Effective English Language Arts Operations and Programming

Use this brief to learn how high-performing districts structure their English Language Arts operations and use effective teaching strategies

New state standards require new skills from students, leaving many teachers with outdated teaching practices that do not directly address standards. This research serves as a guide to compare your operations to districts that have scored highly on English Language Arts (ELA) state testing to obtain effective language arts teaching strategies.

This resource covers district-level standardization, evaluation, and support, as well as group-based and individually responsive in-classroom ELA programming. See how administrators at all profiled districts aim to provide consistent and universally valuable ELA curricula, support ELA teacher instructional development, and provide students with innovative ways to engage with ELA material.

Standardize ELA curricula for a common student experience

Administrators at all profiled districts standardize ELA curricula centrally to ensure that classrooms deliver consistently high-level programming. Districts differ in the ELA program elements that administrators choose to standardize (e.g., texts, units), but administrators generally use state standards to guide curricular design. Administrators at all profiled districts aim to balance standardization with preservation of teacher autonomy so that teachers can adjust their instruction to unique classroom and student needs.

Review district-wide and classroom-specific assessment data regularly

Administrators at District A, District C, District D, and District E measure curricular success through district-wide assessments and classroom-specific measures of individual student progress. Using both sets of assessments allows administrators to both identify district-wide and classroom-specific student needs. Administrators at District A and District D highlight the value of reviewing metrics regularly. Frequent review allows districts to make student-responsive, timely changes to ELA offerings.

Provide personalized support to teachers to improve instruction

Administrators at all profiled districts use structured professional development time to support ongoing language arts teaching strategies, and those at District A, District C, District D, and District E provide further support through specialized coaches. New ELA teachers at all profiled districts receive additional opportunities to jumpstart their instructional skill development by asking questions and forming relationships through summer onboarding, mentorship programs, and cohort-driven professional development sessions. When changing curricular components, administrators at District A host teacher institutes to outline curricular design and provide feedback on teachers’ instructional methods.

Embed professional development resources into the standard school day to minimize teachers’ time out of the classroom

Administrators at District D believe that students suffer when their teachers must leave the classroom for entire days at a time to receive professional development support. In response, the district created an embedded coaching model for all internal teacher professional development. Instead of leaving the classroom for entire days at a time, teachers receive professional development support during free blocks of time within their standard day.

Use group-based learning environments to enhance student engagement

Group environments offer natural ways to use language and develop language skills. ELA teachers at District A, District B, and District E use innovative project-based learning methods to expose students to multiple skill development opportunities, many of which require group work and effective collaboration, during a single project. Teachers at District A, District B, and District E integrate these projects into unit plans or use them to replace final exams. While contacts at all profiled districts note that reading and writing instruction drives ELA classroom programming, research indicates that instructors who wish to dedicate more time to explicit vocabulary and grammar instruction should incorporate group work as well.

High quality Project Based Learning’s six standards for effective PBL projects

Personalize instruction to drive student ownership over learning

Contacts at District A note that when students feel that instruction meets their individual needs, they engage more with class material. Administrators at District A and District C recently updated classroom texts to ensure that the settings, characters, and themes within them reflect students’ diverse backgrounds. These contacts note that when teachers use more diverse texts, they report enhanced student engagement. To boost student engagement with independent reading activities, teachers can also set concrete guidelines for these activities. For example, some teachers instruct students to track reading progress or write regular journal reflections on their reading

Five rules to guide independent reading time