In my newly-released Essential Standards online course (www.larryainsworth-claritypathway.com/courses), I devoted one entire lesson to answering many of the frequently asked questions (FAQs) about Essential Standards. Recent questions are about how Essential Standards can assist multilingual learners, and in this blog post, I respond to one of those FAQs that goes to the heart of the matter.

Question: “Isn’t focusing solely on Essential Standards for multilingual learners providing them with a ‘watered-down’ education?  How do you respond to that concern?”

There is a fundamental misunderstanding here about what Essential Standards are and what their actual purpose is. “Watered down” implies lowered learning expectations, simplified content, less rigorous work, and settling for minimum competency.  When multilingual students struggle with language, educators often consciously or unconsciously lower their expectations for those students, eliminating from their instruction the more challenging content. Essential Standards represent the highest cognitive demand and those important concepts and skills that ALL students need to know and be able to do. Essential Standards are the opposite of “watered down”; they are the distilled essence of what matters most for student learning—in school and for future success in life. 

 “Watered Down” vs. Rigor with Scaffolding: Here is a generalized example. Juan is an English learner, and as such, he needs to learn more than just “watered down” standards with simplified content. Juan deserves and needs to learn Essential Standards and their related levels of rigor through scaffolding. The way educators can do this is by first focusing on the related supporting standards as foundational “building block” skills while his language proficiency develops.

Note this 7th grade science Essential Standard: "Develop and use models to describe the function of a cell as a whole and the ways in which parts of cells contribute to the cell’s function." If Juan is only expected to memorize and name the parts of a cell and to draw and label a diagram of a cell, that is “watered down." This same Essential Standard can be adapted for Juan—with scaffolding of language—by wording it like this: "Develop a model showing how a cell works like a factory, with each organelle having a job. Use sentence frames, visual supports, and primary language resources as needed to EXPLAIN your model."

The Opposite of “Watering Down”: The issue isn't about watering down expectations of learning. What IS watering-down is exposing students to all standards superficially in an attempt to “cover” everything, which results in students learning nothing deeply enough to be able to learn and apply those standards correctly and confidently. Essential Standards ensure that multilingual learners acquire the rigorous and important content that will matter MOST for their education and their future. The necessary scaffolding provides them with access, not setting lower expectations for achievement. Here is a success story of a multilingual student that illustrates this. 

Real Student Example: Lin, a 9th grader with limited English, arrived in the U.S. from China and was enrolled in a chemistry class. Her chemistry teacher tried to cover all 47 standards throughout the course, without identifying any of those standards as being essential. Lin was lost, overwhelmed, and constantly behind. She memorized vocabulary for tests, but forgot the terms immediately, and was unable to see the connections between the many concepts she was expected to learn. As an inevitable result, Lin developed anxiety about her inability to succeed in science, received a “D” grade in the course, and retained no real understanding of what she had been taught.

Lin experienced a dramatic turnaround in 10th grade biology when her teacher focused primarily on 18 Essential Standards.  She also received scaffolding: visual models, sentence frames, strategic grouping, and vocabulary support. Lin spent more time learning fewer concepts and was able to demonstrate understanding of what she had been taught. She could EXPLAIN photosynthesis, cell division, and genetics—not just memorize and define biology terms. She designed experiments and defended her reasoning. Lin earned a grade of “B” and ended the course with a feeling of genuine accomplishment for all she had truly learned. 

Instructional Equity for Multilingual Learners: 

Essential Standards promote instructional equity. They enable multilingual learners to access the most important concepts and skills that all students are expected to learn. Language scaffolds focus on supporting students’ access to rigorous content. Educators of multilingual learners understand that language barriers do not equate with intellectual barriers. 

Multilingual students learn challenging academic concepts while developing English. For example, a newcomer English Language Learner (ELL) can and will learn the Essential Standard of being able to “analyze author's purpose and cite evidence” through the scaffolded use of shorter texts, visual supports, and sentence frames. 

To put it simply, Essential Standards aren't about “lowering the bar” or “watering down” instruction and learning expectations for our students—they're about ensuring that we focus on teaching students what matters MOST, and that we do it well—not only for our multilingual learners but for all our students.

Announcing the Essential Standards Online Course!

I am happy to announce that my first online course, ESSENTIAL STANDARDS: PATHWAY TO SUCCESS FOR ALL STUDENTS, is now open for registration at www.larryainsworth-claritypathway.com/courses. 

Course Benefits Include:

• 10 self-paced video lessons, each within 30 minutes; perfect for busy schedules
• Priced for individuals, school teams, and/or entire districts
• Works seamlessly within school- or district-adopted curriculum
• Emphasizes core instruction for all students
• Logical, practical, relevant for every educator 

Other Essential Standards Resources:

If you are interested in reading several powerful testimonials from district leaders about the benefits of Essential Standards and how their educators aligned them across all grades, here are the links to Volume One of my Integrated Teaching and Learning book series and to the Essential Standards workshop and others: 

https://www.larryainsworth.com/#VolumeOne

http://www.larryainsworth.com/workshops 

For continuing information about all the “timeless essentials” in an integrated teaching and learning system, I hope you will follow me on Facebook, Linked In, and/or Instagram!

I am always happy to answer questions you may have about Essential Standards or any of the other “timeless essentials”. Please feel free to contact me at [email protected] or [email protected].