Promoting Academic Success With English Language Learners: Best Practices for RTI

Educators and school psychologists throughout the country are working with growing numbers of English language learners (ELLs), but often feel unprepared to help these students excel. This highly informative book presents evidence-based strategies for promoting proficiency in academic English and improving outcomes in a response-to-intervention (RTI) framework. Illustrated with a detailed case example, the book describes best practices for working with K-5 ELLs in all stages of RTI: universal screening, progress monitoring, data collection, decision making, and intensifying instruction. In a large-size format with lay-flat binding for easy photocopying, the book includes more than two dozen reproducible worksheets. Purchasers get access to a Web page where they can download and print the reproducible materials.

This book is in The Guilford Practical Intervention in the Schools Series, edited by T. Chris Riley-Tillman.

Craig A. Albers, PhD, is Associate Professor of Educational Psychology in the School Psychology Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also serves as Chair of the interdisciplinary Prevention and Intervention Sciences Program. Prior to joining the University of Wisconsin in 2004, Dr. Albers worked as a school psychologist in the Kyrene School District in Phoenix, Arizona. His research focuses on universal screening, prevention, and early intervention services; the provision of school psychological services to English language learners (ELLs); and the measurement and resulting intervention implications of English language proficiency assessment. He is the author of Alternate ACCESS for ELLs, an English language proficiency measure designed for use with ELLs with significant disabilities, which is currently administered in 34 states. He is also Associate Editor of the Journal of School Psychology. Rebecca S. Martinez, PhD, is Associate Professor in the School Psychology Program at Indiana University Bloomington. A native Spanish speaker, Dr. Martinez was raised in Mexico City, Mexico, where she attended elementary school through the third grade. After obtaining her bachelor’s degree, she joined Teach for America and became a bilingual education teacher on the Texas-Mexico border. Her research and practice focus on the prevention of and intervention for children’s academic failure, particularly for ELLs. She has published multiple book chapters and peer-reviewed empirical articles.