Guide to Program Coordinators

The ESL Program Coordinators take the main responsibility for building, developing, researching and improving the ESL program. One coordinator is in charge of the Primary ESL Program and the other is in charge of the Secondary ESL Program. They work under the management of the Head of the Academic Department and the CEO. In the following parts, their roles and responsibilities are described in detail.

Table of content

1. Curriculum Development, Monitoring, Evaluation and Review 2. Training and Orientation 3. Implementation progress management 4. Quality management 5. Research and development

Curriculum Development, Monitoring, Evaluation and Review Among various responsibilities of a program coordination, curriculum development, monitoring and evaluation lay at the core. More specifically, the main tasks include: develop, evaluate and review the curriculum frameworks and policies related to curriculum implementation; develop teaching and learning materials and other related resources (such as test bank, internal progression test, standardized comparable assessments and resources, etc.) and evaluate their uses by teachers; write and distribute professional and high-quality documents that provide faculty and parents important information about the School’s Standard ESL Program curriculum, instruction and assessment of students’ achievement and proficiency levels; work closely with Principals, Team Leaders, Department Heads and individual Teachers, when necessary, on developing strategies for the effective planning of curriculum, strategies to be used for its effective instruction, assessment, evaluation, reporting and communication of results; collaborate with School Boards, Department Heads and Teachers to develop the annual curriculum improvement plan; explore and develop assessment policies and practices that emphasize diverse and multiple forms of assessment to address students’ diverse learning styles; administer the school-wide standardized testing program including, analyzing, interpreting results, establishing information procedures for the Director, other staff, parents, faculty and board;

Training and Orientation ESL coordinators’ job description involves communicating with School Boards, Department Heads, and Teachers about the system-level orientation and direction. The goal of the training and orientation is that the Schools can implement the ESL program independently and effectively. In other words, the ESL Program leadership will be distributed to the Schools. To achieve the aforementioned goal, the Academic Department will conduct training for School Leaders and ESL teachers through the following main tasks: Provide training on program implementation and management to campus-level leaders The training program delivered to campus-level leaders will include the following content: orientation and overview of the ESL curriculum ways to identify focuses and organize professional activities how to use the required resources effectively how to manage ESL teaching and learning quality The campus-level leaders will take active roles in transferring the knowledge gained after the training to their teachers. Provide training on ESL teaching to teachers ESL teachers will be trained on the following contents: orientation and overview of the ESL curriculum how to approach the ESL program using the curriculum framework and curriculum mapping platform how to take full advantages of teaching and learning resources how to plan and deliver high quality teaching in ESL how to manage the quality of ESL teaching and learning The purposes of the training to twofold: make sure teachers are clear about what is expected of them as well as their roles and responsibilities improve teachers’ expertise, help them master the program and become flexible and independent in the teaching process In order to maximize the effectiveness of the training, the Program Coordinators should bear the following points in mind: The training needs to be based on teachers’ needs. The Program Coordinators  have to conduct training needs analysis and develop training programs with clear and principled rationale. Training the trainers is a preferable approach. Instead of delivering all the training sessions, the Program Department should focus on training the School Boards and Department Heads who will help to transfer the knowledge and skills to teachers. The annual training plan should be integrated into the System’s training plan to ensure smooth induction and orientation activities across the system.

Implementation progress management To ensure that the Schools and especially the students are always ready for the challenges of the ESL program, the ESL Program Coordinators are responsible for monitoring and consulting the implementation of key phases, including: Diagnostic test at the beginning of the school year Summative assessments at regular intervals during the school year and at the end of each semester Student level classification which takes place at least twice at the end of each semester The Academic Department will work with the School Boards and Department Heads to ensure the orientation, expectations, requirements and responsibilities are well understood. Subsequently, the Schools will develop their implementation plan and propose methods to keep track of the implementation progress. The Academic Department plays an advisory role at this stage and does not have authority or responsibility for approval.

Quality management To ensure the success of the program as expected, the Program Department will play a leading role in controlling the ESL teaching and learning quality. Its main approach is indirect, working through the School Boards and/or Department Heads. The main activities of teaching quality management are as follows: Propose desired ESL teaching and learning criteria as a standard for assessment: The desired learning quality is compared against the ESL Curriculum Standards. Teachers’ performance is assessed with the use of Classroom Observation Rubric (COR). Evaluate and give feedback on ESL KPIs proposed by the Schools: The Program Department will review and evaluate the feasibility of KPIs proposals and the Schools will make modifications in line with their actual conditions. Inspect and assure ESL teaching quality: The Program Department will regularly collect data on actual ESL teaching and learning to adapt ineffective approaches and celebrate remarkable achievements of the Schools. This task is also accomplished via Quality Assurance Visits (QA visits) to campuses when the program coordinators can directly observe how teaching is being delivered and how learning is taking place. Analyze and evaluate student results: The Program Department will require School Boards and Department Heads to provide student learning data after each semester in order to develop action plans for the coming phase. Counsel the School in Teacher Evaluation: The Program Department plays an advisory role in the evaluation process instead of directly being involved in it. They can train the School Boards and Department Heads to understand the COR thoroughly and accurately, and can give suggestions and feedback to support the School Boards and Department Heads to evaluate their teachers’ performance.

Research and development As “professional leaders”, the ESL program coordinators are responsible for continuously researching and finding updated pedagogical approaches and good practices. Research and Development Tasks of ESL program coordinators include: analyzing new and highly applicable educational and management approaches to apply to the ESL Program at Vinschool synthesizing and analyzing data (e.g. observation results, formative and summative assessment data, student survey data, etc.) for the basis to update and improve the program proposing reforms and/or improvements after research: The Program Department will be responsible for proposing possible ESL program changes and improvements to the Board of Education. In these proposals, Vinschool’s context needs to be taken into consideration to ensure effective and practical implementation.