Designing Middle School Program Models for Multilingual Learners in Boulder Valley

Abstract

To effectively serve multilingual learners, it is critical that school districts articulate a thoughtful program model for service delivery that maximizes its available resources to positively impact student outcomes. There are myriad service delivery structures that schools can leverage, each with pros and cons and varying relevant contextual factors and implementation guidelines to consider. Boulder Valley School District has recommended program models at the elementary and high school levels, but until now they have not had a recommended program model in their middle level grades six, seven, and eight. This capstone outlines a process taken in Boulder Valley to develop clearly articulated service delivery models for its middle level grades, along with a user-friendly implementation guide for principals and school teams that outlines critical components to consider when adapting a particular model. The capstone explores relevant bodies of literature and state guidance, and then explains and analyzes the steps taken in Boulder Valley, what worked, and what could have worked better. Finally, this capstone concludes with some recommendations for future implications for Boulder Valley’s work, including revisiting FTE allocation, matching supports for effective implementation with accountability, and leveraging implementation of the newly recommended models to continue to inform next steps. The capstone also highlights some broader next steps for the educational field, including the need for additional research, better quantitative data reports, and ensuring program model articulation for multilingual learners happens in conjunction with broader instructional improvement efforts district wide.