Multilingual Education Program Overview
Multilingual Education Program Introduction
The goal of Greenwood School District 50’s Multilingual Education Program (formerly English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)) is to provide equal educational opportunities to students who are English Learners. The primary focus is to provide an English-rich environment so those students will become proficient in English and excel in content knowledge learning.
Our school district strives to create a learning environment that encourages student pride in their cultural heritage and provides the cognitive and affective support to help students become contributing members of society. This program will provide each Multilingual Learner the opportunity to be successful in academic areas while developing listening, speaking, reading, and writing proficiency. The ultimate goal for students who are English language learners is that they be able to achieve the state’s academic content and student academic achievement standards, as demonstrated by proficiency on the state’s required student assessments, and that they graduate from high school with a regular state issued diploma. Students will not exit the program until they have become proficient in reading, writing, listening and speaking. In order to exit, a student must meet all the SCDE required benchmarks.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals set forth a three-part test to determine whether a school district takes appropriate actions to overcome language barriers that confront language-minority students.
1981 Castaneda v. Pickard
The ESOL Program in Greenwood School District 50 will follow the following criteria:
A program is based on educational theory that is recognized by experts in the field;
The programs or practices used are reasonably calculated to effectively implement the adopted theory; and
The program successfully produces results that indicate that the language barriers are being overcome.
The following steps has been identified to describe the program in Greenwood School District 50 as suggested by the Office of Civil Rights document and Federal English Learner Toolkit:
Step 1: Identifying All English Learner Students
Step 2: Assessing English Learners
Step 3: Placement into EL Program Services
Step 4: Staffing and Resources
Step 5: Providing Meaningful Access to Core Curriculum
Step 6: Transition from EL Services
Step 7: Monitoring and Exiting EL Students from EL Program and services
Step 8: Program Evaluation
Objectives of the Multilingual Education Program
To identify all students whose first, primary, or home language is one other than English.
To assess the language abilities of identified students.
To provide appropriate multilingual education instruction for students who qualify for services.
To support the curriculum and instruction of the regular classroom as appropriate to the developmental stage of the student, in accordance with state content standards and WIDA ELD standards.
To provide professional development with appropriate instructional and assessment strategies to principals, guidance counselors, teachers, and other support staff.
To assess the academic progress of students within the program.
To communicate instructional goals and expectations to parents and to encourage their participation as viable members of their children’s team.
To exit students from the program when their language abilities meet proficiency requirements.
To provide follow-up monitoring for students who have exited the program and to re-admit students who demonstrate continued need for multilingual education support.
To provide opportunities for the parents of our students to be able to interact with their children’s teachers and administrators.