Lonoke School District

1. Lonoke School District ELL (English Language Learner) Program

2. What is an ELL student? An ELL student is a student who: • Was not born in the United States • Or whose native language is not English • Or who comes from an environment where a language other than English is dominant

3. How does the school identify an ELL student? • Review of Home Language Surveys • Administrative recommendation • Teacher recommendation • Records from the previous school

4. Two types of ELL students • Limited English Proficient (LEP) • These students are not proficient in English • Language Minority (LM) • These students first language was not English but they are now proficient in English.

5. What is the next step if they are new to U.S. schools? • The student must be tested or screened for their level of English Proficiency. Lonoke uses the LAS Links Placement test. • The results are then shared with a Language Proficiency Assessment Committee (LPAC)

6. LPAC • The committee is made up of the following people at each school: • ELL Director • Principal • Counselor • Student’s Teacher • The job of the LPAC is to: • Review the progress of each LEP student using • ELDA results • Benchmark results • Student grades • Feedback from student’s previous teacher • Update the ELL Student Plan

7. ELL Student Plan • The ELL director meets with each student’s teacher(s) and discusses the plan including the classroom modifications, testing accommodations, and effective teaching strategies. ELDT English Language Development Tool Differentiating Instruction for ELLs: Accessing the Curriculum While Developing Language

8. How long does it take to become proficient in English? • This depends what level of proficiency they are when they begin school and what grade they enter a U.S. school. • Current research states that it can take from five to seven years and possibly up to ten to become proficient in English.

9. Levels of English Proficiency These are the descriptors used for the English Language Development Assessment (ELDA) which is given each spring to students that are limited English proficient to monitor their progress in attaining higher levels of proficiency.

10. Level One • Pre-functional • Beginning to understand short utterances • Beginning to use gestures and simple words to communicate • Beginning to understand simple printed material • Beginning to develop communicative writing skills

11. Level Two • Beginning • Understands simple statements, directions, and questions • Use appropriate strategies to initiate and respond to simple conversation • Understand the general message of basic reading passages • Compose short informative passages on familiar topics

12. Level Three • Intermediate • Understand standard speech delivered in school and social settings • Communicate orally with some hesitation • Understand descriptive material within familiar contexts and some complex narratives • Write simple texts and short reports

13. Level Four • Advanced • Identify the main ideas and relevant details of discussions or presentations on a wide range of topics • Actively engage in most communicative situations familiar or unfamiliar • Understand the context of most text in academic areas with support • Write multi-paragraph essays, journal entries, personal/business letters, and creative texts in an organized fashion with some errors

14. Level Five Full English Proficiency

15. Exit Criteria for an LEP Student • Student must score a proficiency level of 5 in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and comprehension on the ELDA. • Student must have a “C” or better in all core subject areas. • Student must score proficient or advanced on the Arkansas Benchmark (3-8) End of Course (high school) in language and math. • A minimum of two teachers recommend exit from the program. • LPAC committee decides to exit the student

16. Monitoring Students • After a student is exited from the program they are monitored for two years by following their grades and performances on the Augmented Benchmark and End of Course tests.

17. Lonoke School District Information about the ELL student population and services provided to the students and the parents

18. Services Provided • Lower proficiency level students are placed in classes with teachers trained in ELL teaching strategies. • All LEP students are monitored • Translation services are available upon request • ELL Director • Homework Hotline

19. ELL Student Growth

20. District enrollment of limited English Proficient by grade

21. Nationalities • Mexico • Vietnam • China • India • Iran • Guatemala

22. Arkansas Goal #1 The Annual Measurable Achievement Objective 1 shows the percentage of ELLs making progress by moving from one composite level to a higher level on the ELDA. AMAO 1 target was 30% for 2012-2013. Lonoke Public Schools fell just short of the target with 29%.

23. Arkansas Goal #2 The Annual Measurable Achievement Objective 2 shows the percentage of ELLs who are fully proficient in English with a composite score of five on the ELDA. AMAO 2 target was 4.5% for 2012-2013. Lonoke Public Schools exceeded the target with 4.8%.

24. Graduation Rate • National average for ELLs is 56% • Arkansas average for ELLs is 76% (ranked 4th in the U.S.) • Lonoke average for ELLs is 100%

25. 2014 LonokeELL Graduates • 13 ELL students are graduating • Six honors graduates • 10 with a GPA of 3.0 or higher • Three with a 4.0 GPA

26. New United States Citizens Carlos – Class of 2009, Jose – Class of 2010, Rosa – Class of 2012

27. Thank you for coming!