BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE VILLAGE BRANCH OF THE LEXINGTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
The Village Branch of the Lexington Public Library (LPL) is located in the heart of the Hispanic enclave in Lexington, Kentucky. The Village Branch is active within Lexington’s Hispanic community, which numbers around 21,000 residents.
The Village has been allotted an operating and maintenance budget of $135,595.00 for fiscal year 2013, which was an increase from the $134,913.00 budgeted for fiscal year 2011. In addition, Library Services Support for materials was $38,000.00 for fiscal year 2011. The Village Branch Library Services Support for materials has been in increased to $44,000.00 in 2013 and $50,000.00 for fiscal year 2014. The increase in finances allotted for Library Services Support reflects the active and growing patron base of The Village. Programs for children and teens are scheduled for every weekday throughout the summer.1 Also every weekday, a free hot lunch is dispensed to patrons 18 years and younger.2 The Village is a place for community meetings. For adults, The Village hosts GED testing several weekends a year and weekly English as a Second Language (ESL) classes.
Currently, ESL classes are held twice a week at The Village Branch, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:30pm to 8pm.3 The Tuesday night class is taught by a lead teacher, and the Thursday night class—led by a different teacher—is intended to be iterative of the previous class. However, only a percentage of ESL students attend both classes on a weekly basis. Others students may attend once a week, and still other students make it to either class episodically. Due to partial and sporadic attendance, many students are behind and have trouble follow the new lesson. Often, the ESL teachers must concede class time to eviewing a prior lesson necessary to 1 See the activity calendar for The Village Branch of the LPL at http://www.lexpublib.org/calendar?branch=Village+Branch&search=
the comprehension of the scheduled lesson. Over time, reversions to prior lessons to help some
students compromises the progress of the class as a whole. Important ESL curriculum is not
taught and the advancement of regularly attending students may be stifled. Nevertheless, the ESL
program at The Village Branch has held together in this manner for years. Despite slow progress
and oft absent classmates, each ESL class session is well attended. The community served by
The Village continues to show interest in and support for the ESL program.
RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY:
Absences from ESL class are problematic for students at the individual level and
for the class as a whole. Class absences on the part of the ESL student often leads to drop-out.
Once a student misses a class session, it can be very difficult for the student to study extra to
make up for the absence or even to know what should be studied. Often, a student who misses
one class session will often miss another due to the fear that he or she will be behind, or even
slow the class down.
ESL students class preparedness is affected by the fact that many do not have access to
Internet. Problem of absences cannot be resolve through shared sites or online tutorials. Most
English Language Learners do not have a computer at home, which obviously precludes access
to high-speed internet in the household. Therefore, the use of email or other social media to
contact learners or disseminate information is not an option.
Many ESL students at The Village are new to the US. Their linguistic isolation relegates
them to tough but menial work in jobs in the agriculture and horse-raising industries around
Lexington, Kentucky. Other ESL students work in bakeries or warehouses requiring them to
work well outside of the white-collar, 9 to 5 hours upon which much of our society is, rightly or
wrongly based. Odd or demanding work hours preclude some ESL students from attending both
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weekly sessions. In addition to the complexities of non-traditional work hours, adjusting to a new
life in America has its own intricacies to navigate, some of which are the familiar problems of
transportation and childcare (Condelli, Wrigley, & Yoon, 2002). However, these problems are
exacerbated in the absence of an ability to speak English. Remedying the obstacles to attending
ESL classes is far beyond the scope The Village. The best way to serve the patrons participating
in ESL classes is to create avenues of opportunity and possibility through programs that are
supportive of the students’ endeavors.
The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as shared class
websites, video chat capabilities or the myriad online interactive tutorials could resolve much of
the problem of missed lessons. Unfortunately, the digital divide renders the use of ICTs moot.
Most ESL students, due to economic conditions, do not have home access, or even regular
access, to a computer or the Internet. Thus, the ESL teacher cannot apprise students of the
contents of missed lessons through the web.
However, most of our ESL students do have regular access to a telephone line. One
possible way of updating absent students to have the ESL teacher impart the lesson plan and
homework over the phone. However, it would be imprudent for The Village to overburden our
ESL teachers by obliging them to contact every student who missed class. Yet, student support
outside of class is much needed in the ESL community. Could we tap into the LPL community of
volunteers as a support system for ESL students?
Many English-speaking patrons of LPL have expressed interest in assisting with ESL
classes, but were hesitant to take on the role of a classroom teacher. Up to this point, there has
been no other LPL program that would allow interested patrons to help with ESL classes, save
becoming a classroom ESL teacher.
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However, many LPL patrons will be interested in participating in a structured mentoring
program that will pair them with a single ESL student. The virtue of a mentorship program of
this kind is that it taps community volunteers who did not want to take on the responsibility of
teaching a classroom but were otherwise interested in aiding and encouraging an ESL student.
RESEARCH DESIGN
RESEARCH PURPOSE & RESULTING QUESTIONS
The purpose of this intervention is the implementation of a student support mechanism to
help ESL students who have experienced non-consecutive absences from class to keep current
with and knowledgeable of the lessons taught during those missed classes. The student support
mechanism is a one-to-one adult mentorship program, wherein a native English speaker will
mentor a dedicated ESL student. This action research project will test whether of not the
intervention, i.e. the mentorship program, can be directly correlated to an improvement in the
general attendance of the ESL mentees over the course of the mentorship? And, can the program
be directly correlated with an improved the general performance of the ESL mentees’ language
skills? Although correlation does not equal causation, a directly overlapping correlation with
mentoring activities and improved language skills give stakeholders reason to believe that the
mentor program has positively influenced ESL mentees.
Subsequent research questions pertaining to individual ESL students participating in the
mentor program are: Will the intervention reduce the number of missed classes on the part of the
ESL student? Will the ESL student’s resolve and commitment to learning English increase as a
result of—or at least rise incrementally throughout—the mentorship? Has the ESL student
mentee’s life goals changed as a result of mentorship?
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At the class-wide and programmatic level, the fundamental research question is: Has the
ESL class progressed further in the curriculum—as compared to past experiences at the same
point in the curriculum—as a result of students’ class preparedness? If so, what effect does a
continual steady progression within the curriculum have on the morale of the class?
Another proximal class-wide research question may be: Have more students persisted in
attending ESL class for this term in relation to corresponding past terms? For example, have
more students attended class throughout February, March, and April than the past monthly
periods of February, March and April?
Although the fundamental concern with this project is lesson currency on the part of ESL
students who have missed a class, the ramifications of implementing this program are threepronged
and thus can be considered in the resulting research questions. First, will this program
provide interested LPL patrons with an opportunity to volunteer without the burden of
responsibility that comes with instructing and entire class? Will this program provide volunteers
with the opportunity to engage satisfactorily with another community? Many library patrons and
community members are willing to give their time and energy to helping the ESL cause.
However, many self-select themselves out of the actual mentor group because they feel they do
not have the teaching skills or are not confident in their own language explaining abilities.
Moreover, mentors are sometimes reticent to engage in a one-on-one relationship with a member
of a community that is different from them, especially if that community is less economically
well off. In other words, volunteers fear entanglement.
Second, will the mentorship program relieve some of the pressure on ESL teachers to
support absent students by assigning mentors to help keep the students current with their lessons?
If so, the ESL teachers will have more time and energy to invest in crafting lessons.
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Finally, if ESL students have an English savvy mentor with whom to discuss missed
lessons, to practice speaking English, and to be available to answer orienting questions about the
community or help navigate them through government bureaucracy. In many cases, the ESL
teacher is the only English-speaking contact they feel comfortable approaching. Will a
relationship with heightened obligation to self and peers, foster a commitment to the program on
the part of the ESL student due to the stake in the success of the student that the mentor now has?
Up to now, the effectiveness of the ESL program has not been measured. It is unclear, for
example, how many Village Branch ESL students have passed the Test of English as a Foreign
Language (TOEFL).
ESL STANDARDS BEING ADDRESSED
Currently there are no widely-accepted national ESL content standards or core
competencies. However, state and local governments, as well as public and private organizations
that have developed (or are in the process of developing) content standards for ESL. Should the
mentorship program prove successful at the end of the pilot study, adoption and/or development
of content standards for the ESL program shall be considered. Until such a time, the ESL
program declines to address any association’s curricular or programmatic standards. However, as
a point of guidance, The Village ESL program encourages interested students to consult to the
test preparation materials of the Educational Testing Services (ETS) Test of English as a Foreign
Language (TOEFL).
RESOURCES/MATERIALS NEEDED TO IMPLEMENT RESEARCH
Although fairly obvious, it is worth noting this intervention is human resource heavy. The
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intervention requires at least five volunteers willing to serve as mentors for ESL students. The
duties of the mentors consist of aiding the student in self-study and self-learning of missed
lessons due to a class absence. In addition to facilitating the learning of lessons, the mentor is
encouraged meet with the student for a least one half-hour (in-person or over the telephone) to
practice speaking English. The weekly meeting should take place in addition to a make up
session of a missed lesson.
In addition to mentor volunteers, the intervention needs a designated program coordinator
to oversee day-to-day management of the mentor program. The program coordinator will be
responsible for data collection, data transcription and data entry in addition to data analysis. Thus
the program coordinator should be skilled in research methods—both qualitative and
quantitative. The program manager must also be fluent in English and Spanish with excellent
speaking, writing, and listening skills in each. The program manager will also be responsible for
organizing orientation and initiation sessions for mentors as well as quarterly mentor training and
development sessions for the mentors. The program coordinator will also be responsible for
organizing and chairing an action research committee to oversee the implementation and
management of the intervention. The action research committee will consist of the program
coordinator, the ESL teachers, the director of The Village and two of its employees, interested
LPL Board of Trustees members, and three to four select community advisors, including a
professor or two from UK’s Spanish or ESL departments.
DATA COLLECTION TOOLS TO BE USED – PRE AND POST ARP IMPLEMENTATION
Data collection for this intervention will be time- and labor-intensive. Data collection
should occur at the beginning and end of every quarter of the pilot program. Extenuating
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circumstances (discussed in the following section) necessitate that pre- and post-tests should be
completed with paper and pencil and then entered into a database. Each term, then, the pre- and
post-tests will be assessed and an algorithm will be applied that compares the progress of the
student objectively and in relation to his or her absences from class. Although the data collection
will be flawed due to sample size, a positive correlation with the mentorship program and
language ability will yield evidence enough. The same extenuating circumstances necessitate that
interviews should be the standard method of data collection from ESL students. If the ESL
students consent, interviews should be recorded and transcribed. Recorded and transcribed data
can be subjected to data-mining techniques, and can further research in the field of Secondlanguage
acquisition.
Data collection requires reliable recording and transcription devices and statistics
software. Data-mining software is highly desired.
DATA ANALYSIS – ANALYZING THE DATA & USING THE RESULTS
Data will be collected from both mentors and mentees. The primary area of assessment is
the ESL students improvement and/or enhanced commitment/engagement. However, questions
must be asked of mentors as well as mentees in order to gauge the conditions under which a
student improves in skill or gains an enhanced commitment to learning English.
ESL students participating in the mentor program will take a written pre-test and post-test
on paper at the beginning and end of each quarter of the pilot study term. The content to be
assessed will be the same for all tests; however, each test will feature a unique set of problems.
The tests will be short, un-timed, take-home exams to be completed without the help of the
mentor. In addition to these written tests, near the beginning and end of each quarter, the ESL
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teachers will ask participating students questions in class that require more than a yes or no
answer. The questions will be designed to elicit a response that allows the ESL teacher to gauge
improvement in speaking English.
In addition to the test taking, initial commitment assessment of ESL students to learning
English will be measured through individual quarterly interviews (usually scheduled toward the
end of the term). Periodic commitment assessments of the ESL student will be measured directly
through interviews with the ESL students. The commitment of an ESL student will be measured
indirectly through individual interviews with their mentors. The purpose of a commitment
assessment is to indicate (1) how well a student may perform without the aid of a mentor (2) a
change, positive or negative, in the level of commitment the ESL student has towards learning
English and gaining entre into American culture and society. Enhancement of an ESL student’s
commitment to learning English and “becoming American” is a primary motivation for the
mentor program.
Aside from assessing commitment levels, interviews can help gauge the robustness of the
mentor/mentee relationship as well as provide information regarding problems with the program.
The interview setting is also conducive to establishing a dialog with participants about areas that
we can improve and advice from program participants as to how we can improve them.
Moreover, if interviewees consent to being taped, systematic analysis of transcripts may reveal
trends or issues that program participants are not yet aware of themselves. Further, recordings
and transcripts would provide a treasure trove of research pertinent to Second-language
acquisition studies.
Conducting interviews is a time and labor intensive pursuit. However, there is no other
option to obtain consistent, i.e. normalized, data. This is because not every ESL student is literate
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in his or her own language. So, although completing a short content-driven test is doable for
these ESL students, completing open-ended questionnaires could be beyond the skill level. The
mentor program should be open to all ESL students regardless of their starting levels of nativelanguage
literacy. Although native language literacy is an indicator of success in learning
English, the intervention seeks to measure variations in commitment level due to participation in
the mentor program.
Not only should the mentors and mentees be tapped for information, the ESL teachers
should complete quarterly questionnaires related to the progress of the class as a whole.
Informally, the ESL teacher will gauge the general satisfaction of students with mentors during
the bi-weekly classes. Perhaps most important of all, the ESL should take attendance and make
note of tardy students for every class.
SECONDARY, OR CONDITION-ESTABLISHING, QUESTIONS
The success of this intervention is dependent on volunteers (mentors and ESL students).
It is, therefore, important to gauge the level of satisfaction with the program on the part of
mentors and ESL students. Collecting information to calculate satisfaction levels with the
program can apprise the action research committee of nascent dissatisfaction that may be averted
through program-wide adjustment. In addition monitoring satisfaction levels, data regarding
interaction between the mentors and mentees should also be collected. Thus, routine interview
questions to be asked of both mentors and mentees will consist of, but not limited to, the
following:
How often did you meet one-on-one with your mentor/mentee?
How often did you speak on the telephone with your mentor/mentee?
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Did you have weekly appointments with your mentor/mentee?
Is it difficult to get in contact with your mentor/mentee?
How often—weekly or monthly—did you try to contact your mentor? How often
did you succeed?
Did your mentor help you with any administrative or bureaucratic problems
beyond ESL content? How often?
Does your mentor speak your native language?
Did you speak with your mentor primarily in English or in your native language?
After assessments for each participant is collected and analyzed, the action research
committee will be study and discuss the results. Each member of the committee will be required
to read through all assessments.
The final collection, analysis and summary of data from the mentor program pilot project
is likely to continue a few weeks past the official pilot program completion date. During that
time—in the absence of definitive information regarding the efficacy of the program—extant
mentorships should continue as normal. If the mentor program is qualitatively changed,
participants shall have the option to continue on in the new version of the program. If the mentor
program is discontinued, participants shall be notified.
Finally, regardless of the success or failure of the mentor program, the final report and
analysis of data shall be shared with researchers and interested parties via the LPL website. The
report will be available free of charge. All names and any other personally identifiable
information will be omitted to protect the privacy of the participants.
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LITERATURE/RESEARCH REVIEW (75 points)
BRIEF REVIEW OF AT LEAST 5 STUDIES PERTAINING TO YOUR INTERVENTION
In researching interventions pertinent to my particular action research project, I found
there is little to no directly connected reports or articles. Indeed, the concept of mentoring adult
ESL students who are not in college or bound for college has been rarely, if ever implemented. If
ever implemented there have been no reports about the programs successes or failures.
However, there is an abundance of research tangentially relevant to my topic. There are
ample publications related to mentoring primary and secondary school youths in ESL programs,
as well as adult-to-adult mentoring, especially within professions. Indeed, it was somewhat
frustrating to see the vast research on ESL teacher-to-teacher mentorships, but to find nothing on
adult mentoring of adult ESL students. This is an under-researched area—I suspect because it is
an under-practiced area. Therefore, it is imperative that the experience and the results of The
Village mentor program be reported in a be widely available format and free of charge.
As indicated, there is a great deal of information about adult-to-adult mentorships in the
professions. Thus, theoretical underpinnings as to how and why adult mentoring works among
professionals have been researched. These underpinnings are transferable to the mentor program
of adult ESL students at The Village. In her 2001 dissertation, published by ERIC.gov, Bonnie
Williams applies Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) to adult learning. Vygotsky’s
ZPD is well-known and well-accepted construct which posits—briefly—that children learn when
they are able to receive information that accords with their current knowledge but is slightly
more challenging to grasp and thus need the assistance of an educator. Referring to ZPD,
Williams claims that “identical processes can be seen operating in the learning adult” (2001, 7-
8). Williams then goes on to detail how the stages of ZPD are played out in the adult learner with
the help of mentors. Williams is primarily concern with the training and development of
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professional teachers. She claims that new teachers gain wisdom about the experience of
teaching in a quicker and deeper way under the guidance and assistance of an experienced
teacher who acts as a mentor. According to Williams, experienced teacher to new teacher
mentorships are most effective when they are based on a shared style of, or approach to, teaching
(Williams 2001). This notion of shared orientation by mentor/mentee has proven to be an
important aspect of mentor relationships and is noted throughout the field of mentor research,
generally. This notion will be further discussed latter in this section.
In her 2007 article, “Mentoring Adult Learners: Realizing Possible Selves,” Fletcher
explains that mentoring provides an important context for transformation of the self. Using the
construct of Possible Selves, which is a thought experiment by an individual in which she not
only imagines herself becoming who she wants to be but takes an inventory of skills needed to
create the path to that possible self (Fletcher 2007). The Possible Selves construct lends itself to
mentoring in that a mentor possesses a quality or skill that a mentee would like to have, and
therefore can help the mentee to understand what the path to a possible self entails. In other
words, what is the content of the journey towards the possible self. Again, the bent of this essay
is towards professional development: mentors assist “adult learners to restructure and reinvent
their own professional identities”4 (Fletcher 2007, 83). However, there is no reason that the same
cannot be said for The Village program: community mentors assist adult ESL learners to
restructure and reinvent their own English-speaking identities.
Several articles tout the benefits of adult mentorship. Indeed, “[a]dults who work with mentors
grow in their own sense of intellectual competence, as well as in their sense of purpose,
their feeling of autonomy, and their personal integrity” (Bova 1984, 16). Mentors help
4 Italics added.
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mentees cope with turbulent change and assess new experiences (De La Cruz 2008). One
way mentors do this is by providing personalized attention wherein a mentee can receive
information about her perceptions and ideas (Lankau 2002).
Despite the resounding benefits of mentoring—adult or otherwise—there are also
cautions and important considerations. In formal mentoring programs special
consideration should be given to social as well as individual characteristics, especially
because in these cases mentors and mentees do not come together naturally but are paired
by external forces.
Hansman notes that mentoring’s psychosocial benefits vary according to the gender of the
mentor and mentee. Male-male mentorships tend to focus on the practical goals of the
relationship, whereas female-female mentorships are noted for shared experiences, empathy, and
deep emotional bonds (Hansman 2002). Cross-gender mentorships can be problematic for
several reasons. According to Hansman, cross-gender mentorships are the target of public
scrutiny and suspicion, and sometimes peer resentment (2002). Cross-gender mentoring has also
been criticized for not providing mentees with suitable role models or creating trepidation on the
part of the mentee that a request for help from the mentor could be construed as a sexual advance
(Hansman 2002). Reports have shown that the needs of the mentee are often overlooked in crossgender,
as well as in cross-ethnic mentorships. Black, Hispanic and Asian men often decline to
participate in formal mentoring programs offered by their organizations for that reason. These
men would rather find mentors—but often do not—of their own color (Hansman 2002).
It is important to note that gender and race are not the only consideration in matching
mentors and mentees. Several researchers suggest inventorying both mentor and mentee to
establish which have the same values, interests, favored past times and then basing pairings on
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those findings. One researcher who limits cross-gender and cross-ethnic pairings also adds, “We
hit pay dirt when we have a mentor and [mentee] with common hobbies or skills, for
example, fishing, art, or baseball” (Reglin 1997, web article). Those who pair mentors
and mentees for The Village’s mentor program may have to rely on inventories of this
sort because avoiding cross-gender and cross-ethnic mentoring relationships can be difficult
among small pools of mentors and mentees.
The greatest challenge for The Village mentor program will be navigating cross-ethnic
relationships due to the fact that ESL learners to be mentored are all newcomers to the US from
Central or South America, or Mexico. In light of this, the program coordinator may want to
consider recruiting specific volunteers and/or subjecting potential mentors to a selection process.
The quality of the mentors—most of whom will be white—will be integral to the viability of this
program. For, as Fletcher (the Possible Selves construct advocate) points out, mentors “must be
in a position to open up opportunities for mentees and to be able to focus on mentoring
without fear about their own capacity” (Fletcher 2007, 78). In other words, the mentors
must not only be willing to examine and critique their behaviors and presuppositions, but
also recalibrate their outlook in such a way as to include or consider the outlook of the
mentee. Such an endeavor though easily said, is not so easily done.
That mentors should inspect and challenge their preconceived notions of society
and the self is well-represented in the literature. Such attention to transformations of
mentors’ notions and outlooks is in no small degree related to the fact that a main purpose
of many mentorships is the reduction of social distance between the world of the mentees
and the world of the mentor which then acts to break down the barriers to opportunities
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(Flaxman 1993). Reducing the social distance between Spanish-only speakers and
English-speaking American society is one of the most important goals of ESL programs.
One way to help mentors examine there views and prepare for the role of mentor
to an adult with a completely different outlook derived from vastly different life
experiences is through training. Hansman offers advice on training mentors:
[D]uring mentor training and orientation sessions, mentors may learn to understand the
importance of providing developmental help and support to forge helpful crossrace/
cross-gender mentoring relationships. European American mentors need to develop
an appreciation for the obstacles women and people of color face and understand that they
may need to be sensitive to these obstacles as they mentor their proteges. They can
increase their credibility with their proteges by being more culturally responsive
(Hansman 50).
The importance of mentor training is well-addressed in the literature. In addition to initial
training, researchers such as Reglin, Hansman and Sherman believe that mentor training
should be an ongoing process.
The mentor program is first and foremost intended to eliminate absences from ESL
class. Thus far, when an ESL student misses a class, it is not at all certain that she will
return the following week, generally out of fear that she has fallen behind and will hold
up the progress of the class. When those students who have missed a class return, the
lesson from the previous week(s) often need to be revisited during class for the benefit of
that student. This is a major obstacle in the weekly progress of the class along the
curriculum. Theoretically, attendance—or at least class-preparedness on the part of a
student who missed a previous class—will help the ESL teacher maintain the learning
momentum of the class and move along the curriculum at a steady pace. This in turn will
allow ESL students to accomplish more during class and thus achieve more at the end of
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the ESL training.
But, unfortunately, the literature is not clear as to whether or not mentor programs
resolve the problem of absences. Drawing from studies of youth truancy and adult
mentors, there is evidence that mentoring will mitigate class absences. Reglin, in
“Mentoring and Tutoring Help (MATH) Program fights truancy,” claims that mentors are
under-utilized in the prevention of truancy (1997). This claim is borne out by authors of
“Getting students to school: Using family and community involvement to reduce chronic
absenteeism” who found that connecting community mentors to truant students
measurably decreased chronic absenteeism across 39 schools (Sheldon 2004). However, a
study published in 2006 “showed no difference in the average number of days students
were absent from school, but students were more likely to attend school on the days when
they were scheduled to meet with their adult reading partners” (Volkmann 2006). The
nature of the connection between mentoring and school attendance is not clear at the
primary and secondary school levels. However, both Reglin and Volkmann found that
students self-esteem was positively affected by the mentor relationships. In fact, Reglin
bases his conclusion on the results of the Culture-free Self-Esteem Inventory (1997).
Measurements of self-esteem were outside the scope of the third article.
Importantly, the youth truancy studies and the absences from class of ESL learners
diverge almost immediately in that the causes of each are completely different. Youth
truancy is a complex matter resulting from low-self esteem, lack of expectation, and
disinterest in learning to name a few. ESL students demonstrate weekly that they are
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interested in learning by showing up to class. And those that miss class often do so
because of emergent needs. Other interventions, such as childcare and sponsored
transportation would be more effective in eliminating absences (Brod 1995). However,
interventions such as these are outside the realm of solvable for The Village.
As explained above, the problem of students missing class is problematic
personally and class-wide. Absences on the part of the ESL learner makes it more likely
that she will drop out of the program. As many as a third of ESL students have been
reported to leave the programs by the end of the second month (Brod 1995). However,
students who return after an absence but are not prepared for class hold back the progress
of the entire class.
One finding of the truancy studies can be expected to show up in The Village
mentor program: It is likely that ESL mentees will experience a boost in their self-esteem
from her relationship with a mentor.
Although there is little to no information that directly addresses the particular topic of
community volunteer mentors and adult ESL mentees, there is a great deal of information on
mentoring generally, mentoring in professions—particularly for ESL teaching—and adult to
youth mentoring. Reviewing some of the literature on mentoring has helped to clarify goals and
has tempered what can be expected from this intervention. From my research, I found that there
is theoretical support as to why and how adult to adult mentoring is beneficial. I also found that
the relationships between mentors and mentees in formal programs must be approached with
great care and deliberation. Regarding the mentors themselves, they must be capable of deep
introspection and be willing to change based on what they find in themselves. Moreover, they
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must be willing to take on the responsibility entailed in mentor/mentee relationships. Focusing
on the intentions of the intervention, I found that the mentor program is probably unlikely to
eliminate absences but may still make strides in the arena of students’ class preparedness and
progress as a whole.
INTERVENTION PLAN/PLAN OF ACTION
DESCRIPTION OF THE INTERVENTION STRATEGY/PLAN OF ACTION
Mentors and ESL students will be introduced at an initiation meeting. Mentors and
participating ESL students will meet once a week for the first month of the program (in order to
establish trust and become familiar with each other). After the first month, appointments
scheduling shall be left to the discretion of the mentor and ESL student.
The intervention will be divided into three four-month long terms, which will correspond
to a curriculum. At the beginning of each term, mentor training will be provided. The training
will be progressive in content. At the end of each term, mentors will meet with the ESL teachers
in order to discuss/prepare for the traditionally problematic areas in the upcoming curriculum. In
this meeting, individual skill and ability should not be addressed. Importantly, it is up to the
mentor and the ESL student to gauge problems areas and address them. Of course, the ESL
teacher may be consulted for best practices or resources to resolve the difficulty. Mentors will
also meet to, in the presence of the program coordinator, discuss best practices/effective
strategies.
All prospective ESL students are invited and encouraged to attend ESL classes at any
time. However, in order to normalize the data collected for the mentor program, newly-accepted
mentors and mentees will initiate the program-sponsored relationship at the beginning of each
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quarter. No new participants shall initiate program-sponsored mentor/mentee relationships after
first day of the final quarter of the pilot year.
The ESL students targeted for this program will be those who have repeatedly missed
classes yet still keep a routine attendance and are dedicated to completing the program.
PLAN FOR FUTURE ACTION
IDENTIFY YOUR NEXT STEP AFTER ANALYZING THE DATA
The intervention plan is divided into four successive legs each lasting three months. At
the end of each leg data will be collected and assessed. By segmenting the year-long pilot project
into three month legs, data may be collected on a quarterly basis and systematically evaluated.
Both general and precise changes can then be applied to the mentor program based on the
quarterly analyses and evaluations. A timeline such as this means that the proposed cost of the
pilot mentor program can be included in a fiscal year budget report. The longevity of the budget
forecast will allow the program coordinator flexibility enough to adjust the strategy and
intentions of the program before submitting a final audit of the overall expenditures. By
removing the need for bureaucratic approval of requests for more funding mid-calendar year, the
mentor program can operate more fluidly and more quickly respond to problem areas. Thus, the
full nature and efficacy of this action research project can be realized.
At the end of each quarter, qualitative and quantitative data will be collected. The action
research committee will review the data. Imminent problem areas will be identified and possible
obviations or solutions will be discussed. Any program successes will be studied with an eye
towards identifying and replicating the favorable components. Quarterly evaluation reports and
the minutes of the action research committee meeting will be made available to any LPL employee via the library’s Intranet.
In the next section, several program outcomes are considered and next steps are proposed.
POTENTIAL NEXT STEPS BASED ON POSITIVE STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT CHANGE
If the results are positive throughout the pilot year, as the mentor program progresses, the results are positive, the action research committee will explore extensions of student support and community connections.
If the ultimate evaluation of the program at year’s end proves to be a success, the action research committee will suggest a reiteration of the mentor program, under the continued auspices of the action research committee, for the current year. It is unlikely that every aspect of the mentor program yields positive changes. The mentor program can extend the action research that began with the initial project. Further, adjustments and improvements to the program evinced by the culminating final report could commence immediately if the same action research committee is authorized to oversee the project. By immediately implementing adjustments at the start of the second iteration, there will be more time available for refining best practices.
If the mentor program continues, the coordinator should aim to include more ESL students by actively recruiting volunteer mentors. More importantly, the program coordinator should continue to refine the tools used to pair mentors and mentees, especially because long term success of the program depends on the comradery and attraction between the mentor and mentee. Another plan of action, stated earlier, would be to examine adoption of ESL content standards or core competencies. Finally, the most effective mentors should be identified and asked to share the beliefs and practices that guide their mentoring.
Depending on the success of the program, mentors may also become tutors and/or graders. With any program, there are those who would like to become more involved. The mentorship program is a perfect way for interested yet reticent volunteers to “wet their toes” for involvement with the ESL program Although public library is a great place for English training and literacy improvement, there are limits to its involvement. However, a great deal of ESL training is also acculturation and everyday advocacy. To this end, and provided the mentorship program shows positive outputs, the mentorship program will begin to establish contacts with local welfare organizations in order to facilitate relationships among ESL students and community volunteers dedicated to improving societal welfare.
Because this sort of outreach is inherently political, the Village Branch will minimize involvement to brokering relationships by providing means and opportunities for convening. The basic purpose of the mentor program is for mentors to act as a stop-gap for missed lessons. Thus, the mentor may rarely need to be invoked for this purpose. However, mentors are encouraged to spend time with their mentees on a weekly basis. Again, a telephone conversation counts as spending time.
BASED ON NO OR VERY LITTLE CHANGE
Mentoring is an energy-, time-, and thought intensive activity. It is quite likely that the program will yield positive changes for some and do very little for others. Not every volunteer will be able to fulfill the role of mentor in a robust way. Problems may arise in the paucity of volunteers willing to take on the mentor role. Volunteer mentors may quit the program if the mentor role is too great a burden. In addition to the problem of insufficient volunteer mentors, total costs of the mentor program—training materials, training sessions, time required—may not justify the continuation of the year-long pilot study or a continuation of the program. Thus the mentor program may be discontinued.
However, before dismantling the mentor program other types of ESL student and native English speaker partnerships should be investigated as potential program conversions. In other words, a program dedicated to partnering ESL students and native English speakers could be a permutation of the former mentor program less the burdensome role of mentor.
The program costs of a partner program such as this would not be as great as those of a mentor program. While the partner program would need to continue some training for LPL partner volunteers, such as diversity training, costs for mentor training and development would be eliminated. The program may not even need a designated full-time program coordinator. The reduced version of the mentor program, i.e., the partner program, will save LPL significant costs as measured in time and finance. However, the positive assimilation and speaking practice will be retained as part of the program.
Another possibility could be that although the mentor program can be sustained financially, it resulted in little or no change in the attendance habits of ESL students nor did the program demonstrably enhance student commitment to learning English. Worse, perhaps the program yielded deleterious results, i.e. mentored students dropped out at higher rates than prior to the intervention or mentored students performed worse on the written assessments, the mentor program should be will be discontinued. However, it should not be forgotten. The action research committee will be tasked with studying the research design and program implementation for deficiencies. If the damaging aspects of the program design can be corrected, the action research project will be retained for reimplementation at a later date.
2 The hot lunch program is courtesy of a grant from the 21st Century Learning Center Grant.
3 These classes do not regularly appear on The Village event calendar.
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