Welcome to the English Language Learners (ELL) and and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) section of the website.

Some agencies, policies, etc. use several terms related to this educational responsibility. At times, these students were described as Limited English proficient (LEP) students. They are now more commonly known as known as English Learners (ELs) or as English Language Learners (ELLs). Additional criteria often includes that these students were raise in a situation where English was not the primary or the exclusive language used. Therefore, this becomes a need for the school-age child and a responsibility for that child's district.

Meanwhile, English as a Second Language (ESL) and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) describes the educational approaches used to help the students for whom English is not the primary and/or exclusive language from the student's formative years.

To avoid confusion, this page will utilize ELL to refer to the students and ESOL to describe the curriculum and instruction designed to support those students.

The Arkadelphia Public School District’s ESOL program is intended to support each child who enters school regardless of their level of English proficiency and/or cultural backgrounds and perspectives.

This philosophy serves as the underpinning of our three goals for our ELLs:

• to learn the academic skills associated with English language acquisition: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

• to succeed in the grade-level content areas while acquiring English.

• to maintain their own culture while learning to live and participate in their new community (biculturalism).

Therefore, the Arkadelphia Public School District will provide a balanced ESOL program that will prepare ELLs to function in both the academic and social arenas.

All personnel working with ELLs will be provided with information and training to enhance the role of each in this process. Other issues related to the educational needs of an increasingly diverse student population will be addressed in a timely and proactive manner.

By law and by practice, it is the expectation that all students will have equal opportunities to participate fully in the education system through appropriate communication with parents and/or guardians. Letters and other information sent home will be in a language or form the parents and/or guardians understand.

The Arkadelphia Public School District invites you to examine its ESOL Resources including the district's Program Guide, English Learner Plan, and other items. You may review the current and previous resources here.

The obligation not to discriminate based on race, color, or national origin requires public schools to take steps to ensure that English Language Learners (ELLs) can meaningfully participate in educational programs and services and to communicate information to their parents in a language that they can understand.

The district's program guide includes information for students and parents, OCR guidance and resources for education officials about their obligations to EL students and LEP parents, and other resources with related information.

The Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Office for Civil Rights do not prescribe a specific program design/educational approach. It is the district’s responsibility to ensure that the educational approach selected addresses:

• how the district provides for English Language Development (ELD).

• how the district provides access to core content programming for ELs (CCP).

Per state and federal requirements, we use the Arkansas Home Language Usage Survey (HLUS) to identify potential English Language Learners (ELLS) new to Arkansas schools.

The likely candidates for services are screened by the ESOL Coordinator using the ELPA21 Screener. Students who qualify for services are scheduled by the campus' Language Proficiency Assessment Committee (LPAC).

Families of students who qualify can reject the services; however, the students must still be assessed annually using the state's ELPA21 assessment.

Students who score sufficiently well on the ELPA21 and who have at least two other data pieces (e.g., scores on NWEA; scores on ACT Aspire) to show that the student is on par with grade-level peers are exited from ESL services but are monitored for four years in case the services need to resume.

The district provides for English Language Development (ELD) using Pulled-Out and Class Period options . Currently, we are using Systematic ELD Achieve as our curriculum to help these students to acquire the English language in addition to what they will see and hear in a traditional English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. We started as part of a cohort to implement this curriculum in Fall 2022. The District ESOL Coordinator and campus ESOL personnel attended training through Dawson Educational Cooperative.

• Perritt Primary School serves students in kindergarten through grade two and offers a daily pull-out program by grade-level cohort (as needed) using the Systematic ELD Achieve curriculum.

• Peake Elementary School serves students in grades three through five and offers a daily pull-out program by grade-level cohort (as needed) using the Systematic ELD Achieve curriculum.

• Goza Middle School serves students in grades six through eight and offers a few sections of a multi-day pull-out program by grade-level cohort (as needed) using the Systematic ELD Achieve curriculum.

• Arkadelphia High School serves students in grades nine through twelve and offers a section of a daily class period in the master schedule (as needed) using the Systematic ELD Achieve curriculum and offering embedded support for some ELLs on campus.

The district provides access to core content programming for ELs (CCP) using Content Classes with Integrated Support. The ESOL Coordinator offers annual training and ongoing updates on best practices for campus faculty. The ESOL Coordinator accesses student transcripts, student assessments, and similar data sources to monitor student performance. The ESOL Coordinator offers online assistance with academic subjects using a Google Classroom.

The TransACT® Parent Notifications are available to personnel in order to communicate with parents/guardians and family members in a language that they can understand. ADE purchased subscriptions to TransAct for Arkansas schools. This allows communications (e.g., permission slips, illness notifications) to be sent home in the family's preferred language of communication as part of the state and federal requirements. Additional updates and resources are being implemented as they become available.

We are excited to have these three major aspects of the program as we support the students, their families, and the faculty going forward.

ELLs receiving ESOL services must be assessed annually using the state's ELPA21 assessment. Although families may decline services for identified ELLs, those students must also participate in the ELPA21 assessment until the ELL's data warrants exiting the program.

After meeting the requirements to exit the program's services, the ESOL Coordinator and campus personnel must monitor the student's progress annually for four years.

Our district long-term goals for ESOL implementation include the following:

1. Employing at least one bilingual paraprofessional per campus to offer support and translation assistance to classroom teachers.

2. Utilizing E. L. Achieve's Systematic ELD curriculum and its supplementary resources more fully.

3. Encouraging more teachers to participate in the area's annual ESOL Academy opportunities.

4. Making sure that ELLs have more time with content teachers who have ESOL training and endorsement.

5. Reviewing and piloting E. L. Achieve's Constructing Meaning curriculum to support grade-level content learning in English.

We look forward to seeing the continued growth on the ELPA21 by our students receiving support through these various resources.

Currently, APSD uses the funds from this area per state and federal guidelines.

Personnel, students, their families, and other interested parties are invited to ask questions, to provide feedback, and to contribute to the process as part of our consultation with stakeholders. Therefore, we invite you to use our APSD Federal Programs Engagement Survey (feel free to provide feedback for this and any of the pertinent sections).

The Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) provides a template to help districts to document policies and practices related to ELLs, their families, and the local ESOL program. You may review the current and previous copies here.

Since Spring 2023 was a busy legislative session with many important implications for educational practices across the state, the ADE template will take longer than it usually does. Consequently, our District ESOL Program Guide will be delayed.

Our local committee will review the updated version once it is available from ADE:DESE. We hope to submit the District ESOL Program Guide for review late in the fall semester of 2023.

Personnel, students, their families, and other interested parties are invited to ask questions, to provide feedback, and to contribute to the process as part of our consultation with stakeholders. Therefore, we invite you to use our APSD Federal Programs Engagement Survey (feel free to provide feedback for this and any of the pertinent sections).

• ADE:DESE English Learner's Webpage

• ADE:DESE ESOL Program Guide

• Arkansas ELP Standards

• ADE:DESE ELs with Potential Disabilities Resource Guide

• Dawson Educational Cooperative's ESOL Webpage

• The Arkansas Seal of Biliteracy

• ADE: DESE ELPA21 Webpage

• ADE:DESE Assessment Livebinder for ELPA21 2023-2024

• E. L. Achieve Blog

• Colorin Colorado!

• Simply Ieva ESL Blog

• Cult of Pedagogy: English Learners

Please complete any surveys for any campus and for the district

• APSD Federal Programs Engagement Survey (feel free to provide feedback for any of the pertinent sections)

Please consider volunteering by campus

• Each campus trains its volunteers for the specific roles and/or tasks

Please let us know how we can collaborate with you more effectively