English Language Development Program

• Students’ languages and cultures are valuable resources to be tapped and incorporated into schooling.
• Students’ home, school, and community experiences influence their language development.
• Students draw on their metacognitive, metalinguistic, and meta-cultural awareness to develop proficiency in additional languages.
• Students’ academic language development in their native language facilitates their academic language development in English. Conversely, students’ academic language development in English informs their academic language development in their native language.
• Students learn language and culture through meaningful use and interaction.
• Students use language in functional and communicative ways that vary according to context.
• Students develop language proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing interdependently, but at different rates and in different ways.
• Students’ development of academic language and academic content knowledge are inter-related processes.
• Students’ development of social, instructional, and academic language, a complex and long-term process, is the foundation for their success in school. Students’ access to instructional tasks requiring complex thinking is enhanced when linguistic complexity and instructional support match their levels of language proficiency.

1. ELs will show progress each year on the ACCESS for ELs test, demonstrating annual growth until achieving fluent English proficiency (FEP) status.

2. ELs will earn grades of ‘C’ or higher in all core classes at the same rate as all students.

3. ELs who are monitored as being fluent English proficient (FEP) will participate and score at the same levels as all students.

4. All EL students will achieve fluent English proficiency within 5 years of entering school. For students currently in the system:

• Level 1 student has 5 years to exit
• Level 2 student has 4 years to exit
• Level 3 student has 3 years to exit
• Level 4 student has 2 years to exit

All students enrolled in a public school in Oklahoma are required to have a Home Language Survey (HLS) completed by the parent/guardian and kept on file by the attending district. The HLS asks three questions about a student’s individual linguistic background. If two or more answers are “a language other than English,” the student is understood as being influenced by an environment where a language other than English is spoken, “more often.”

If the student is not a native English speaker, the student will be given a placement assessment, the WIDA Screener, no later than 30 days after enrollment. If the student’s placement assessment score is below a Composite Proficiency level of 4.8 (encompassing all four domains of reading, writing, speaking, and listening), he or she will be designated as an English Learner (EL).

If the HLS responses indicate a language other than English one out of three times, the student is classified as influenced by an environment where a language other than English is spoken: “less often.” In this case, the student will be given a WIDA placement assessment if he or she

• Is not a native English speaker

• Has no previous state content assessment scores

• Has English language state content assessment score(s)  that indicate unsatisfactory or limited knowledge

**It is important to note that the HLS assists in identifying students who may need EL services, but it is not determinative of EL status. Only a WIDA assessment can justify entrance or exit from an EL program. Furthermore, the HLS does not preclude a district from assessing a student who may have linguistic issues and be in need of support, regardless of the responses indicated on the HLS