Upper Saddle River,N.J. ,June 9, 2005 -- Pearson Education today announced the acquisition of the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Institute. The SIOP Institute trains K-12 educators on a research-based approach that helps teach academic content to English language learners while promoting their English language development.

Developed under a federal research grant, the SIOP Model is the only empirically validated model of content-based instruction for English language learners. The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol offers teachers a sheltered instruction model for lesson planning and implementation that provides English learners with access to grade-level content standards. It is currently used in all 50 states and hundreds of schools across the U.S., as well as in several other countries. Jana Echevarria and MaryEllen Vogt of California State University, Long Beach, along with their colleague Deborah Short of the Center for Applied Linguistics, translated the research into a practical text, Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners: The SIOP Model, 2/E (Allyn & Bacon, 2004; ISBN No. 0-205-38641-5), as well as a professional development program.

Through the SIOP Institute, Drs. Echevarria and Vogt currently provide professional development to more than 2,000 teachers and administrators for teaching content and academic English to non-native speakers. Pearson plans to expand the reach of the Institute through their LessonLab Professional Development business. Echevarria and Vogt will join the Pearson organization, presenting SIOP workshops across the country and instructing additional trainers.

Beth Wray, President of Pearson Education’s Professional Development and Supplemental Group said, "Improving the achievement of English language learners is a growing priority and is expected to continue to increase under the mandates of No Child Left Behind legislation. We see these research-based professional learning programs developed by Jana Echevarria and MaryEllen Vogt as a complement to our many initiatives to address this critical need."

Research indicates that each year the U.S. becomes more ethnically and linguistically diverse, with over 90 percent of recent immigrants coming from non-English speaking countries.

Echevarria said, "Research findings reflect growing evidence that most schools are not meeting the challenge of educating linguistically and culturally diverse students well. Pearson has the resources and reach to offer our program to the many teachers that are challenged with helping English language learners succeed in the classroom while also enhancing their English language skills."

Vogt added, "The SIOP Model provides English learners with additional time and support to enable them to meet the content standards needed for graduation. The SIOP Model should not be viewed as simply a set of additional or replacement instructional techniques that teachers implement in their classrooms. Rather, the SIOP Model draws from and complements methods and strategies advocated for both second language and mainstream classrooms."

The authors said that in a study examining the effects of the SIOP Model on English learner academic achievement, students whose teachers implemented the SIOP Model to a high degree in middle school classes outperformed a comparison group of students whose teachers were unfamiliar with the Model.

The Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) recently awarded a grant to form a National Center for Research and Development on English Language Learners, with research studies led by Echevarria, Short, and other experts.

Note for Editors:: In the English language learning field, "sheltered" instruction is considered: "A means for making content comprehensible for English learners while developing their English language skills." In the field, sheltered instruction has generally promoted a variety of instructional strategies, but it has not had a validated and comprehensive model of instruction for English learners that the SIOP Model now provides.

About the Authors:
Jana Echevarria, Ph.D. is Professor of Special Education at California State University, Long Beach. Her professional experience includes elementary and secondary teaching in special education, ESL and bilingual programs. She has lived in Taiwan and Mexico where she taught ESL and second language acquisition at the university level, as well as in Spain where she conducted research on instructional programs for immigrant students. After receiving a Masters Degree in Bilingual Special Education from California State University, Long Beach, she received her Ph.D. from UCLA and was one of the recipients of the National Association for Bilingual Education’s Outstanding Dissertations Competition. Over the past twenty years, Dr. Echevarria has provided professional development throughout the U.S. and abroad. Her research and publications focus on effective instruction for English learners, particularly those with learning disabilities. In 2005, she was selected as her university’s Outstanding Professor.

MaryEllen Vogt, Ed.D. is a Professor Emerita of Literacy Education at California State University, Long Beach. A former classroom teacher, reading specialist, and special education teacher, Dr. Vogt served as President of the California Reading Association, and she is immediate past President of the International Reading Association. She received her Masters in Reading from California State University, Stanislaus, and her Ed.D. in Language and Literacy from the University of California, Berkeley. She has co-authored six books, and has published numerous articles and chapters in professional texts. Dr. Vogt has been inducted into the California Reading Hall of Fame and received her university’s Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award. She has provided professional development for school districts and reading associations throughout the country, as well as in Argentina, Canada, China, Estonia, Hungary, the Philippines, and Scotland.

About the SIOP:
The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2004) was developed to provide teachers with a well-articulated, practical model of sheltered instruction. As an empirically validated approach for educating English learners, the SIOP Model is currently used in all 50 states in hundreds of schools across the U.S., as well as in several other countries. The intent of the model is to facilitate high quality instruction for English learners (ELs) in content area teaching. The model is based on current knowledge and research-based practices for promoting learning with ELs. Critical features of high quality instruction for ELs are embedded within the SIOP Model.

The SIOP Model can be viewed as an umbrella under which other programs developed for improving instruction can reside. Administrators and teachers alike are bombarded with new approaches to instruction, reform efforts, and practices that sometimes seem to be in competition with one another. Often what is lacking in schools is coherence or a plan for pulling together sound practices (Goldenberg, 2004). The SIOP Model is not another "add on" program but rather it is a framework that can bring together a school’s instructional program by organizing methods and techniques, and ensuring that effective practices for English learners are implemented, and can be quantified. (For more information on the Institute, go to www.siopinstitute.net.)

About Pearson Education:
Educating 100 million people worldwide, Pearson Education (www.pearsoned.com) is the global leader in educational publishing, providing scientifically research-based print and digital programs to help students of all ages learn at their own pace, in their own way. While virtually all students in America learn from a Pearson program at some point in their educational career, nearly 25,000 U.S. schools and one million teachers and students use Pearson technology to help instruct preK-12 students and manage how they are doing. Pearson provides schools customizable services to create, deliver, score and report educational assessments, both in print and online, that help promote learning. In Higher Education, about three million college students are currently pursuing their courses online using Pearson Higher Education’s products. The company is home to such renowned publishing brands as Pearson Prentice Hall, Pearson Longman, Pearson Scott Foresman, Pearson Early Learning, Pearson Learning Group, Pearson Digital Learning, and Pearson Addison Wesley. Pearson Education is part of Pearson (NYSE: PSO), the international media company. In addition to Pearson Education, Pearson’s primary operations include the Financial Times Group and the Penguin Group. ( www.pearsoned.com)

About LessonLab:
LessonLab, a Pearson Education company, knows the key to successful academic achievement in schools is driven by improved teaching in the classroom. Drawing on more than a quarter of a century of quality research and professional development experience, LessonLab provides an unparalleled collection of K-12 teacher educational programs including district professional development, distance and site-based graduate courses, and master's degree programs. Today, LessonLab offers a new approach to professional development by fusing a unique research-based learning model with innovative technology. This combination creates a solid foundation of teacher practices fully capable of supporting successful student learning while driving towards district attainment of federal and state mandates. (www.Lessonlab.com)

Contact:
Wendy Spiegel
Pearson Education
1-800-745-8489
wendy.spiegel@pearsoned.com