and Washington, the Equity Center will provide follow-up services to teachers who have already been trained. The Center will offer regional academies so school districts throughout the region can send individual teachers for training.

For more information or to request assistance, contact the Equity Center at 503-275-9605 or visit www.nwrel.org/cnorse/.