"Structure" gets results at Federal Way school

At Federal Way's Mark Twain Elementary School, students whose first language isn't English did even better on the state reading test than native English-speaking students.

On last year's Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), 83 percent of students with a limited grasp of English met the standard in reading, compared to 79 percent of Mark Twain fourth-graders taking the test. Statewide, only 46 percent of the "English Language Learners" — those who qualify for state-funded bilingual instruction — passed the reading test.

"We constantly train them on what they're going to see on the WASL," said teacher Christine Rodriguez, who pulls out students with poor English proficiency for focused practice.

"It's very structured at this school, but it's just what the kids need."

Federal Way appears to have more success on the WASL than Seattle with English-language learners, despite spending half as much per pupil. In both districts, limited-English-speaking students account for slightly more than 10 percent of total enrollment and represent more than 60 languages.

But the districts' approaches vary:

• Different staffing standards: An elementary building in Federal Way must have at least 100 English-language learners to get a full-time, specialized language teacher with a state endorsement. In Seattle, a building can get a specialized language teacher if it enrolls 70 limited-English-speaking students.

• Federal Way focuses on recruiting bilingual teachers; Seattle is increasing the number of bilingual instructional aides to support its largely monolingual teacher work force.

Over the next four years, the Seattle district plans to grow its bilingual aide ranks by nearly 40 percent in order to bring the student-to-aide ratio down to 28-to-1 by 2009, a strategy rooted in a labor settlement between the district and the Seattle Education Association.

• Seattle pays its instructional aides more than any other district in the state, a base salary of $40,781 last year. The base salary of Federal Way's instructional aides was $26,062.

Mark Twain has the most limited-English-speaking elementary students in the Federal Way district. About one-third of the school's 550 students qualify for state-funded bilingual tutoring. About 80 percent of the school's students are eligible for free- or reduced-price lunch, and nearly 80 percent are ethnic minorities.

Principal Doug Rutherford and his teachers attribute their success with English-language learners to a number of factors: Reading-intervention specialists who assess student progress every two weeks; a schoolwide dedication of 90 minutes a day to reading; and extensive training in the state's English-language development standards. The standards define beginning, intermediate and advanced levels of language proficiency.

Jean Vaughan, Federal Way's director of services to limited-English-speaking students, says the district is in the second year of training secondary-level science and math teachers how to differentiate their instruction for limited-English speaking students.

Social-studies and language-arts teachers already have been trained.

"I think that makes a big difference, if everyone is working from the same page," she said.

Sanjay Bhatt: 206-464-3103 or sbhatt@seattletimes.com