The following overview highlights expected practices for identifying and servicing English language learners (ELLs) based on federal and state regulations.
As the 2008-09 school year begins, we would like to remind you of the following expected practices for identifying and servicing English language learners (ELLs), based on federal and state regulations:
All new enrollees to the district are administered a Home Language Survey to screen for a language background other than English. A sample Home Language Survey can be found on the ELL web page*. Multilingual language surveys are available for free via www.transact.com.
• If the answer to any of the four required Home Language Survey questions is any language other than English, students are considered to be from a non-English language background (NELB) and must be administered the WIDA ACCESS Placement Test or W-APT. The W-APT identification test is downloadable free to districts from a password protected site http://wida.us. ELL Test Administrators should contact their District Assessment Coordinators (DACs) for password information.
• A student is formally identified as LEP based on the W-APT results (four domains: listening, speaking, reading and writing) in conjunction with professional judgment. The results of the W-APT and the instructional plan (Program Services Plan/PSP) must be shared with the parents within the first 30 days of the school year or within two weeks of enrollment during the school year. Written documentation and/or oral interpretation should be provided to parents/guardians, to the extent practical, in a language that they can understand.
• A district or school PSP committee (e.g., ELL and mainstream teachers/ specialists, an instructional leader, counselor, parent, student) will design a PSP for each student identified as LEP. The PSP should include the following: the reasons for identification (results of the W-APT and, when appropriate, annual language assessment), level of English proficiency, previous academic background and experience, cultural and language history, service delivery model/s for English language instruction, and all appropriate instructional and assessment accommodations and/or modifications.
• The PSP will be shared with all stakeholders involved in the ELL’s academic and language education to guide placement and instruction. Administrators will ensure teachers are being prepared to implement appropriate accommodations and modifications. Educators’ professional growth plans and the school’s/district’s professional development plans may reflect teacher development needs and expected outcomes for language and academic learning of ELLs.
• Kentucky’s annual English language proficiency (ELP) assessment is ACCESS for ELLs™. The state will follow a scheduled testing window of January 5 - February 13, 2009. Each district must ensure that all ACCESS test administrators are certified. Each district’s DAC will ensure that testing materials have been ordered, received and returned in the required time frame and coordinate with ELL test administrators.
• Implementation of the PSP is consistently and regularly monitored for relevance and effectiveness throughout the year. Individualized accommodations are evaluated for appropriateness and revised at least once a year based on the annual ACCESS results.
• Entry, testing and accommodation/modification data must be entered into STI or Infinite Campus on all LEP students monthly and kept updated. There will no longer be a spring extract/upload of district LEP data to KDE. KDE will access this data monthly from the State database to satisfy inquiries from the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) and the KDE Office of Assessment and Accountability.
For more ELL information and resources:
• Visit the KDE home page, click on Quick Links/English Language Learning
Contact Shelda Hale, Title III Program Consultant – Shelda.Hale@education.ky.gov