Eligibility for Services

When registering for school, all parents must complete a Home Language Survey. Based on the results of the survey, an ELL specialist may contact the parent to further test the student for program eligibility. Upon completion of the testing, if their child qualifies for services, parents will be notified and services will be explained.

Service Delivery Model

Our instructional delivery goal is to create graduates that are bilingual, biliterate and bicultural.  Based on research, we have adopted the philosophy of strengthening literacy in the child’s first language as a precursor to academic success in English.

Our current student population necessitates us to provide literacy instruction in Spanish to Spanish speaking ELL’s.  Our instructional model focuses on Spanish literacy in grades K-2.  The ELL specialist’s schedule will reflect this focus by allocating as much time as possible to Spanish literacy in those grades.  In grades 3 - 5, Spanish literacy instruction continues in order to assure that competency in Spanish literacy is attained.  In grades 6-8, oral and written Spanish is used to maintain the native language.  All parents of ELL students are strongly encouraged to speak, read and write with their children in their native language.

Formal English literacy instruction is delayed until the child is sufficiently proficient in Spanish literacy in order to transition successfully to English literacy.  We expect that students will be able to make this transition by the end of second grade or the beginning of third grade.

English Language Learner speaking a language other than Spanish are provided English as a Second Language instruction. As much as possible, services will be allocated according to the language proficiency needs of the student. Content area instruction takes place in a modified English format.  One of the ELL specialist’s goals is to preview the content that students will be covering in the mainstream classroom.  The ELL specialist attempts to collaborate with mainstream teachers as much as practically possible in order to plan for instruction.

Exiting the Program

According to the state of Illinois, ELL students must exit direct services when they have attained a composite score of 4.8 and a literacy score of 4.2 on the Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State (ACCESS) test. This test is administered once a year in January and February. Decisions for exiting of students are usually made in June. After students have exited direct services, they are monitored by the ELL specialist for two years.