Remington Landis
Office for Civil Rights
It is stated in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and in the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974, that all emergent bilingual students must be able to participate meaningfully and equally in all public school education programs. But who makes sure that it is actually happening? The United States, Department of Justice and Education allotted mutual guidance through the Office of Civil Rights to ensure these policies are met.
To ensure that E.B students participate equally and meaningfully, state education agencies and public school districts are required by law to:
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Identify and assess all potential E.B students
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Provide language assistance
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Supply adequate staffing and supporting an E.B program
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Provide meaningful access to all curricular and extracurricular programs
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Avoid unnecessary segregation of E.B students
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Evaluate E.B students for special education and provide dual services
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Meet the needs of students who pot out of E.B programs or particular services
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Monitor and exit E.B students (when ready) from E.B programs and services
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Evaluate the effectiveness of a district’s E.B program
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Ensure meaningful communication with limited English proficient parents
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For more information, visit the website of ED’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at www.ed.gov/ocr
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Images retrieved from:
Process of becoming an Emergent Bilingual in Colorado
Now that you had read the obligations our schools have when working with emergent bilinguals, I’m sure you are wondering how one becomes designated as an E.B. The process is different for every state, but for Colorado the process beings with PHILOTE. PHILOTE is an acronym that stands for:
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Primary or
Home
Language
Other
Than
English.
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The idea of PHILOTE is to identify any students that speak other languages at home and how often the language is being spoken. This evaluation is usually done through a survey and sometimes followed by a phone call home. The next step taken is to assess the level of English proficiency the student has. To do this the school requires the students to take a W-APT placement test. The next step after that is to evaluate their scores and figure out where they are at as an English learner. They can either be a NEP, which stands for no-English proficiency, a LEP, which stands for limited-English proficiency or a FEP, which is full-English proficiency. Depending on how the student scores, the ELL specialist in the school can then recommend that the student is put into a program. Of course the parent always has the option to refuse this recommendation and all services. Depending on what the parent choses to do, the student is then put into an appropriate program and is continuously monitored. The ACCESS is an annual test that all ELLs take to keep tabs on progress they are making. The student will continue to work in the program and be monitored until they are proficient enough to exit the program. Pictured below is a visual graphic organizer that displays this process.
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References
Office for Civil Rights | U.S. Department of Education. (2017, September 22). Retrieved October 13, 2017, fromhttps://www2.ed.gov/about/offices /list/ocr/index.html
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Program Types For Emergent Bilinguals
There are many different program models for English language learners. The two main type of program models are bilingual education and English as a second language programs. Within each of these programs, many different models are used to teach in different ways.
Bilingual models:
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Two-way bilingual
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Late exit
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Early exit
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Native language content classes
English as a second language models:
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Sheltered English, Specially Designed Academic Instruction (SDAIE)/Structured Immersion
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Sheltered Content Courses
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The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP)
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ELD Classes
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Pull-Out ESL
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Co-Teaching
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Coaching Model
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Flexible Pathways
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L1 Literacy Classes or First Language Literacy Classes
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Newcomer Centers
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Tutoring
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Alternative/Adult Options
As you can see, there are very many different options when considering teaching emergent bilinguals in a bilingual or in an English as a second language model. All of these different programs have advantages and disadvantages. Below, I will go over the strengths and weaknesses of two programs from each model.
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Bilingual:Two-way bilingual model
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Goal: To develop bilingualism in not only English learners but also in English-proficient learners. Ideally looks like half the class are English speakers, half the class are English learners who share the same language.
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Strengths: Promotes cultural awareness and value of knowing another language
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Weaknesses: works best in schools with high population of E.B’s that are the same language, which can be difficult to find.
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English as a second language:Coaching model
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Goal: To respond to specific needs of students
while improving instruction and developing a
collegial approach
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Strengths: Has the potential to address
inequalities that E.B’s face by focus on
individual needs.
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Weaknesses: Coaches must have specialized
training in working with meeting the needs of E.B’s or an ESL credential.
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Another very common English as a second language model is the pull-out model. This involves the student being pulled out of class to be one on one with a English language learning specialist. As effective as this sounds, it has been reported to not always be effective due to the lack of interaction with peers and missed class time.
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Of course because these models have different strengths and weaknesses, there are some that are more effective than others. Yet, there is not one single program that reigns over the others as most effective or best.
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References
https://www.cde.state.co.us/cde_english/eldguidebook
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Images retrieved from:
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