English language proficiency standards (ELPS)

1. English language proficiency standards (ELPS) Georgina K. Gonzalez Bilingual/ESL Director Susie Coultress Assistant Director Curriculum Division Texas Education Agency

2. 775,645 Total Identified English Language Learners (ELLs) PEIMS, Fall 2007 an increase of 43,491 since the 2006-07 school year.

3. Texas ELL Special Language Program Participation • ELLs 775,645 • Bilingual 422,377 • ESL 297,553 • ELL Parental Denials 49,071 About 10% of ELLs served by special education ELLs represent about 16% of the total students in Texas PEIMS 2007

4. Major Language Groups in Texas Schools 92% Spanish speakers 711,388 Prominent languages other than Spanish: 14,094 Vietnamese 3,627 Urdu 3,594 Arabic 3,195 Korean PEIMS, Fall 2007 More than 135 languages are represented in Texas schools Other languages include Mandarin (Chinese), Cantonese, Tagalog (Pilipino), and Cantonese (Chinese).

5. Quality Counts Report 2009 64.1% English language learners (ELLs) in Texas are proficient in Mathematics while in the nation only 43% are proficient in that subject. Texas ELLs outperformed the nation in Reading: 64.4% ELLs in Texas are proficient in Reading while in the nation only 38.2%. Even though Texas has the second largest population of ELLs in the nation Texas ranks 13th in the nation in the Achievement of the ELL students in grades K-12.

6. English Language Learners Performance in Texas • Results on the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) show that in grades 3-12 in 2008, 45% of ELLs attained a composite rating of Advanced High.  This performance was up 6 percentage points from the previous year, when 39% of the students attained a composite rating of Advanced High.

7. English Language Learners Performance in Texas • From 2007 to 2008 the average gain per grade in percent of ELLs passing was 6% for grades 6 through 11.  • The 2007 2008 performance of these students provides a clear indication of the hard work that bilingual/ESL educators are doing to ensure their academic success. 

8. The English language proficiency standards (ELPS) • The English language proficiency standards (ELPS) are the revised ESL TEKS and were adopted by SBOE in November 2007 and became effective in December 25, 2007. • School districts will implement the ELPS as an integral part of each subject in the required curriculum.

9. ELPS Benefits • The implementation of the ELPS will facilitate effective instruction in second language acquisition which involves giving ELLs opportunities to listen, speak, read, and write at their current levels of English development while gradually increasing the linguistic complexity of the English they read and hear, and are expected to speak and write. • When educators use the ELPS for instruction and assessment the Texas Education Agency encourages their use not in the several summarized versions that have appeared throughout the state, but in the original form as they appear in Texas Administrative Code (TAC) chapter 74 section 4.

10. Professional Development • Currently, a statewide professional development for English Language Arts and Reading and Spanish Language Arts and Reading is being developed that incorporates the English language proficiency standards. This professional development will be disseminated the summer of 2009. • Since our Texas Education Agency has redesigned their website, the bilingual/ESL website will also be redesigned. We will be including new information and several resources for the ELPS on that website.

11. Texas Education Agency (TEA) • Although the state of Texas is making strides in better meeting the educational needs of our English language learners, there is still much work to be done. TEA will continue efforts to improve the achievement of ELLs and pursue all opportunities to afford students the opportunity to graduate from high school with the best possible tools to become productive, successful members of society and to take advantage of the full range of post-secondary opportunities available to them.