Running head: A CRITIQUE OF DEXTER COMMUNITY SCHOOLS USING BLANKSTEIN

A Critique of Dexter Community Schools ELL Program Using Blankstein’s Six Principles

Shihong Xu

Oakland University

Christine Abbott, Ph.D

EA 7720

September 24, 2018

Abstract

This critique reviews the ELL (English Language Learner) program at Dexter

Community Schools. I compare and contrast the practices of the ELL program with the 6

principles of highly effective schools as presented in Blankstein’s book Failure is Not an Option,

which has allowed me to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses within our program. Dexter was

found to have strengths in principles 4, 5, and 6. However, Dexter still has a long way to go and

need improvements in principles 1, 2, 3, particularly in the areas of updating the mission and

goal based on the recent data, building a truly ELL collaborative team, and devoting much more

time and resources to meeting international ELL students’ needs.

Introduction

Dexter Community Schools District is located in the City of Dexter, Southeast Michigan,

along the banks of the Huron River and Mill Creek, just five miles northwest of Ann Arbor. 

Dexter Community Schools’ boundaries encompass the city of Dexter as well as portions of

eight townships including Webster, Scio, Dexter, and Lima. Currently, DCS has 3,559 students

in grades PK, K-12 with a student-teacher ratio of 18 to 1. There are 6 schools of in the district—

Jenkins Early Childhood Learning Center 0-5-year-old, Cornerstone Elementary School Y5-2nd

grade, Bates Elementary School Y5-2nd grade, Wylie Elementary School 3rd grade-4th grade,

Creekside Intermediate School 5th grade-6th grade, Mill Creek Middle School 7th grade-8th grade

and Dexter High School 9th grade-12th grade. The demographics of the student body include

limited ethnic diversity: 94% of the student body is White, with 3% Hispanic, 1% black and 1%

Asian.

There have been some changes of the student body at DCS over the last four years due to

the new immigrants to Dexter and the development of international students’ program. In

accordance with Every Student Succeed Act (ESSA) and the educational goals of the district, the

district has developed a language support program, ELL program, which addresses the needs of

the students who live in families where a second language is spoken. As the ELL program

coordinator assistant and an ELL teacher at DCS, my focus is to apply the six principles of

highly effective schools listed in Alan M. Blankstein’s Failure is Not an Option (2004) to look at

our ELL program and see to what extent the DCS ELL program is aligned with the principles.
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Principle #1: Common Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals

Blankstein (2004) states in principle #1 that the mission of an organization is essential to

its success and should be clear about why the organization exists and what will be done to ensure

that the purpose is done. The vision (Champion Learning - Develop, Educate, and Inspire!) and

the mission (We will encourage and develop each student’s individual abilities, skills, and

character, to shape tomorrow’s world through positive relationships, best practices, and a shared

sense of purpose) of Dexter Community Schools are very concise and they state the purpose of

DCS and how to make it happen. Obviously, the vision and mission statements refer to academic

achievement as a priority and they are broad enough to cover the diversity of educational

priorities in the modern era, but specific enough to guide the direction and operation of the

school. However, they fall short in one area of how we will know if we are succeeding or

achieving the purpose in these statements. Also, the mission and vision statements of DCS were

created in 2008 and has never been updated. Schools should review vision and mission

statements regularly, to ensure they fit the needs of the students and community.

Blankstein (2004) points out SMART Goals are specific, measurable, attainable, results-

oriented and time-bound. From the Dexter Community Schools Strategic Plan booklet, I can see

the 5 goals meeting the criteria of SMART Goals and also the detailed strategies which convey

how to achieve those goals in terms of student learning, positive human connections,

communication, facilities and finance. However, the booklet shows that the timeline for these

goals is from 2008 to 2013 so they’re dated to some extent. The goals should be updated and be

set based on the recent school data, curriculum mapping, improved processes, technology, or

pedagogy. (Blankstein, 2004, p.91) Besides, many teaching staff in the different buildings are
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unaware of the goals and the opportunities of sharing these goals effectively and efficiently are

not adequate enough.

Reflecting on the big picture, the focus of our ELL program plan is in direct alignment

with the overall core of our mission, vision and goals, which are as follows:

1. to nurture self-pride and self-identity in each student’s linguistic and cultural heritage.

2. to develop proficiency in the English language.

3. to reach a level of proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and listening as outlined in

the Michigan State Standards.

4. to reach a level of proficiency in all content areas.

5. to exit students from EL identification within 5-7 years.

Principle #2: Ensuring Achievement for All Students: Systems for Prevention and

Intervention

“Ensuring achievement for all students means having an overarching strategy that

encompass the majority of learners-and then having specifics strategies aimed at those who need

extra support.” (Blankstein, 2004, p.110) In the past few years, Dexter Community Schools

district has been committed to providing instructional and enrichment programs that meet the

needs of the students in the schools. In accordance with Every Student Succeed Act (ESSA) and

the educational goals of the district, DCS has developed a language support program that

addresses the needs of our students who live in families where a second language is spoken and

all the ELL staff “agree on criteria for identifying students in need of assistance and ensuring

they enter the appropriate programs.” (Blankstein, 2004, p124)

.
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Registration and Identification Process According to Blankstein (2004, p.113),

“schools that are committed to success for all students systematically identify struggling

students. They identify problems as early as possible-well before students have a chance to fail.”

Blankstein (2004, p.110) mentions that the most effective schools provide a ladder of

opportunities for struggling students, ranging from identification of students need extra support

before the school year begins to mandatory enrollment. Dexter Schools District student

registration is conducted through a central registration process. All registering students

(including ELL) must present immunization records and complete the Home Language Survey,

and provide proof of residency within the DCS District. Individuals answering any question of

the Home Language Survey with a response of a language other than English will result in the

student being given a formal English language proficiency assessment provided by WIDA

which help educators identify whether they are English language learners

(ELs). It is a flexible, on-demand assessment that can be administered at any

time during the school year. At the kindergarten level, it assesses listening

and speaking comprehension. Other than that, the assessment should be

administered all domains of the WIDA (listening, reading, speaking and

writing). The student is given four scores of four domains that indicates the

English proficiency is low, mid, high or exceptional. Intervention strategies

target students who are not demonstrating learning at the level of expected

performance (Blankstein, 2004). If the score is low, mid or high, the student

may receive English learner support.

After the students are identified as ELs, their parents will receive the

permission slip from DCS, on which they should sign if their children would
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participate in the ELL program or not. If they decline the ELL support, their

children will be removed from the program but the students identified as ELL

are still required to be assessed using the State approved WIDA ACCESS 2.0

assessment once a year. Therefore, “when prevention systems are already in place for

all students, it becomes easy to identify those who are at risk for academic difficulties.”

(Blankstein, 2004, p.113)

ELL Placement and Teaching Strategies Blankstein (2004)

maintains that “once high-performing schools have identified those students

who are at risk of failure, they find ways to bolster their weak areas to

ensure success” (p.115). At DCS, ELL students are placed in a grade level

that is appropriate according to educational experience age. Any deviation

from an age-appropriate placement are based on factors other than

proficiency in the English language. The ELL classroom teachers will receive

the copies of WIDA Screener report and WIDA ACCESS 2.0 report, and the

WIDA Can Do Descriptors which provide examples of what language learners can do at various

stages of English language development in listening, speaking, reading and writing. They are

also provided the Accommodations Tips and Techniques for ELs which the teachers can use to

help ELL students understand the teaching content, improve their English and help them feel

included and comfortable.

Exit Criteria The exit criteria provided below for English Language Learners (ELs)

represent valid and reliable evidence of a student’s English language proficiency to exit from the

ELL program.

 minimum overall composite score of 4.5 on the Spring 2018 WIDA ACCESS for ELs 2.0
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 minimum domain scores of 4.0 on both reading and writing on the Spring 2018 WIDA

ACCESS for ELs 2.0

 grade level or higher performance on a state-approved local reading assessment.

Even though some students exit the ELL program, the ELL staff still monitor the

students’ progress and provide support if needed.

The Dexter Community Schools ELL program mentioned above is in place to ensure the

success of ELL students. However, the number one priority of this program is for ELL resident

students rather than the international students at Dexter High School, who actually are in need of

much support. After the international students receive the WIDA Screener at the beginning of the

semester, even though some of them are identified as ELs, there’s no system of prevention and

intervention for them due to the ELL teaching staff shortage. What we do currently is to offer

drop-in support (an hour) on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for international students who

struggle with English language. The advantage of the drop-in hours is that the support time is

very flexible and they can choose a time at their convenience while the disadvantages are very

obvious: the students might skip the support that they should need and there’s no system to keep

track students’ progress and evaluate their performance.

Principle #3: Collaborative Teaming focused on Teaching for Learning

Blankstein (2004) points out central to success of high-achieving schools is a

collaborative culture focused on teaching and learning. This culture supports regular meetings of

teachers who share responsibility for assessing needs and developing solutions that address all

students’ learning.
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On the administrative level, the DCS ELL staff can get the full support and collaboration

at the district and building levels. There’re five ELL teaching staff in Dexter Community

Schools who travel different buildings to support ELL students. The DCS administrators always

encourage ELL teachers’ leadership roles and facilitate planning and scheduling based on the

various students’ needs in different buildings. For example, on the professional development

day, all the ELL teachers have the half day to collaborate with each other and bring knowledge

and their own unique instructional style to the partnership. Besides, the administrators provide

and purchase adequate resources to ensure successful implementation, such as ESLlibrary.com

resources, Chromebooks, ESL teaching and learning books, and ESL content area books.

The ELL teacher not only provides instruction in language acquisition, but also

collaborates with content area instructors to meet the need of the ELL. For example, currently I

teach an ELL student whose level is identified low, I give her one-to-one instruction 8:00- 8:20

from Mondays to Fridays and then I support her in her classroom in the rest of first hour so the

student can participate more fully in classroom activities and lessons. In order for success to

occur in the regular classroom setting, the classroom teacher and I discuss adaptation and

accommodations to reach the learner at his/her instructional level. Besides, the ELL teaching

staff create the google.docs ELL instruction log, keep a record of daily instruction content, and

share it with collaborative teachers, classroom teachers and ELL coordinator so all the teachers

are on the same page. All of these proved what Blankstein (2004, p.130) said, “In a

collaborative school culture, teams of highly skilled individuals comprise a teaching staff. Each

of these individuals is fully committed to helping students learn by becoming active learners

themselves.”
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According to Blankstein (2004, p.140), building truly collaborative team is a difficult but

necessary component of school success. Despite the benefits for ELs when teachers collaborate,

there’re also some challenges of ELL teaming at DCS which make collaborative teaching less

effective and efficient. Some teachers are unable to plan lessons with her co-teachers because of

the heavy workload. Besides, some ELL professionals feel that the mainstream teacher is the

‘home’ teacher and has a significantly more powerful position in the co-teaching situation, and

they’re like classroom aides and are relegated to the back of the room with ELs. In conclusion,

the DCS still has a long way to go to have truly collaborative teaming and we should find some

solutions to “make sure team members understand what collaborative teaming is really all about-

and what role they will be expected to play in it” (Blankstein, 2004, p.138). Blankstein (2004)

offers many good suggestions of how to build collaborative cultures, what areas of

collaborations, and the solutions to some challenges. We’ll apply the knowledge and ideas

presented in the book Failure is Not an Option to refining and modifying the ways of our

collaboration and make it deeper and further in the future.

Principle 4: Data-Based Decision Making for Continuous Improvement

Blankstein believes that both effective assessment procedures and effective use of the

associated data are fundamental to a school’s continuing achievement and improvement (2004, p

142). I am very proud that Dexter always provide professional development on how to analyze

and interpret assessment data and has a very good culture of using data to drive instruction and to

ensure continuous student achievement. Our ELL support program is no exception. Upon

enrollment, we rely on the WIDA Screener and the Kindergarten WIDA ACCESS Placement

Test (W-APT) screening assessments to measure the English language proficiency of students

who have recently arrived in the U.S. or in our district and identify potential ELs. After the
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assessment, we use the data of four domains (listening, reading, speaking and writing) to

determine whether or not a child is in need of English language instructional services. For

example, kindergarten students qualify as ELs and ELL support if the three criteria below apply: 

 Home Language Survey has a language other than English, and

 The student scores below “exceptional” on the W-APT combined Listening and

Speaking domains,

or

 The student scores below grade level or below benchmark on a local early literacy

assessment

In the spring next year, the students will have subsequent WIDA

ACCESS for ELs 2.0 assessment and we will review the results data to see

ELs’ language growth and decide if the EL students still need ELL support or

exit the program (the Exit Criteria explained in Principle 2), which is aligned

with Blankstein (2004, p.142), “Data from this year need to be compared

with similarly collected data from previous years to be meaningful. Only a

comparison of results from several years will indicate the trend line of the

school.”

The ELL staff also use the WIDA Can Do Descriptors, which provide

examples of what language learners can do at various stages of English language development in

listening, speaking, reading and writing. Within each grade-level band, the descriptors are

organized by Key Use (Recount, Explain, Argue and Discuss) and within each Key Use, there

are example descriptors for WIDA’s six levels of language proficiency, Level1- Entering, Level

2- Emerging, Level 3-Developing, Level 4-Expanding, Level 5- Bridging, and Level 6-Reaching.
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The scoring data as well as the descriptors are utilized by ELL staff to conduct lesson

planning built on what learners at different proficiency levels can do when

interacting with the content. These data are also shared with mainstream

teachers to consider all four domains of language learning. This is always

done with the intent of collegial sharing of internal “best

practices”(Blankstein, 2004). With good data, teachers can define workable

language objectives can tell which groups of students are struggling and

where their problems lie. All these above proves what Blankstein(2004)

claims, “Information from achievement data is ideally the foundation of

constructive, collective decisions regarding issues such as goals, curricular

emphases, unit plans, programs or policies, and planning for prevention and

intervention systems.”

Principle 5: Gaining Active Engagement from Family and Community

According to Blankstein(2004), educational research clearly shows that

the support and involvement students’families and the community at large is

fundamental to achievement in school. As an ELL program coordinator

assistant as well as an ELL teacher, I found that “great parental involvement

leads to great student achievement, irrespective of such factors as

socioeconomic status or ethnic background.”(Blankstein, 2004)

We reach out to families after the students are identified as ELs, their

parents will receive the permission slip from DCS, on which they should sign

if their children would participate in the ELL program or not. Generally, most
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parents will choose to accept the ELL support and if they decline it, their

children will be removed from the program but we’ll still monitor the

students’ progress in English language.

Blankstein(2004) mentions one of the three key principles to positive

family relationships: building mutual understanding and empathy. As an ELL

staff and also a new immigrant in the United States, I still remember the

feeling of leaving my child in the hands of people with whom she cannot

communicate when arriving at the school for the first time, so I know how

exactly my ELL students’parents feel and thus show sympathy for them and

value their families’native languages.

In DCS district, the ELL population is not homogeneous. For example,

the child was adopted from Columbia and the child of a teacher from

Columbia probably won’t have the same educational and economic needs so

we always try to learn what we can about each a child’s unique

circumstances to the extent possible. Besides, we familiarized ourselves with

their cultural traditions of the ELL families so we can avoid scheduling

important events such as conferences or tests on major holidays and

celebrations. We also connect with ELL families via emails, by phone calls, by

mails such as “mailing report cards and regular progress reports to

parents”(Blankstein, 2004) or even“make us visible in the neighborhood

restaurant” (Blankstein, 2004) and school graduation ceremony. In our

district, many ELs’parents don’t speak English perfectly or not at all,

which“makes meaningful involvement in the school difficult, if not

possible.”(Blankstein, 2004, p.173) Fortunately, all of the DCS ELL staff have

bilingual background and they can either speak Spanish or Chinese. The

ability to speak another language allows a bilingual teacher to communicate

and interact more effectively with students and their families who are not

fluent in English. This also helps students and their parents integrate more

easily and comfortably into the school environment. If the ELL families speak

other languages, we will “provide translator or speaker who communicate

with non-English-speaking families.”(Blankstein, 2004, p.171)

According to Barbara Eason-Watkings (Blankstein, 2004, p.172), the

best way to ensure parental and community involvement in a school is to

welcome people into the school. All these above proves how we build a

welcoming environment for the ELL family and thus make a tremendous

difference of enhancing mutual understanding and engaging ELL families in

the school. Although we’re doing a good job of reducing barriers and

boosting engagement, I still think we are supposed to create more

opportunities for the ELL families to increase fully participation and

meaningful involvement like doing the survey from families about their

perceptions of the factors that prevent them from involvement with school.

Our goal is to ensure “sustained success for all students in which failure is

not an option”(Blankstein, 2004, p.191). Engaging ELL parents to bring

invaluable dedication and wisdom regarding their children to the school

community can be crucial in supporting their children’s success.

Principle #6: Building Sustainable Leadership Capacity

According to Blankstein (2004), when developed with care and

forethought, sustainable leadership capacity enables school culture to thrive

despite challenges, including transition of the leadership. He also quoted

Principal Gary Burgess, “When you keep power, people will not work with

you, when you invest power in other people, it always inevitably comes back

to you.”(Blankstein, 2004) The Executive Director of Instruction of Dexter

Community Schools, Mollie Sharrar who is in charge of the ELL program,

always gives teacher the opportunity to share in the leadership, take the

ownership of deciding “what we teach and how we teach it” (Blankstein,

2004, p.193), and the authority to decide their own schedules based on the

different EL students’needs. Therefore, the ELL staff at DCS feel very

encouraged and regard themselves as a value part of what’s happening

which is really“going to motivate you and keep you working hard to try new

things”(Blankstein, 2004, p. 192).

Blankstein claims that the most effective school leaders are able to

collaboratively create and sustain changes that continually enhance student

achievement (Blankstein, 2004). The DCS district has recently mainstreamed

most of its ELLs into general education classrooms. Therefore, ELL staff’s

work involves both identifying what is needed to support ELLs overall and

adapting that strategy to fit specific buildings and subject-area classrooms.

We work with content-area teachers to plan lessons, suggest appropriate

accommodations, classroom materials and tools, and coordinate among

teachers to ensure that they use consistent instructional practices. All these

leadership roles that ELL staff take on in the different buildings prove the

“sustainable leadership capacity” through the ELL program.

Conclusion

With the application of Blankstein’s six principles, it’s worthwhile to take time to

critically review our ELL program at Dexter Community Schools. By doing so, I could find the

strengths and weaknesses existing in our program. Generally, we are doing a great job of using

data to drive instruction to ensure continuous student achievement, engaging ELL families in the

school, and building sustainable leadership capacity. However, in the other three areas, we still

need to make efforts to refine our own practice as ELL educators, such as updating the mission

and goal based on the recent data, building a truly ELL collaborative team, and devoting much

more time and resources to meeting international ELL students’ needs. All of our ELL staff

“intuitively agree: Failure is not an option for today’s students” (Blankstein, 2004, p.2) and are

always striving to improve our craft to ensure success for every ELL student.

References

Blankstein, Alan M. (2004). Failure is not an option: Six principles that guide student

achievement in high-performing schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin

Press.

Michigan Department of Education Entrance and Exit Protocol English Learner Program
Special. (2017, August 9). Retrieved September 23, 2018, from
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https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/Entrance_and_Exit_Protocol_updated_May_2016_5
50634_7.pdf