Elk Grove Adult Education Karen Malkiewicz, CBET resource teacher Eight classes at eight sites in one K-12 district, plus distance learning; 500 students served annually Curricular features: Basic ESL curriculum, linked to model standards, and based in the context of the language skills adults need to communicate in the school environment, read to their children, and help them with homework. Curriculum also is integrated with children's literature families can check out to use at home. Nature of relationship with K-12: EGAE works closely with the school district's Title I program, as well as administrators at schools with significant populations of limited English-speaking students. The Title I program provides after-school homework assistance for school-age children at eligible CBET sites. This summer the EGAE CBET coordinator intended to collaborate with a Title I staff member to analyze test scores of children whose parents participate in CBET. Special services provided:
Fresno Adult School Fresno Fresno Adult School's CBET program offers English as a second language to parents of children attending Fresno Unified School District (FUSD) and to other adult members of the community. The adult school manages the staffing, curriculum development, and program services for FUSD. Program services include ESL instruction within the context of life skills and parenting and tutoring strategies. The CBET program also offers a mobile computer lab component. This component is designed to augment the process of learning English by using a computer and programs such as Ellis. Ellis teaches English at all levels from literacy to advanced by engaging the students in speaking, listening, and writing exercises. This component helps reinforce skills taught in the ESL classes; however, it is also offered as a stand-alone component at various sites. CBET classes are currently held at approximately 35 sites throughout the Fresno Unified School District. Generally, students attend two or three days per week for two or three hours per day. However, several sites operate five days per week for up to 6 hours per day. During this current fiscal year, 2000 - 01, to date, 1,300 students have been served in FUSD's CBET program. There have been 61 course sections offered this year. Babysitting is provided for parents enrolled in a CBET classes. Nutritional snacks are provided for the children in babysitting. CBET funding provides for class field trips, textbooks and classroom materials, and bilingual instructional assistants. The CBET course outline and curriculum incorporates CASAS life skill competencies and children's literature. The children's literature was selected using FUSD's core literature units for grades kindergarten through third grade. Classes are multi-level but many of the students are at beginning literacy, beginning low and beginning high levels. Students enrolled in the program document tutorial activities with children in grades kindergarten through the twelfth grades on monthly calendars. Tutorial activities are defined broadly to encourage parents with very limited English skills to participate in the tutorial activities. Therefore, listening to a child read, volunteering in a child's school, visiting cultural events with a child are all example activities that students may document on their monthly record of tutoring activities. After 30 documented hours of tutoring, adult students receive a certificate and other incentives such as a homework bag with basic tools children need to complete their homework. For the 2000-2001 school year 650 tutoring certificates were awarded to adult students tutoring K-12 children. Adult students also receive certificates as they improve their English language skills as documented by CASAS. Tutoring activities generally occur outside of the classroom time. However, some adult classes located at school sites combine with elementary classes for various literacy activities such as reading buddies and field trips. We hope to offer more classes during the day at elementary school sites so that this collaboration will occur more often.
You can reach Fresno Adult & Community Education's CBET program at (559) 457-6010. For information about the CBET curriculum contact Lisa Agao at lragao@fresno.k12.ca.us. For information regarding the Mobile Computer Lab component contact Wayne Fiser at wxfiser@fresno.k12.ca.us. Amy Emrany is the administrator of the CBET program. You can reach her at amyemrany@fresno.k12.ca.us.
Community Based English Tutoring San Diego Community College District, Centers for Education and Technology and San Diego Unified School District Our program is a collaboration between the San Diego Community College District, Centers for Education and Technology (CET) and the San Diego Unified School District. We work closely together to coordinate the program. The Community College District provides adult education instructors and the San Diego Unified School District provides funding to support the classes. This year, 2000-2001, there were a total of 4,820 adult participants enrolled in the CBET classes. We currently employ 42 CBET instructors and offer classes fall, spring and summer. The classes are very accessible because the majority are located at elementary schools in the communities we serve. Because the program provides free babysitting, a population is being served that was never served before. We are currently serving 27 schools, offering 21 am classes and 22 pm classes. Of these 27 schools, 8 of these are "focus" schools. Focus schools are defined as "low performing schools" which SDUSD has identified as needing extra resources to improve achievement in literacy and math. One of these resources is the CBET class. The most positive outcomes in our program are as follows: 1) an increase in parent involvement with their children and at school 2) an increase in parents reading to their own children and helping with homework 3) training of parents to tutor in grades K-3 4) serving a population previously not served by providing babysitting 5) development of curriculum that integrates ESL and parenting skills 6) free TB testing for adult language learners 7) development of assessment materials to document family literacy outcomes 8) use of children's literature/providing lending libraries 9) integration of phonics for children 10) integration of parenting into the curriculum Two examples of tutoring models within our program are: 1) Kimbrough Elementary - Adult learners enroll in the CBET class. As they improve their English language skills and gain self confidence, they are exposed to a variety of children's literature and are trained to use a variety of questioning strategies. Adults are TB tested and a volunteer form is completed. Arrangements are made with the kindergarten teacher to have children come to the CBET class for tutoring. The CBET parents/community members read children's stories to the children that they have previously learned. A total of 8 children from two kindergarten classes are tutored each day, Tuesday through Friday from 10:30 to 11:00 am. 2) King Elementary - This school site has two separate CBET classes offered at the same time, one beginning level and one intermediate level. At this particular site, there is a collaboration between the school, the Even Start Program and CBET. The intermediate level students go twice a week for 30 minutes to tutor in the kindergarten class. The beginning level students go twice a week for 20 minutes to the Even Start Preschool Program. At the preschool, adults practice reading low level books in English to the children in order to gain more confidence to eventually read in the kindergarten class. To monitor learner progress in our program, learners maintain portfolios of their work which include weekly tests, writing samples and pre-post questionnaires on parent/child interactions as a result of instruction. In addition, our program has developed forms to collect data to answer these questions: a) to what extent are learners improving English language skills? b) to what extent are parent behaviors changing--eg. reading to children? c) what is the correlation between parents' progress and children's progress? Our program has also created 5 reading lessons focused on the following family literacy topics: 1) Too Tired to do Homework 2) A Sick Child 3) A Conference with the Teacher 4) A Mean Kid at School 5) Time for Bed They are available through our district website www.sdccd.net. Click on Continuing Education, then English/Second Language, then CBET Lessons.
Contact Carmina Gerardo at cgerardo@sdccd.cc.ca.us for additional information.
New Haven Unified School District
Union City
2000 - 2001 CBET Program
CBET/ESL Classes
• In the fall, CBET classes were offered at 6 sites: Holly Center,
Hillview Crest Searles, Pioneer, Alvarado and Adult School.
• Approximately 450 parents and adult community English learners were
enrolled and as a requirement of the CBET program signed a pledge card
to tutor their own children or a child in the K-12 system.
• The evening adult CBET class at Alvarado and the afternoon class at
Searles ran for 8 weeks, 3 times during the year.
• The CBET Program Objective was to help parents and the community improve
their English skills in order to help children in grades K-12 become more
successful in school.
• With the help of a needs assessment each class decided on topics of
instruction for the year. The lessons were designed to teach language
skills for students as learners and tutors.
• As tutors, students learned how to read to children, how to encourage
language development, how to help with homework.
• As students, they learned how to make an appointment with a teacher, how
to write notes, how to participate in a school conference, how to read
report cards etc.
• Each day adult students recorded their tutoring activities and made a
list of books they read to children, these list were kept in a folder.
Distance Learning
• In addition to classes the CBET Program delivered tutorial lessons to
various ESL morning & afternoon classes. In turn students were able
to check out family literacy resources, such as; video tapes,
children‘s books classic readers, picture dictionaries etc.
Collaborations
• Collaborated with Even Start to fund baby sitters so parents could attend
CBET/ESL classes.
• The CBET Program Developer attended the monthly Multi lingual Administrators
Meeting to connect with K-12 programs.
• Adult School published a monthly calendar for all ESL parents highlighting
important dates at each elementary school. Information was supplied by the
Thursday envelopes which the VP‘s sent to the CBET Program Developer. ESL
teachers were able to incorporate special events into their lessons, such as
rules for the district Science Fair.
• The CBET program trained 12 volunteer tutors from the ESL, the High School
Diploma, and the Senior Citizens Programs to tutor at Guy Emanuele
School.
• Collaborated with Parent University at Barnard White Middle School to give
4 workshops for parents and junior high children. The focus was improving
English around the theme of assuring students success by effective parenting.
Special Events
• The afternoon CBET class at Adult School visited the library.
• The reading specialist, Pat Keenan visited the CBET Classes to demonstrate
how to read to children.
• CBET Parents performed 2 children‘s plays, “Thumbelina” and “Jack and the
Beanstalk”.
Babysitting
• Babysitting was offered at all the sites except Holly Center.
• On the average 50 - 60 children were baby sat from ages 3-11 each week.
Advertising & Recruitment
• Flyers were sent home in the Elementary school Thursday envelops and with
the summer school schedule describing the summer CBET Program.
• Flyers were also translated into Spanish for sites with high numbers of
Spanish speaking parents.
• Phone call to remind students about classes.
* Explained about the CBET program at Literacy Nights at the elementary
schools.
Evaluation
CBET Classes
• Students completed a pre & post assessment to assess if attitudes and
behaviors had changed after attending ESL/CBET Classes. Students could
circle never sometimes and always to such statements as: I read to my
child, I play games with my child. I help my child with homework. In
almost all cases students noted a change in their behavior.
• Those students who recorded their tutoring time reported an average of 30
minutes a week for tutoring and read on an average of 2 books a week
to their children.
• Testimonials were also written. "The teacher taught us how to share what
we learned in the class with our children at home."
Volunteer Program
• Teachers rated the volunteers on a scale of 1-4 (terrible to very good) on
such items as: tutoring skills, working with elementary children, students
improving their skills. Teachers were unanimous and marked either a 3 or a
4 on the evaluation form.
Distance Learning Program
• Over 75 students participated in the weekly checkout of books & videos.
Benefits
• Parents and the ESL Community are more involved in the educational system
by volunteering at school, attending school meetings, helping with homework
and learning academic language.
• Sending the message of the importance of literacy for parent and child.
• ESL Parents and other community members learning tutorial strategies in
English to help children at school and at home.
• Removing barriers to learning by offering babysitting to ESL parent who
attend class.
• Positive testimonials of CBET students and K12 teachers on the outcome of
the CBET classes.
Contact Karen Barroso, CBET Program Developer, at 510-489-2185 ext. 209 or karen_barroso@nhusd.k12.ca.us for more information.
Sequoia Adult School Redwood City Sequoia Adult School is establishing CBET projects in conjunction with Sequoia Union High School District and Redwood City School District (elementary). The district has an existing tutoring program which will provide the foundation for tutor education. (PARTNERS IN LEARNING is operated jointly with Palo Alto Adult School and has recruited and trained ESL tutors for 4 years.) We have used the PIL logo to design a pledge form. Elementary: We've begun a pilot program at John Gill Elementary School which has an Even Start Grant. We are starting with two new evening ESL classes with attached babysitting and a family literacy focus. High School: We plan to use the Adult School and an existing Home Study Center on Saturday mornings and after school hours as a tutoring center. The tutors may be advanced ESL learners, parents of district students, and community volunteers. The students are high school age students. Tutors will be placed in regular ESL classes as needed and will receive special tutor training. CBET support class will include one hour of English/tutor support and one to two hours of supervised tutoring with the students. Support services may include transportation (bus passes), child care, and snacks.
Contact Romola Georgia, coordinator, at rgeorgia@seq.org for more information.
Mt. Diablo Adult Education Concord Mt. Diablo Adult Education began its CBET activities by arranging for a bus to pick up parents at an elementary school site when they drop their children off in the morning. The bus transports the parents to the main campus of the adult school, where they are served in a special class for CBET participants and/or in a combined CBET/regular ESL setting. The bus returns the parents to the elementary school at their children's dismissal time. CBET curriculum will focus on Family Literacy approaches as a foundation for instruction. Future plans revolve around working with individual school sites to coordinate CBET services with community-based after school and evening programs. We are still working on finalizing our pledge form and will be happy to share when completed.
Contact Rosemary Slavin c/o Jacques LaCour at jclacour@hotmail.com for more information.
Napa Valley Adult School Napa The Napa Valley Adult School combines CBET activities with our Family Literacy Program at eight elementary school sites. Our program focus includes parents as tutors and aides as tutors. ESL students must attend ESL class 2 days a week- each class is 2 hours a day. Students are taught basic ESL in addition to being trained on how to read with their children. The primary materials include the Basic Oxford Picture Dictionary, the Children's Oxford Picture Dictionary, and Family Literacy books and activities. We also utilize software such as the Rosetta Stone where children and parents work together in a computer lab 2 days a week. In addition to 2 classes a week, students may meet with a tutor 1-2 times a week using beginning literacy materials and/or children's literature. We also plan to offer ESL classes to the parents of Middle School students using computer software and authentic materials.
Contact Laurel Leonard at lleonard@nvusd.k12.ca.us for more information.
Salinas Adult School Salinas In 1998, four Salinas school districts: the Salinas City Elementary District, the Alisal Union School District, the Salinas Union High School District and the Santa Rita Elementary School District- formed a collaborative with the Salinas Adult School to implement the Salinas Community Based English Tutoring Program (CBET). Through this program, more than 25 schools are currently providing free English as a second language (ESL) classes on their school sites for adults. Included in this service is free babysitting for their children while classes are in session. A goal of the four-district collaborative is to offer free adult ESL classes at every public school in the city of Salinas and to use those classes whenever appropriate as a link for teaching computer skills. In addition to the more than 30 Free adult English classes offered (some school sites have several classes) the Salinas CBET program is also sponsoring teacher designed mini-grants for side by side learning activities which promote family literacy in English. Some of the side by side proposals include: family science and ESL field trips; computer workshops with laptops that are loaned out to the families for writing family histories in English; Family ESL and Art classes; Homework Tutoring Skills workshops and Family Readathons. For more information contact Devorah Duncan, CBET Coordinator at: deduncan@monterey.k12.ca.us / (831) 753-5296 or Gina Muller, ESL Assistant Director at: gmuller@salinas.k12.ca.us / (831) 753-4269