English Language Education

Criterion: ELE 5 - Program Placement and Structure

Rating: Partially Implemented

Description of Current Issue: The Department conducted a TFM review to evaluate the effectiveness of programs serving English learners as required by G.L. c. 71A, § 7A. A review of data as a part of the evaluation of the district's ELE program indicated that English learners do not demonstrate sufficient growth in English language acquisition and the ELE program needs improvement to promote and support the rapid acquisition of English language proficiency by ELs. The compliance issues are outlined below:

- Interviews, documentation, and a review of student records indicated that the district lacks the ESL staffing capacity to effectively provide essential components of an effective ELE program, such as placing students in ESL courses with peers at appropriate levels, providing time for ESL collaboration with content teachers to identify language objectives, student needs and to provide appropriate supports and scaffolds for students with low levels of proficiency in content courses, providing effective oversight and monitoring of the ELE program, and advocating for English Learners at the administrative level.

-Interviews and a review of documentation indicated that the district does not have an ESL curriculum that is integral to an effective ELE program in which ELs of all grades and proficiency levels become English proficient at a rapid pace. Also, staff interviews indicate that while the district has some units of ESL curriculum developed, not all grade levels have units developed. While the district has the flexibility to choose the appropriate setting and method of ESL instruction as part of their SEI program, the ESL instructional focus must include at a minimum unit plans of ESL curriculum that integrate the WIDA 2020 standards.

-Interviews indicated that staff provide translated materials for English learners throughout the lessons in some SEI classes instead of sheltering the content to make it accessible for English learners. While leveraging native language and supporting translanguaging in moderation are important strategies, relying on direct translation too much at the expense of incorporating sheltering strategies does not promote the rapid learning of English nor grade level understanding of the content areas in SEI classes.

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Criterion: ELE 6 - Program Exit and Readiness

Rating: Partially Implemented

Description of Current Issue: A review of documentation submitted and staff interviews indicated that the district reclassifies students before they reach the minimum exit criteria. Additionally, staff interviews indicated that staff reclassification practices include students being exited from the program if a team of professionals determined that a student will no longer benefit from ESL instruction even if the student is not English proficient based on ACCESS for ELLs results. The district's current reclassification procedures are not in compliance with 603 CMR 14.02 that requires districts to establish exit criteria in accordance with the Department guidelines.

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Criterion: ELE 7 - Parent Involvement

Rating: Partially Implemented

Description of Current Issue: Interviews indicated that although the district has policies and procedures in place to provide translated documents and interpretation for families who need them, it does not have policies and procedures in place to ensure that competent, appropriately trained staff or outside resources provide translation and interpretation.  Appropriate and competent translators or interpreters have proficiency in target languages, ease of written and oral expression, knowledge of specialized terms or concepts, expertise in the content being interpreted as well as have training on their role, the ethics of interpreting and translating, and the need for confidentiality. The district needs to ensure that all of its translations sent to families are from competent, appropriately trained staff or outside resources that meet its legal obligations. Therefore, the Department has determined that the district does not always provide effective language assistance to parents whose preferred language is not English and therefore, does not always meet the obligation to communicate effectively with parents to include them in matters pertaining to their children's education.

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Criterion: ELE 14 - Licensure Requirements

Rating: Partially Implemented

Description of Current Issue: A review of documentation and the relevant SEI Endorsement data indicated that most core academic teachers assigned to provide sheltered English instruction to English learners hold the SEI Teacher Endorsement, but some do not.

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