Supporting American Indian English learner students

By Traci Maday-Karageorge | September 15, 2021

REL Southwest technical assistance consultant Traci Maday-Karageorge led a recently completed project for the Southwest English Learners Research Partnership. She worked closely with our New Mexico partners at the state, district, and school levels to develop a learning series to support teacher implementation of culturally responsive practices for American Indian English learners.

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Nationally, American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) students make up about one percent of students in elementary and secondary schools.¹ Of those, eight percent are also identified as English language learners.² In New Mexico, American Indian students made up 17 percent of English learner students in 2015/16 (8,092 students).³

With such small population numbers nationally, and concentrations of AI/AN English learners scattered across primarily 10 states in the West and Alaska, it was no surprise educators from an American Indian English Learner task force in New Mexico identified the need for educators to be culturally and linguistically responsive and high-quality instructional materials and resources specific to American Indian students who are identified as English learners in their classrooms.

Historical and current factors contribute to the unique context of American Indian English learners. For example, AI/AN students who are English learners are unique from other English learners in that their home language may be English.⁴ AI/AN English learners may not exhibit fluency in their heritage language. Historically, Native language use was forbidden, yet despite this disruption American Indian languages survived and many communities are engaged in revitalization efforts. Federal policy compels states to support Native language learning⁵ and consult meaningfully with Tribes regarding the development of state accountability plans.⁶ The Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) includes provisions “to ensure that Indian students gain knowledge and understanding of Native communities, languages, tribal histories, traditions and cultures.”⁷

To address the need identified by New Mexico task-force educators, our Southwest English Learners Research Partnership with the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED) designed a training series to assist teacher implementation of effective strategies for American Indian English learners. The work unfolded in two phases:

First, REL Southwest conducted an evidence review, initially looking for rigorous studies about instructional methods specific to American Indian English learners. However, we found a lack of studies establishing a causal link between instructional methods and outcomes for AI English learners.⁸ We expanded our strategy to identify studies of instructional interventions specific to American Indian students that are effective in incorporating relevant American Indian cultural traditions and pedagogy. One study provided strong evidence and two others provided promising evidence on incorporating a culturally responsive approach for AI learners in math.⁹

Next, REL Southwest developed training materials that merged two bodies of research. One body of research was on culturally responsive practices for AI/AN learners in general, summarized in the evidence review, and the other was on effective practice for teaching academic language to English learner students. Fortunately, the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) and REL Southwest had two existing resources to adapt to the project’s purpose: the WWC practice guide Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School and the companion resource developed by REL Southwest, the IES PLC Facilitator’s Guide for Teaching Academic Content and Literacy to English Learners in Elementary and Middle School.

Members of the research partnership layered findings from the evidence review onto selected practices described in the WWC practice guide. Then, using the activities outlined in the companion PLC Guide, we developed a three-part teacher learning series. The learning series, designed to support teacher implementation of culturally responsive practices for AI English learners, incorporates a variety of media and strategies including small group discussion and collaborative sessions, tools, videos, as well as handouts summarizing strategies used in the evidence review.

NMPED and REL Southwest recruited a cohort of about 20 teachers to participate in the learning series, held virtually for three consecutive Wednesdays in May 2021. REL Southwest staff provided instruction about the strategies in each body of research and teacher participants were given time to practice and apply the strategies in collaborative groups. The teacher cohort represented seven districts, taught grades K through 8, and included varying levels of experience teaching American Indian students and English language learners. (View the archived resources.)

Enlightening, engaging, stimulating, and meaningful were just a few words teacher participants used to describe the fast-paced learning series. Teachers became so engrossed in the reflective conversations, peeling back the layers of culturally responsive practice for American Indian learners and applying those practices to explicit vocabulary instruction, that the discussion often ran past the 90 minutes allocated. One participant noted, “Group discussion and small group sessions were helpful including the sharing of resources, strategies, and ideas.” Another emphasized, “It was good to have that real practice instead of [just] theoretical.”

While this project addresses a specific need to support AI English language learners, it also addresses a wider need for professional learning focused on the needs of AI learners. The recently released National Indian Education Study 2019 reveals that nearly half of fourth (42 percent) and eighth grade (47 percent) teachers in schools with AI populations greater than 25 percent report never having participated in professional learning aimed at developing culturally specific instructional practices for AI/AN students in the past two years.¹⁰ Looking to the future, REL Southwest will debrief with NMPED about lessons learned working with the first teacher cohort and share the learning series materials broadly with New Mexico teachers.

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For more information on our work supporting American Indian English learners and other projects of the Southwest English Learners Research Partnership:

REL Southwest videos:

• Walking in Both Worlds: Native American Students and Language Acquisition
• Video series: Insights on English Learner Students’ Development of English Language and Academic Proficiency

REL Southwest webinars:

• Implementing Biliteracy Seals to Strengthen Bilingual Education and Support Cultural Awareness
• Culturally Responsive School Practices to Promote the Success of Native American English Learners
• Teacher Collaboration: Aligning Content and Language Instruction, presented jointly with the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA)

REL Southwest blogs:

• Walking in Both Worlds: How Native Language Preservation Benefits Native American English learners
• Cultivating English Learner Students’ Home Language Reaps Benefits for Learning English