In 2000, the passage of Proposition 203 in Arizona virtually replaced bilingual education with a Structured English Immersion (SEI ) program. In 2006, the State legislature passed House Bill (HB) 2064 which essentially segregated ELL students for four hours of the school day in an SEI classroom in which English Language Development (ELD) was taught. In 2008, the four-hour SEI block was mandated in public schools across Arizona.This study investigated the lived experiences of public school teachers teaching the four-hour SEI block, the relationship between what these teachers know about second language acquisition and the strategies they utilized, and what they identified as the strengths and weaknesses that resulted from the four-hour SEI block and its implementation.Nine K-12 SEI teachers from one school district in Southern Arizona participated in this study. Qualitative research methodologies were used to collect and analyze data.The results of this study showed that teachers' experiences and teaching strategies were diverse and greatly influenced by their classroom composition, professional development, interpretation of the laws surrounding the program, and directives given by administrators. Findings from this research also indicated that teachers identified substantially more concerns than advantages related to the four-hour SEI program. Specifically, teachers thought the SEI classroom provided a safe environment in which students could practice English. However, teachers were concerned about the negative social and academic repercussions experienced by ELLs as a result of the SEI program and also expressed their own professional concerns related to the four-hour model.

abstract: Arizona's English Language Development Model (ELD Model) is intended to increase and accelerate the learning of English by English Language Learners (ELLs), so that the students can then be ready, when they know the English language, to learn the other academic subjects together with their English speaking peers. This model is part of a response to comply with the Flores Consent Order to improve services for ELLs in Arizona public schools. Whether or not it actually has improved instruction for ELLs has been the subject of much debate and, in 2012, after four years of the requirement to use Arizona's ELD Model, the ELL students who were identified as reclassified for the six districts in the study did not pass the Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) test. The model's requirement to separate students who are not proficient from students who are proficient, the assessment used for identification of ELLs, and the Structured English Immersion four hours of English only instruction are at the nexus of the controversy, as the courts accepted the separate four hour SEI portion of the model for instruction as sufficient to meet the needs of ELLs in Arizona (Garcia, 2011, Martinez, 2012, Lawton, 2012, Lillie, 2012). This study examines student achievement in Reading and Math as measured by AIMS standards-based tests in six urban K-8 public school districts between 2007-2012. This period was selected to cover two years before and four years after the ELD model was required. Although the numbers of ELLs have decreased for the State and for the six urban elementary districts since the advent of the Arizona ELD Model, the reclassified ELL subgroup in the studied districts did not pass the AIMS for all the years in the study. Based on those results, this study concludes with the following recommendations. First, to study the coming changes in the language assessments and their impact on ELLs' student achievement in broad and comprehensive ways; second, to implement a model change allowing school districts to support their ELLs in their first language; and, finally, to establish programs that will allow ELLs full access to study with their English speaking peers. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Administration and Supervision 2012

This phenomenological study includes exploration of the instructional experiences and the schooling factors that have been in place both assisting and failing academically six long-term English learners who attend a comprehensive urban high school in Los Angeles. Long-term English learners have attended schools in the United States (U.S.) for more than six years and are not yet fully proficient in English. Qualitative and quantitative data sources, include demographic questionnaire, one-on-one focused interviews, classroom observations using English learner Shadow Study Protocol (Soto, 2012), academic transcript analysis, and a focus group, were analyzed using descriptive content analysis and Critical Sociocultural Theory (Handsfield, 2012; Lewis, Enciso, & Moje, 2007). The researcher identified two instructional experiences-lessons not engaging students in social interactions or learnercentered activities, and instruction did not help students gain proficiency in the English language-that hindered these students’ advancement-and three schooling factors-enrollment in Structured English Immersion (SEI) programs throughout schooling, lack of knowledge about the reclassification process and low academic literacy skills and lack of understanding of how to succeed. To remedy this situation as it impacts numerous students, Legislators should pass laws that support bilingual education and schools should offer English learners the opportunity to develop their native language to be successful in developing bilingualism.