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English Learners
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The English Learner (EL) Program is vital for ensuring that students with diverse linguistic backgrounds have equitable access to educational opportunities. These services are designed to support multilingual students as they navigate developing their social and/or academic language while simultaneously engaging with academic content.
Our goal at Columbia Heights Public Schools is to provide high-quality English Learner (EL) instruction and access to grade-level content while developing students’ English language proficiency. We strive for all teachers to provide responsive instruction that meets the linguistic, cultural, and academic needs of each and every student. Our EL teachers use their expertise to scaffold core content and to meet the language needs of each student and work closely with classroom teachers to provide resources on best practices for multilingual learners receiving EL services.
We also encourage and celebrate the use and retention of home languages among our multilingual learners and their families. We recognize that language is a fundamental aspect of cultural identity, and maintaining proficiency in the home language is a powerful asset by enhancing the overall learning experience, fostering a deeper connection to academic content, and promoting cognitive flexibility. We strive to create a truly inclusive and empowering educational community that recognizes and honors the linguistic diversity of our multilingual learners and their families.
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Identification Process
All students/families fill out enrollment paperwork and submit it to the Student Placement Center. This includes the Home Language Questionnaire (HLQ).
If the HLQ indicates a language other than English, then the Student Placement Center staff determines the student’s English proficiency level by screening students or obtaining previous records/ACCESS scores from their previous school.
All new Pre-K and K-12 students with a home language other than English are given the EL screener assessment during the first two weeks of school or upon enrollment.
Parents will be notified if the student is eligible for EL services.
Multilingual learners come from many different backgrounds. The following scenarios may be eligible for EL services:
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Students who are born in the U.S. and speak a language in addition to English at home;
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Students who are born in the U.S. and speak a language other than English at home;
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Immigrant students who’ve had formal schooling in another language;
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Immigrant students who’ve had interrupted or limited formal education, and/or
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Refugee students who’ve learned a language other than or in addition to English.
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Scope of EL Instruction
Pre-Kindergarten (VPK-4):
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English language development in prekindergarten focuses on developing each student's oral language (listening and speaking) skills through play-based activities, social interactions, and age-appropriate instruction.
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Partnerships with K-12 EL staff to emphasize multilingualism, language rich classroom environments, family engagement, and language accessibility.
Grades K-5 (Highland, North Park School for Innovation, and Valley View):
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The service model of instruction consists of pulling out small groups. Students are clustered in mainstream classrooms according to their academic language needs. All students benefit from small guided groups and individualized instruction. Newcomer EL students benefit from additional pull-out groups during which the teacher pre-teaches concepts and vocabulary for upcoming lessons, or reinforces current concepts and oral language.
Grades 6-8 (Columbia Academy):
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The service model of instruction consists of sheltered instruction as well content area language development courses. All EL students are integrated in the school-wide community of learners including STAR advisory, the arts and other elective classes.
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Newcomers in Level 1 and Level 2 receive sheltered EL instruction. The beginning EL courses focus on language development through all content areas. Students receive instruction to build academic language and vocabulary through the language of science, language of social studies and language of math to accelerate language acquisition and to expose beginning students to academic content. WIDA 2020 English Language Development and state academic standards are embedded into the curriculum. Students work toward developing basic reading, writing, speaking and listening skills in English.
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Intermediate and advanced ELL students work toward mastering reading, writing, speaking and listening skills in English. Based on individual language needs, some students build literacy skills in English Language Arts. Teachers receive EL professional development to scaffold instruction, differentiate lessons and support multilingual students receiving EL services.
Grades 9-12 (Columbia Heights High School and Virtual High School):
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The EL instruction for high school includes both sheltered instruction with EL teachers to support the core curriculum and collaborative instruction. Our EL students are provided high levels of support for core classes at lower levels of language proficiency and receive sheltered instruction at higher levels.
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We also use a virtual platform to help students learn independently to build their listening, speaking and oral skills at their own pace in school and outside of school.
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Criteria to Exit
Columbia Heights Public Schools uses MN state criteria to determine whether a multilingual student receiving EL services is ready to exit from the EL program.
If a student meets the criteria of a composite score of 4.5 with no domain falling below a 3.5, they must be exited from services at the beginning of the following school year. If a student has a composite of 4.5 with three of the four domains at least 3.5, then additional criteria should be used on the fourth domain to determine whether or not the student is proficient.
Valid ACCESS test results must be used to determine eligibility for exiting a student. If the student does not participate in testing or does not receive a valid score, the student cannot be exited from the program.
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Refusing Services
Parents or guardians can remove their childfrom EL Services at any time by signing a form. Refusal of service needs to be done annually, so parents can have the most current data on their child’s learning and can make informed decisions about EL services.
The student will still have to take the annual state EL assessment (WIDA ACCESS for ELLS) unless the parent or guardian fills out the assessment refusal form.
A copy of all the refusals will be placed in the student’s cume file.