District English Language Development (ELD) Program

Goal of the ELD Program

To help English Learners (ELs) develop English proficiency as rapidly and effectively as possible.  While it is recognized every instructional setting promotes language development, the state outlines daily instructional minutes for specific ELD instruction for ELs: 

Grades K-3: 30-45 minutes             Grades 4-8:  45-60 minutes

 District ELD Support

Educational Services

The duty of the office of Educational Services is to coordinate all the curriculum, testing, personnel, and staff development required to meet the needs of the district’s English Learners.

Principals

The duty of the site principal is to oversee the EL programs at their individual sites which include; schedule of aides; observation of instructional program; placement of EL students in the classroom with appropriately credentialed teachers; maintain Primary Language Surveys, organize and participate in ELAC (if needed).

ELD Coordinator

The duty of the ELD Coordinator is to conduct California English Language Development Test  (CELDT) training for instructional assistants which include; CELDT testing of all students in fall and as new ones enter; hand score tests to use for program placement; notify parents of CELDT results within 30 days of receipt of scores from state; ELD program placement of all eligible students in the district; coordinate schedules with sites and aides; work with Educational Services to research and acquire appropriate ELD materials; Reclassify all eligible students.

ELD Aides

There are five instructional aides employed by the district to serve the needs of the English Language Learners. Their role is to teach the designated ELD program; update teachers and the district on progress of the students; keep coordinator updated on any issues or problems.

The state-required California English Language Development Test. The CELDT is given to new students upon enrollment, within 30 days and is an assessment on language progress, and helps redesignate each EL’s level annually. 

DELAC Minutes, 5/3/12

ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT (ELD) PROGRAM

Elementary

Each EL student that is below grade level is pulled for two hours a week of ELD support.  The ELD aides use Santillana publisher standard-based Intensive English program to assist students acquiring social and academic language skills through content-based instruction (social studies and science).  Students will also have the ability to use DynEd (individual ELD computer program) for vocabulary, reading, writing, and grammar instruction.  Students learn oral and written vocabulary, sentence structure, reading and writing.

Students are placed into one of four groups based on his/her grade and English level:

ü      Grade K-2        Beginner, Early Intermediate and Early Advanced

ü      Grade 3-5          Beginner, Early Intermediate and Early Advanced

In the school year 2005-2006:

Dixie had 6 students pulled out, Mary Silveira had 14 students and Vallecito had 19 students.

Miller Creek Middle School

English Learner students receive one or all of the following types of support depending on his/her language needs:  In-class support to help with understanding instructions; pull-out ELD support; homework support after school and lunch time.  All EL students may attend the homework support offered twice a week at lunch time and one day a week after school.

Six students who scored Intermediate or below on CELDT are pulled out at least twice a week for ELD support using DynEd (computer program) or for academic vocabulary, reading, writing, and grammar instruction using a variety of ELD materials.