Abstract
Polk County has the highest number of non-English speaking people and many students have to be enrolled in English Language Learning programs to equip them with the needed English skills to match those of other students. The County has put in place measures to ensure that ELL students get access to all resources that other students enjoy. Students are admitted to EL program depending on their proficiency upon taking an assessment. Those who get enrolled are assessed on annual basis and exit the program once their results prove that they are fluent in all the tested areas.
English language learners are those students who are not able to effectively learn or communicate in English. Such students are non-native English speakers implying that their first language in not English. Such students require specialized instructions in their studies and even in mastering the language. English learning program provides such students with skills to enhance their writing, reading, technology, and math knowledge (Coggins, 2014). Other than excelling in school, people enroll for the English language program so as to secure a job since the official communication language in all offices in Polk is English.
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Florida has many non-English speakers and the fact that many people officially communicate in English gives them a challenge in participating in their daily activities without undergoing an instruction class. In a school set up, such students go through an assessment so that the teacher can be able to determine their language proficiency level and the appropriate program they should get enrolled into (Some, 2016). The assessment includes writing, reading, and speaking tests. Many non-native learners in Polk County in Florida are Mexicans, Caribbean, and Latin American and this shows that they do not have the basic English skills since they countries of origin use other languages other than English. Furthermore, their parents do not speak or read well in English. It is approximated that there are two thousand students migrants in Polk County and are ranked the fourth largest group of immigrants in Florida. English learning immigrant students in Polk are mainly between the age of 3 and 21 and have not graduated from high school. Most of them often travel with their guardians or parents and most of their parents work in the agricultural sector.
Generally, these students are academically behind other students because they lack educational continuity since they often travel and they have to attend different schools in the areas they move to. Due to difference in the education systems, they find it difficult to immediately fit into new systems. Furthermore, students in Polk come in November and leave in June hence their instructional time is off the normal academic time. Due to this late arrival, they find that the Pre-K vacancies are already filled. In every five student in Florida, one K-12 student is an English Language Learner with majority of them being Spanish speakers.
The policy-makers and educators in Polk County encounter certain challenges as a result of the varied student population. Schools provide instructions using the English language and this makes it difficult to bring native and non-native students in one class without providing special English classes to the non-native students. The Polk Migrant education program was developed to help students to access quality education through partnering with community agencies and schools (Some, 2016). Its goal is to encourage parents to get involved in activities that promote language development and reduce educational interruptions.
Registering of ELL in schools in Polk County occur in all schools where the students would want to join depending on their area of residence. The school personnel help the students and their parents using their home language so that the registration process is understood and completed with ease (Florida Department of Education, 2008). Translated versions of the registration forms are available and the No Child Left Behind program can be also accessed by any parent who needs. Students are then issued with Home Language Survey forms and those that indicate a yes in any of the questions are assessed to determine the ESOL program they need to be enrolled in.
The procedures used in placement of the grade level have been clearly laid down in Polk County schools. Al l the students who have been identified as English language Learners are given access to all the programs that the non-ELL students access. Schools have procedures in place that provide comprehensible instructions to those ELL learners who are eligible. Such instructions should be similar to those given to non-ELL students. The academic performance of the students is determined by using the initial recommendations for eligibility. Some schools, however task the ELL committee with the placement responsibility according to the Consent Decree guidelines in Letter C. The No Child left Behind mandates that all ELL students in K-12 must be assessed on yearly basis by administering the ACCES for ELLs in reading, listening, and speaking (Menken, 2010). In addition, all the students who receive the ESOL services are exempted from taking the statewide assessment until they exit the program.
The Polk County schools set a grading policy that favor the ELL students and that no grading policy should negatively impact the student by using English language proficiency as a sole measure of grading. The assessment is adjusted to suit the level of the student’s proficiency. This provides an opportunity for each student to achieve the benchmarks expected from them. ELL students get a grade that replicates an accurate assessment of what they have achieved basing on their limited competence in the English language. Differentiated instructions should be used to set the grade of a student and these strategies should be incorporate in the lesson plan and adhered to during classroom lessons.
Grading ELL requires special consideration as stated in the Florida Consent Decree. The considerations to be taken include providing the English language instructions in an understandable and equal scope and amount as that provided to the non-ELL students. During grading, some students fail to get the minimum requirement for exit and this call for retention in the program or remediation. The ELL committee calls the parents for a meeting to discuss the way forward for their children. Third grade students can exit the program under good cause exemptions where retention will negatively impact the student.
The Florida Department of Education (FDOE) has categorized English Language learners depending on the time they spend in the program. The LY category of students is meant for LEP students who will spend less of more than 2 years in the program. The LN category is for LEP classified students who do not attend LEP classes (Coggins, 2014). The LP are mainly students in grade 4-12 who have been fully tested and found to be proficient in oral test but the reading and writing tests have not been conducted. Those students who completed the program in two years and those who exceeded two years are categorized in LF and LZ respectively while the ZZ students are mainly non-LEP students.
The introduction of No Child Left Behind has made schools discourage promotion of unqualified students. This has seen Florida record a low rate of English language Learners graduating. Research has shown that students in high school were not given the services that have a right to access under the Consent decree (Menken, 2010). A passing score for high school students have been set for the various subjects including mathematics, reading, and social studies. The 10th grade reading scores for both LEP and non-LEP students for reading and mathematics are given in Figure 1 and 2 for 2000-01.
In Polk County, all the students who take the EL program are also entitled to a number of benefits. This is because an average non-English speaking student comes from a poor background. Most of the Polk ELL students were observed to perform poorly in academics and Title One Part C program was established. This supplemental program focuses on providing services that many migrant students lack with an attempt to help them achieve success both in school and later in their lives. The English learners whose home origin is Mexico are often enrolled in the learning program because the education systems in the two countries are quite different. In Mexico unlike in the US, urban areas conduct multiple lessons during school days. Many students use personal means of transport to school as most schools do not offer transportation services (Coggins, 2014). The cafeterias are also very few and the attendance zones are not taken into account. The schools in urban and rural areas are also very different as they have different sizes and the quality of buildings is very different.
The parents of the migrant ELL students in Polk County schools are entitled to a number of rights. First, they have a right to have their children obtain quality education by qualified educators. Such children should also learn the English language, reading, math and other subjects with other learners in same level. The parents are also entitled to the information on whether their child has been selected to enroll in an English Language Learning program and have the right to either agree with the school’s recommendation or refuse (Florida Department of Education, 2008). In cases where a number of English programs are available, the parent has a right to choose one that would be good for the child. If the school that the child is currently enrolled in is marked as required to make changes, then the parent has an option of transferring the child to another school of their choice.
Since most of the ELL students are considered academically weak compared to other students, the parent has a right to apply for remedial services in a case where the school needs to upgrade within a span of two years. The student should be assessed on annual basis to determine their progress in the program and check whether the child will exit the program within two years or more. Once the assessment is done, the parent should be sent the results of the academic tests in their native language if possible and they should be granted an opportunity to have the child attains the highest academic ability.
Every school that offers ELL program selects a committee with a minimum of eight people. This committee is tasked with a number of duties that ensures that each student enrolled in the program goes through it successfully. Once registration of new students have been completed, the committee makes decisions on placing K-2 students who are considered unqualified to proceed to conventional class despite being fluent in speaking English (Florida Department of Education, 2008). It is also tasked with reclassifying students who had previously enrolled in the program as well as reviewing the progress of the students and the instructional programs at the end of each semester. Since most of the decisions made concerning the ELL students must be relayed to the parents, the committee ensures that all matters concerning parents are done at the appropriate time an in the language that the parents are comfortable with. Such concerns include sending assessment results and any letters with information that might require the parent’s attention. During every worldwide assessment, the committee ensures that the ELL classified students are exempted from taking such assessments for at most one year.
In occasions where students are reclassified for more than two years and no improvement is observed, the committee takes a step to review the instructional program so as to come up with the best program that suits such students. Such special considerations are also made for exiting students who performed well in speaking but their writing and reading assessment results are below the 32nd percentile. With the support from parents, the committee helps to refer a student who has been reclassified to proper remedial services and programs.
In Polk County, both secondary and elementary schools are responsible for meeting the objectives of enhancing the proficiency of ELL learners. The practices put in place ensure that both federal and state laws are complied with and the goals are met within the stipulated time and budget limits. Fidelity checks such as ESOL requirements have been implemented o as to ensure that all ELL students become academically successful. The teachers make the evaluation by monitoring their students’ performance in classroom and provide progress reports to the end of the academic year (Florida Department of Education, 2008). The continuous monitoring helps in coming up with the appropriate program that suits the student’s proficiency level.
Schools that require improvement provide extended learning lessons from providers who have been approved by the state to students. These sessions are offered on Saturdays or during summer time before schools reopen. Schools, which offer LSF work with the Polk district personnel to provide school based conferencing and tutoring. The monitoring level is also increased and evaluation tools that ensure effective implementation of LFS are developed.
References
Coggins, D. (2014). English Language Learners in the Mathematics Classroom . Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Florida Department of Education (2008). District plan for services to English Language Learners (ELLs). Retrieved from <http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7586/urlt/0064405-polk09.pdf/>
Maleyko, G., & Gawlik, M. A. (2011). No child left behind: what we know and what we need to know. Education , 131(3), 600-624.
Menken, K. (2010). NCLB and English Language Learners: Challenges and Consequences. Theory into Practice, 49(2), 121-128.
Somé-Guiébré, E. (2016). Mainstreaming English Language Learners: Does It Promote or Hinder Literacy Development?. English Language Teaching , 9 (1), 33-40.
