Questions to ask interviewees

Introduction
1. What is your name and role within your school? (e.g. Principal, Teacher, Counselor,
Tutor, …)
a. Heather Hanlin, Teacher on Special Assignment
2. What type of school do you work for? (e.g. charter, public, or private)
a. Public
3. What does your job require of you?
a. EL site rep, Test Site Coordinator, Website Liaison, Staff/Student/Family
Tech Support, Resource support for teachers, Social Media Team member,
Admin support
4. What school and/or district is your employer?
a. Pyle Elementary, Fresno Unified
5. What is the socioeconomic, racial, and home-language demographics of the students at
this school? What about the staff? Are these demographics reflective of the community,
city, or greater metropolitan areas?
a. Title 1 school https://www.ed-data.org/school/Fresno/Fresno-Unified/Pyle-
Elementary
b. https://www.cde.ca.gov/sdprofile/details.aspx?cds=10621666006449
c. https://www.caschooldashboard.org/reports/10621666006449/2019

ESL Program questions

 Does your school offer an English as a Second Language (ESL) program? Or another
program such as English Language Development (ELD)? 
All teachers are daily teaching BOTH Integrated ELD (embedded into
CORE instruction—ELD Standards support the Core Content Standards),
and Designated ELD (small group instruction for EL students that focus on
ELD Standards with content standards in support of ELD standards). Our
school also offers after school tutoring to all grade 5-6 Long-term EL
students for 45 min per day, 5 days per week for HW/schoolwork support,
connection to school and Rosetta Stone for English Language Development.
The district has also added a service that includes ELD support in both
English and Spanish for ALL K-12 Students outside of instructional time,
called tutor.com. This allows students to receive a live, on-demand tutor for
school/HW support outside of school hours (English 2pm-9am; Spanish 2pm-
11pm) in most all content areas (including Core Content areas).
If YES,
1. How many students are currently enrolled in it? 
a. Integrated/Designated ELD with classroom teachers is for ALL ELLs = 100;
After School Tutoring offered to all grade 5-6 LTELs = 26, but only 13 have
joined so far. It will be offered to other grade 5-6 ELs if no other LTELs join
and there is room to add them.
2. How do ESL programs differ depending on the grade level of students?
a. The planning for Integrated and Designated ELD instruction is completed by
the teachers and in grade-level meetings. Ongoing professional Learning for
teachers is provided by the site and the district.
3. How is a student’s “level” determined?
a. The students EL Level is determined by how they performed on their last
ELPAC (English Language Proficiency Assessment of California- state
assessment)
4. What are the requirements for teachers leading the ESL classes? Are the teachers part-
time or full-time teachers? Are teachers native English speakers, English learners, and/or
bilingual speakers?
a. Teachers must meet the California classroom credentialed teaching
requirements for CA public schools. Multiple subject teaching credential
programs embed a CLAD or BCLAD (English Learner Authorization or
Bilingual Authorization) option within them, meeting the CDE requirements
for teaching English Learners. The teachers that provide Integrated and
Designated ELD Instruction are full-time teachers with the proper CA
teaching credentials. The teachers are both English speakers and bilingual
speakers, but this in not a requirement of our teachers, as we do not
currently have any dual immersion classes offered at our site. If more than
20 parents at the site request this or more than 10 within the same grade-
level then we report that info to English Learner Services so they can look
into starting a program based on parent requests. The Inter-act Teaching
Fellow is a Fresno State student that provides the after-school tutoring for
our Long-term English Learners in grades 5-6. Her training is provided by
Fresno Unified’s English Learner Services Department.
5. How much funding is currently being spent on your ESL program? How much funding
does your school get from the state, federal government, and/or private investors?
a. Our school is a public school and all funding comes from the state and
federal government. All funding allotted for English Learners and programs
that impact them are spent on providing services to those students and their
families.
6. What type of ESL program does your school provide? 
Dual-Language Immersion Program: A classroom setting that provides
language learning and academic instruction for native speakers of English and
native speakers of another language, with the goals of high academic
achievement, first and second language proficiency, and cross-cultural
understanding [Education Code (EC) Section 306(c)(1)].
Transitional or Developmental Program: A classroom setting for English
learners that provides instruction to pupils that utilizes a pupil’s native language
for literacy and academic instruction and enables an English learner to achieve
English proficiency and academic mastery of subject matter content and higher
order skills, including critical thinking, in order to meet the state-adopted
academic content standards [EC Section 306(c)(2)].
Structured English Immersion: A classroom setting for English learners in
which nearly all classroom instruction is provided in English but with a
curriculum and presentation designed for pupils who are learning English. At
minimum, English learners will be provided a program of Structured English
Immersion. [EC sections 305(a)(2) and 306(c)(3)].
7. How can your school improve the quality of your ESL program?
 a. By continuing to offer additional support programs for other LTELs at other
grade-levels, as well as other intervention programs specific to English
Learners with the goal of reclassifying/redesignating them to English
Proficient on time and before they leave Elementary School.
If NO,
1. Why is there no ESL program at your school/school district?
2. What would you need to begin an ESL program at your school?
General Questions about ESL and Black, Indigenous, & People Of Color (BIPOC)
Students
1. What benefits or drawbacks do you see in offering or not offering an ESL program?
a. Benefits of offering- honoring students need to become English Proficient
while valuing their native language and encouraging ALL English Learners
to see the value and benefit of knowing multiple languages.
b. Drawbacks- discouraged students to feel as if they belong and decreases their
sense of school connectedness. This also limits their growth in both English
and their native language, as they feel unsupported in both aspects.
2. What role does school administration play with the success of ESL students and/or
BIPOC students?
a. By ensuring that ongoing ELD Professional Development for teachers is
calendared into the school year, supporting teachers with both Integrated
and Designated ELD, as well as offering intervention services outside of
instructional time for EL students. For BIPOC students the district has
programs that are offered at our site through the African American
Academic Acceleration (A4): https://a4.fresnounified.org/ The site offered an
afterschool tutoring program utilizing iReady and Springboard, as well as a
district funded Summer program that utilized these programs.
3. How do you handle student discipline?
a. We have a TST/SST process and referral form that allows teachers to
request additional support when it is beyond a Tier 1 (supports for ALL
students) discipline issue that the teacher can handle with the student and the
student’s family. Through this process, there is a team of teachers, school site
admin, support staff such as RSP, Speech, Counselor, and School Psych that
can determine the students support needs beyond Tier 1. We also have school
Mentors that are assigned to specific grade-levels that are trained through
Hand-in-hand Mentoring and our Department of Prevention and
Intervention, to build connection with students and provide additional Social
and Emotional supports.
4. How culturally responsive is the curriculum and instruction?
a. Our district has just launched a new department: Diversity, Equity, and
Inclusion (DEI), that specifically address the need for our curriculum to be
more culturally responsive, which includes training for ALL school staff
members. Here are the links for the last two month’s newsletters: August-
https://tinyurl.com/yyoezkrx ; September- https://tinyurl.com/y35ue2uk
5. How does the school deal with bullying – and race/class based bullying in particular?
 a. Our district and school site require teachers to hold “class meetings” that
utilize two different curriculums for Social Emotional Learning and lessons,
including anti-bullying: 2nd step and Class Meetings that Matter
6. How does the school recognize all cultures?
a. Embedded in DEI training for all school staff
7. Does your school focus on student equality or equity?
a. Embedded in DEI training for all school staff
8. Why do you think predominantly BIPOC schools are underfunded? Do you think access
or lack of access to resources plays a major role?
a. Unsure of why they are predominantly underfunded, but know that our
district is making steps in the right direction to change this, as well as our
school site in our site SPSA.
9. What do you think about standardized testing? (explain your position)
a. Standardized testing is a requirement of the state and as the School Site Test
Coordinator, it is my responsibility to ensure that all teachers and staff are
trained and prepared to give the test following all testing protocols, as well as
support staff to make sure all necessary testing accommodations and
supports are given to those students that require these as per their IEP or
504 plan.
10. What are your views on Proposition 15?
a. I do not have stance on this topic.
11. Have you had any experience(s) with other types of schools? Or in other staff positions?
a. I have only worked for Fresno Unified as a teacher- Certificated Tutor for
grades K-1, Classroom teacher for grades 4-5, and my current position of
Teacher on Special Assignment.
12. How would you get more funding for your school or ESL program? 
a. n/a
13. What do you see in the future in regard to ESL programs or programs serving the BIPOC
community? What would your ideal ESL program look like?
a. That all depends on the funding provided by the federal, state and local
government as well as the decisions made by School Site Council and written
in the School Site Plan (SPSA) by the parents, teachers and other staff. It is
my responsibility to support the school with this plan.