English Language and Literacy Acquisition-Validation (ELLA-V)

ELLA-V is a professional development and instructional support program designed for K-3 teachers of English learners (ELs) in Texas. The program provides bimonthly virtual professional development sessions (18 sessions from September to May, approximately 90 minutes each), virtual mentoring and coaching (up to three observation rounds with feedback between January and May), and EL-relevant curricula materials aligned with content-area standards. The intervention was implemented with a backwards design across four school years: grade 3 in 2013-14, grade 2 in 2014-15, grade 1 in 2015-16, and kindergarten in 2016-17. Teachers received the intervention for a single year dependent on grade-level implementation. The program focuses on literacy and science content, as well as cognitive-academic language proficiency to enhance EL students' English language acquisition. Two treatment conditions (Treatment 1 and Treatment 2) received equivalent professional development and coaching, but curricula materials differed across treatments and grade levels according to student development. Treatment 1 curricula focused on oral language and phonemic awareness in grade K, oral language and learning to read in grade 1, learning to read in grade 2, and reading to learn (content-area reading) in grade 3. Treatment 2 curricula largely focused on students' oral language development across all grades, with a writing component added in grades 2-3.