ARRA Core Focus Area: School Turnaround - Ask the Expert Now!
 Dr. Mel Riddile, Associate Director for High School Services, National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) will discuss the best practices in improving low-performing schools. Please submit your questions regarding school turnaround to the expert. Dr. Riddile is available until September 30th to answer your questions.
Dr. Riddile was the 2006 National High School Principal of the Year and was the 2005 Virginia High School Principal of the Year. As a principal of both a Breakthrough High School and an ICLE Model School, Dr. Riddile is a recognized leader in efforts to reinvent America’s high schools. His work as a high school principal has received national and international recognition from National Geographic Magazine, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, NASSP, and the International Baccalaureate of North America.
Please check our Web site in the coming weeks, as we will be posting Dr. Riddile’s response to several questions, including, “What information should people include in their Race to the Top proposals that will help their proposals be more competitive?”
Allocating Resources to Support English Language Learners at the High School Level
 Our most recent Ask the Expert column focused on research-based approaches and promising practices for English language learners (ELLs) at the high school level. Our two experts, Dr. Libia Gil, Senior Fellow, American Institutes for Research and Senior Advisor, National High School Center, and Ana Díaz-Booz, Principal, School of International Business (2009 California Distinguished High School), responded to a variety of questions on effective strategies for ELLs.
One of the questions answered by our experts focused on allocating resources to ELL students with the highest needs. Ana Diaz-Booz shared some of her recommendations for resource allocation that have worked for her school:
I believe that, with the proper allocation of resources, the students with the greatest needs can post the highest gains on state assessments. At our site, this group is our ELL population. They range from newly arriving immigrant students who have no English language background to first generation learners ready for redesignation. They represent a wide range of cultures and language groups. However, their one singular need is increased instructional support which focuses on guided practice of written and spoken English.
Our allocation strategy falls into two time frames: during the school day and outside the school day. During the day, we use available funding to lower the class size for ELL students and others who are performing far below grade level. We actively recruit and place our strongest teachers in these sections and ensure that they are provided with a larger allocation of instructional supply money. These resources include exclusive use of a laptop cart, priority access to our school’s computer lab, and support from our reading specialist in content area classes. Additionally, ELL students are assigned student peer assistants to serve as translators and English role models in the classroom.
After school, these student partnerships continue in the form of ESL buddy groups which are supported by staff members and offer additional English modeling. This and other ideas for student support have emerged from collaborative meetings and paid planning opportunities which are allocated to teachers throughout the school year. Similarly, as new data and methods for improved instruction become available, our budget allocates funding for teacher attendance at conferences as well as professional development opportunities. As we move forward, it is my hope that we can continue to build on the gains that our ELL students have shown recently and keep avenues of funding open to support that success.
Read more about effectively educating high school English language learners and all of our Ask the Expert column topics on our Web site.
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Upcoming Conferences
The National High School Center wants to keep you informed of upcoming conferences and events pertinent to your work. The High School Events Calendar on our Web site lists national conferences, workshops, and dialogues sponsored by organizations around the country focused on high school improvement. If you are sponsoring a high school-related event, we encourage you to submit the event for posting on the Calendar through the online form on our Web site.
About Us
The National High School Center at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), in collaboration with its partners, strives to provide the most up-to-date, accessible information on breakthroughs in high school improvement, vetted best practices, hands on technical assistance to the Regional Comprehensive Centers, and an easy-to-use navigation of the latest research on creating and maintaining excellent high schools. The National High School Center does not endorse any interventions nor does it conduct field studies. The National High School Center Web site is available at www.betterhighschools.org.
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