English Learners

English Learners have the same potential as native English speakers to engage in complex tasks and achieve the same high levels of content mastery as their native English speaking peers.

English learners are students whose primary or home language is other than English and who need special language assistance in order to engage in learning.

Louisiana schools and districts like all states must ensure they not only follow federally mandated requirements as detailed in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act, but go beyond mandates to provide dynamic, on level instruction so that each student can achieve their potential.

Just like every student, great learning comes from a coherent set of offerings in the classroom. This includes meaningful curriculum, assessments and teacher learning opportunities.

CURRICULUM

English Learners (ELs) need access to the same challenging, and grade-appropriate curriculum as their native – English-speaking peers. Even though ELs English language skills will distinguish them from English only speakers they can meet the same high expectations we hold for all other students.

Given this, rather than replacing high quality curriculum with a separate and unique EL curriculum, educators should use their general education standards and curriculum and supplement them for the unique EL needs. Districts should not encourage teachers to leverage a separate El specific curriculum.

The resources below will help districts, schools, and educators with this important work:

• Louisiana Connectors for English Learners: Describes students’ level of English as they move through the continuum of language acquisition stages.
• Curricular tools: As such English Learners do not have a separate curriculum, but rather, all grade-level, tier 1 core curriculum is the appropriate and recommended curriculum for all English learners. Tools that may help Louisiana educators supplement strong programs:

• Math: Translated Modules should be used as a resource for content accessibility

  Remediation tools are designed for students struggling to access on-grade-level content

• English Language Arts: ELA Guidebooks 2.0: Diverse Learners Embedded within this document are strategies and materials to support all learners, including Els who need additional language supports

ASSESSMENTS

• English Learners participate in all state-wide assessment in addition to an annual English language proficiency test.

  • EL Accommodations Form

• Assessment guidance on the new English Language Proficiency Test (ELPT), taking the place of the ELDA, will be released during the Fall of 2017

RESOURCES

Family Resources: The Department is committed to provide families of EL students with the tools and resources they need to support learning at home, and will translate all parent facing materials into Spanish, Vietnamese and Arabic. These resources are available in our Family Support Toolbox.

For Educators: The Department is also committed to providing guidance and support to educators who support English Learners through ongoing trainings and resources. 

Teacher Leader Summit Sessions; A17 & A018

English Learner Administrator's Handbook

Educating English Learners and Beyond (Sept. 2016 Collaborative Session Titled ELL)

Office of Civil Rights (OCR) EL Guidance

Office of English Language Acquisition

English Learner Toolkit

Newcomer Toolkit

English language-learners-special-needs-effective-instructional-strategies

National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition (NCELA)

ELA Connector for ELs Crosswalk

Task Analysis Tool Condensed Version

The Department is currently in the development phase of an English Learner Guidebook to support implementation of evidenced-based “best practices” in the areas of identification, instruction, intervention, and assessment that will be released this winter.