CLASS

ESC 18’s Texas Center for Educator Excellence (TxCEE) designed the Collaborative Language Acquisition Strategies for Success (CLASS) project to provide evidence-based professional development for all teachers as well as those seeking bilingual and/or English as a Second Language certification. The professional development content is based on evidence-based strategies from the federal What Works Clearinghouse standards for teaching academic content and literacy to Emergent Bilingual students in elementary school. Additionally, CLASS provides career pathway opportunities for teacher leaders to facilitate learning communities and mentor novice teachers while earning a stipend for taking on additional responsibilities.

• All teachers on participating elementary campuses engaged in weekly grade level or content area collaborative learning communities (CLCs). Each CLC was led by a CLASS Collaborative Learning Leader (CLL) to discuss needs, integrate professional development content, and reflect on practice. ESC 18-TxCEE’s Texas Educator Excellence Management System (TEEMS) was used to manage attendance and notes.
  
  
• CLASS Mentor Teachers provided goal setting, planning, observing, and modeling support to novice teachers (0-2 years of experience) through weekly coaching sessions.
  
  
• ESC 18-TxCEE provided virtual professional learning opportunities to educators seeking a bilingual/ESL certification in preparation for the certification exam.
  
  
• Campus and teacher leaders attend an annual 1-2 day summer institute to connect CLASS content to identified needs, design a shared vision for learning communities, and practice coaching and mentoring strategies. Throughout the school year, ESC 18-TxCEE provides monthly campus support plus eight virtual CLCs for teacher leaders.
  
  
• ESC 18—TxCEE partnered with American Institutes for Research (AIR) to conduct an independent evaluation of the CLASS project. The evaluation is intended to provide evidence of how well CLASS supports teacher training, retention, and effectiveness in the classroom; Emergent Bilingual linguistic and academic growth; and family engagement.

Early findings suggest that over time teachers found multiple benefits of implementing the strategies in CLCs and mentoring activities. Notably, most teachers felt the professional development facilitated students’ language and/or literacy development, regardless of their language background. Other key findings included the following:

• Teachers felt that CLCs have helped them be more intentional in their teaching. They also engaged parents at school events, asking parents how to best support their students, and sending home activities to support their child’s English language development.
  
  
• Some challenges early in the school year included CLLs understanding the CLC structure and strategies, teachers applying the new content in their classroom, and Mentor Teachers finding time to observe and provide feedback to mentees.
  
  

Implementation data for years 2 and 3 will be collected in spring 2025 and 2026, respectively, and will be reported the following fall. Final implementation and impact outcomes will be released in the 2026-27 school year. Additional resources from CLASS can be found on the TxCEE website.