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Oklahoma Migrant Education Program
Comprehensive Needs Assessment (CNA) Report
March 2007
I. Executive Summary
Oklahoma conducted its comprehensive needs assessment for the 05-06 school year.
The information presented in this report corresponds to the data for the school year
2005-2006 as included in the Consolidated State Performance report Part 1, the State
Report Card and the statistical information reported by NAEP for the same period of
time.
The result of the comprehensive needs assessment process is a Delivery of Services
plan that will guide Oklahoma’s migrant program. In summary, a high priority is to
establish programs that will support migrant student achievement at the satisfactory
or advanced level in reading and mathematics and a higher proficiency in reading,
writing, and understanding English. A second priority is that schools increase
communication between school and migrant families to provide parent support.
These identified needs will be addressed by professional development opportunities
for teachers and other staff, small group instruction to students, adequate resources
and materials, assistance to families, English Language Learner (ELL) services, and
ongoing communication with families.
II. Purpose and Scope
The Oklahoma comprehensive needs assessment was conducted pursuant to Title I
Part C Sections 1304 and 1306 of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The
comprehensive needs assessment process enabled Oklahoma to look at the available
data, evaluate the current migrant program, determine additional data that may be
needed, and determine the next steps required for successful implementation of the
Oklahoma Migrant Education program.
Oklahoma considered the four national goal areas – school readiness, reading
achievement, mathematics achievement, and graduation from high school.
The comprehensive needs assessment framework as developed by the United States
office of Migrant Education (OME) and the Comprehensive Center Network (CNN)
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was followed with adaptations necessary for Oklahoma. The materials developed by
OME and CNN facilitated the CNA process. Dr. Rosie Garcia Belina and Mr. Frank
Rexach, Migrant Program Specialist at the Oklahoma State Department of Education
worked through the comprehensive needs assessment process and administered
surveys to parents, community, district administrators, teachers/teacher assistants, and
students.
III. Background on Migrant Student Population
There are 3,005 identified migrant students eligible for services in the State of
Oklahoma. Out of this number, only 452 (18%) are considered as Priority for
Services (PFS). Enrollment during grades 1st through 5th grade is stable. By 6th grade
the enrollment decreases and by 12th grade the numbers decline approximately 50%
as compared to the elementary level. Only 19% of all the eligible students are
identified as out of school.
From the 3,005 migrant students eligible for services, 520 are identified as limited
English proficient (LEP), representing 18%. However, when compared with the PFS
students, almost all of the 452 students are also identified as LEPs. The age category
of 3-5 shows such difference as this is the group not tested for language proficiency
identification.
Table 1.
Migrant student Population
0-
Kindergarten
1st-5th grades 6th-8th
Grades
9th-12th
grades
Out of
school
Total
All eligible
migrant
children
17%
31%
18%
15%
19%
3,005
Priority of
Services
19% 40% 21% 20% 452
Percent of LEP
eligible
students
9%
49%
24%
18%
520
Percentage of
LEP Priority of
Services
54%
100%
100%
100%
413
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IV. Methods
A total of 1895 surveys were submitted to different stakeholders in the migrant
locations across Oklahoma. A different survey was developed for each group. The
students’ and parent’s questionnaires were developed both in English and Spanish.
They were distributed in the 41 districts that were serving migrant students and
families, as follows:
Community members 385
Students 305
Teachers and Teachers’ Assistants 640
Administrators 205
Parents 360
Unfortunately the response was very low and we only received 425 surveys that
included:
Community members 95
Students 25
Teachers and Teachers’ Assistants 245
Administrators 0
Parents 60
V. Results
Besides the demographic data, all the surveys included the identification of the three
most challenging problems that participants considered migrant students face to
succeed at school. A consensus of all surveys received reported the following as
main issues:
183
194
147
171
133
92
63
39
31 28 31 27
20
41
47
41
32 33
17 11
10
0
50
100
150
200
250
6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th
Eligible for Services Priority of Services LEP Migrant Students
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1. Migrant students do not feel connected to schools. They do not feel accepted by
peers and by administrators and sometimes even by their teachers.
2. Migrant students feel that one of their biggest challenges is the language barrier.
When there are bilingual teachers and/or teachers’ assistants the students advance
faster.
3. The limited information the students bring to the classroom from their past school
experiences is a challenge for the teachers as it is difficult for students to meet the
curriculum requirements.
Achievement
Eight hundred and fifty two migrant students participated in the 2005-2006 school year
Math test administration, while eight hundred seventeen participated in the Reading/Language
Arts Assessment. The achievement data for migrant students included a comparison between the
Oklahoma State Mandated Standardized Test Results percent at proficiency or above and migrant
students’ attainment. Grades 3rd, 4th , 5th, 8th and HS take the State mandated standardized test in
math and reading. Figure 6 shows the percentage of students meeting the standards comparing
migrant and non migrant students for the math tests.
Figure 6.
Comparison of Percentage of Migrant and Non-Migrant Students Meeting the State Proficiency
Standard in the Mathematics Tests
72%
79%
76%
72%
33%
61%
70%
62% 62%
14%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
3rd 4th 5th 8th HS
All students Migrant students
The information shown in Figure 6 show a gap between both groups of 10% or
more in all the grades tested, being high school the grade where the difference is more
significant between the results of both groups. Figure 7 show the comparison of the
results obtained by both groups in the Reading/Language Arts
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Figure 6
Comparison of Percentage of Migrant and Non-Migrant Students Meeting the State Proficiency
Standard in the Reading/Language Arts Tests
The above results show as with Mathematics that there is a significant gap between the
percentages of students meeting the State proficiency standards for both groups. In this case the
two grade levels showing the greater difference are 3rd grade and HS. The data from the above
figures suggest that there is a need of implementing strategies to improve the academic
achievement of the migrant students in both mathematics and reading. Figure 7 shows the results
obtained by migrant students in the Mathematic State standardized test for the year 2004-2005 as
compared to the year 2005-2006, while Figure 8, shows the results for the same students and
years in the Reading/Language Arts Tests.
Figure 7
Percentage of Migrant Students Meeting the State Proficiency Levels in the Mathematics
Standardized Tests for the years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006.
82%
86%
75% 75%
64%
61%
70%
57% 56%
43%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
3rd 4th 5th 8th HS
All students Migrant students
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63%
66% 65%
52%
11%
61%
70%
62% 62%
14%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
3rd 4th 5th 8th HS
2004-2005 2005-2206
Figure 8
Percentage of Migrant Students Meeting the State Proficiency Levels in the Reading/Language
Arts Standardized Tests for the years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006.
68%
72%
56%
39%
32%
61%
70%
57% 56%
43%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
3rd 4th 5th 8th HS
2004-2005 2005-2006
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School Data:
Throughout the state of Oklahoma, there are 86 schools enrolling migrant children with a
total of 2,653 students enrolled. Besides there are three other schools in which MEP funds are
combined in SWP with a total of 321 students. Thirty eight schools offer the regular school year
where all MEP services are provided during the school day only serving 2,433 migrant children
and there are seven schools offering the Summer/Intersession program serving 335 students.
There is no school that offers extended day services or a combination of regular year and summer
session.
Statements of Need:
Identified Need 1: Need to develop programs that allow students to feel integrated in
their new school, establishing an environment of respect and acceptance.
Oklahoma Essential Element #4: School Culture
Solutions: Provide models of student involvement and peer mentoring for migrant
program sites to establish an environment of respect and acceptance.
Identified Need 2: Need to provide professional development for teachers and teachers’
assistants on cultural competency, and whenever possible provide bilingual instruction to
migrant students with limited English Proficiency.
Oklahoma Essential Element #6: Professional Growth, Development and Evaluation
Solutions: Provide Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol professional development
for teachers at the districts with migrant education programs.
Identified Need 3: Need to implement differentiated instruction and adjust the
curriculum to meet the needs of the migrant students.
Oklahoma Essential Element #1: Curriculum and
Oklahoma Essential Element #3: Instruction
Solutions: Provide professional development in differentiated instruction through the
videoconference network for teachers of migrant students.
Identified Need 4: There is a need to implement more after-school activities to help
migrant students in the different areas.
Oklahoma Essential Element #5: Student, Family, and Community Support
Solutions: Provide migrant students with the opportunity of 21st Century after school
programs and other after school programs.
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Identified Need 5: There is a need to inform parents about the different services the
migrant education program can offer to the families to help them throughout the
integration period to the new culture.
Oklahoma Essential Element # 4: School Culture;
Oklahoma Essential Element #5: Student, Family, and Community Support; and
Oklahoma Essential Element #8: Organizational Structure and Resources
Solutions: Receive training from Dr. Rosie Garcia Belina about Parent Outreach April
13, 2007. Establish a statewide Parent Advisory Council for feedback and suggestions.
All of the above statements of need require more research to collect data that support that
these are the most needed areas of adjustment within the Oklahoma migrant education
program.
The next step is to survey stakeholders and coordinate the results of a second round of
surveys with what we already have in order to reach a consensus of the needs of
Oklahoma migrant students, teachers and parents.
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