22 Jul 2022

148

English Language Programs offered in Township school district 211

Format: APA

Academic level: High School

Paper type: Essay (Any Type)

Words: 2347

Pages: 8

Downloads: 0

Township school district 211 has more than five hundred English language learners. The student speaks a minimum of nearly one hundred non-English languages with a majority speaking the Spanish language. Other languages with many student studying English in Illinois are polished Arabic, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean and Pilipino. Nearly half of the teachers teaching the students have a bilingual and ESL endorsement or approval. The information is according to the federal department of education. Distribution of the English learning student is not even, some counties have reported higher numbers of student than others. Township high school district 211 reported the largest number of students in Illinois. More than half of the English learning students in the past five years have been in grades k-3, followed by grade four to eight and the rest were in high school (August, Shanahan, & Escamilla, 2009) . Not many students with a disability have been enrolled in the program as those with disability are lest than twenty percent of the total population enrolled. 

There exist selected language programs being offered currently. Students are allowed to take part in some programs if they so wish. Now, content-based ESL is considered the most favorite group as it has the majority of the students in Township school district 211. Other programs include; development bilingual, push in, push out, self-contained, sheltered English instruction, transitional bilingual and two-way immersion also known as dual language (Gorman, 2011) . Many students stop being in the English language learning program after being withdrawn by their parents from bilingual programs, graduating from high school or dropping out of school. Majority exit the program after successfully completing all the program requirement. 

It’s time to jumpstart your paper!

Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.

Get custom essay

According to the Illinois language policies, it is a requirement for all districts to examine their student yearly, township school district 211 follows the same guideline in evaluating their students. The examination test various parameters using different methods. Student’s proficiency is tested by giving the students exams to test their comprehension and listening skills, ability to talk and read without difficulty and be in a position to write. All students enrolled in grade k-12 must demonstrate the capacity to do all the above before being awarded a proficiency certificate. Assessing, comprehension, and communication in the English language were adopted a decade ago. It is an exam done by k-12 students across various states. The initiative was developed by the world- class instructional design and assessment group in collaborating with the Center for Applied Linguistics. Students can score a minimum of a hundred marks and a maximum of six hundred marks and the score covered to groups that span the learning period from the fist stage of the program to the last stage of the learning program. 

There exist two type of state-funded bilingual programs in Township school district 211. The two are transitional bilingual education and transitional program of instruction. The criteria used to finance the two programs is based on the student population enrolled in the program, duration which the level is expected to take and the program type. Some Districts that receive bilingual state funding are also eligible to get funded by the federal government funds to supplement expenditure in educating English language learning. Out of the three and ten organizations that receive state bilingual financial aid, around two hundred get funding from the title which is a federal program to provide support for limited English proficient and immigrant students (Alexander & Alexander, 2011)

Sources of data were from the school records and by interviewing the school staff and students. Other trusted sources compiled by organizations such as data analysis and accountability division and records of the bilingual education program delivery report were used. All district with English learning students have an obligation of submitting Demographic and program data of their students to the state department of education. The native language of the students is also taken into account. Furthermore, the students are required to give the following data: gender, grade level, place of birth and the date, a program they are enrolled to and the entry and exit date. When a student exits the program before completing it, he or she has to give reasons for exiting. It is a requirement by law that all districts were offering the program to submit the above data about their students yearly (August, Shanahan, & Escamilla, 2009)

The following table gives the name of programs offered in Township school district 211 and how the programs are designed (Gorman, 2011)

Name of program  Design and who developed 
Content-based ESL  Designed to teach English in and through the content areas of mathematics, science, English language arts and social studies. The teacher must be bilingual and or English as the second language being approved depending on the level being served. 
Developmental bilingual  Designed to educate a learner in his or her native language for a period longer than required and English is infusion gradually in its implementation. The program aims to develop fluency and literacy in the mother tongue and English. The program emphasizes the development of full bilingualism in the early grades. The program seeks to improve literacy in the pupil's inherent style fist and the transfer the learned skills to the second language. 
Push in  Students are together with their native English speaking peers in the same classroom to support the English language learning students. Designed to guide students as they work on their joint assignments or individual work. It is intended to be implemented by a specialist. 
Push out  It aims to get students from irregular classrooms for personalized or small group teaching lessons. The education sessions may focus on promoting basic English communication skills and focus English for use in educational purposes. The student is pulled out of the general education classroom for specialized instruction in ESL, content-based English as a second language or in a content area instruction in the mother tongue. It is developed by certified teacher having assessed the need of the students, 
Sheltered English instruction  The program represents an approach to make grade level academic content for science and mathematics more easy to understand for English language learners while promoting English language development. The program was designed to help students to help students from a various background with different languages. The program aims to use different strategies that may include the use of plain English, structured overviews, clarification, repetition, visual aids, and gestures to help the student understand the content being delivered in that group. The instruction given are focused on ensuring content is delivered rather than the language. 
Transitional Bilingual  Designed for the student with the same native language in the same school. The instruction encompasses teaching of the core subjects in the mother tongue and English as a second language. English is gradually introduced. The program may be conducted in self-contained rooms or half a day. 
  The program is designed to group students in various groups. It groups students from minority languages in the same classroom with the majority who are native English speaking. Practically, the program allows a balance in the two groups of students who study together in common languages. Both groups students develop literacy and proficiency in all the two languages. Daul language may be taught by the same teachers who has the required certificate to teach the grade level and is endorsed or approved in the second language. Sometimes two teachers may teach within having the bilingual approval or endorsement certificate. 
Other programs  Designed by moving the design requirements of two or more other programs. 
   

The performance of students in Township school district 211 determined by having the student sit for an exam. The two routine exams are Illinois standard achievement test and the prairie state performance examinations. The reviews are based on the Illinois Learning Standards. Township school district 211 grades its student performance as follows: Excellent standard; where student’s performance demonstrates advanced knowledge and skills in the subject. Students are required to demonstrate the ability to find solutions to various problems and evaluate the results they give (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2011) . To meet standards, students examined to identify if they are expert knowledge and skill in the subject. Below standards are when student demonstrate a common understanding of what is required of them. Academic warning is given to students who demonstrate near lack of knowledge in what they are being examined. Students perform better in mathematics more than in reading. Accomplishment in reading is lowest among the grade three students than any other grade. On average, the achievement gap between English learning student and non-English education can be in the ration of one to two. 

At Township school district, examinations are administered to students annually and those who pass the exam transit to the next level. Those who fail are warned and some required to repeat the level (Gorman, 2011)

Typically Township school district 211 students are in school for eight hours a day. The programs are designed to run other for half a day while some the whole day. Quality in ensured by maintaining the classes' population low. Classes at Township school district 211 should not have more than forty-five students at any given time to provide real student-teacher interaction. Township school district 211 has professional teachers who have the required skills to teach. The teacher must meet the teaching qualifications before they are employed. 

Purpose and applicability of the Illinois Administrative Code Section 228.5 established the requirements for the schools that offers the program Township school district 211 being inclusive (Baker, 2011) . If Township school district 211 had not met the requirement it could not have been allowed to offer the program. The legislation is meant to ensure quality services are given to students. Furthermore, requirements of Article 14c of the school code apply to every school offering the program. The laws apply to every class irrespective if the get funding from the federal government or not (August, Shanahan, & Escamilla, 2009) . The legislation is meant to ensure that the school needs are catered for irrespective of fiscal deficits. To ensure quality services are given to the students, Township school district has established a screening procedure that is used to determine the ability of students joining the program, how they are to go through the program and the expectation they must fulfill before coming out. To ensure quality is achieved and that the program meets its needs, those who join the program must be of age and developed appropriately. The school’s curriculum is designed to be culturally and linguistically relevant to the modern day needs and expectations. Multiple measure and method are being used in assessing the students who go through the program. Changes are being made to include home language assessment, verbal and non-verbal form of communicating and personal mannerism to evaluate the students to know how well they were having gone through the program. 

To further ensure quality is met, a class with more than twenty students enrolled in a program, Township district school comes up with a transitional bilingual education to address the need of the group appropriately. A deeper analysis of the students also to be done to ensure that more personal problems or inclusion in either half a day program or full-time program is achieved. More based strategies are being implemented to provide many students can access the program with ease. English learning program is being established at Township school district 211 as opposed to the traditional system where the institution offering the program were isolated. Course credits have also been introduced. Students can now be admitted at Township School district and still maintain the credits they had acquired previously. They can continue from where they have moved from without losing the credits. Preschools and summers schools have also been introduced to allow students enroll whenever they wish to (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2011) . To ensure quality is met and the needs of the system fulfilled, student-teacher ratio has been set up. Township school district is oftenly well staffed and their teacher's welfare well catered. In service, training has been established for the teacher to further their education and improve their skills. Individualized instruction programs are also being introduced to allow a student with disabilities receives the required attention. 

Township school district 211 has several definitions of bilingualism. The school explains bilingualism as the balance method that represents two or more languages living mutually with the second language increasing the expense of the first (Gorman, 2011) . The theory further states that the two words exist in isolation from each other. The second definition as per the schools is that bilingualism is a linguistic condition whereby a common underlying proficiency in two languages is based on some principles. The principles according to the school are; when using two or more languages ideas come from a single source, a person can work with two or more languages with ease, cognitive functioning may be fed by single or multiple channels. The theory indicates that the language used by a student of a language must be developed to solve cognitive challenges in class. The threshold theory explains the connection between cognition and the level of bilingualism (Garcia, 2011) . It indicates that the nearer a student gets to be bilingual the more they become able to experience advantages associated with being cognitive. 

Township school district uses various book to teach bilingualism. The books are grouped based on content and level where they are used. Bilingual books are essential in creating a link between languages. They give teachers the ability to teach students in a language they can best understand while at the same time expanding their scope of words. Some steps are followed to use bilingual books (Alexander & Alexander, 2011) . The teacher has to read the bilingual book a loud to students to help the clearly get to learn the pronunciation of words. The teachers then read the bilingual books in the school language to express the phrase written in other languages. Students are encouraged to read books written about other cultures to help the learn more about the new culture as it will be of much help to help to understand a critical aspect of the new language. While reading the bilingual books, it is advisable to get to learn key words used in the other language as the will form the building blocks in mastering the new language (August, Shanahan, & Escamilla, 2009) . Students should be encouraged to write their bilingual books, ask questions about the books they are reading and hold large discussion groups to share and analyzed the content they have read. Bilingual books help kill boredom as they are both entertaining and educative. 

The Township school district is proposing the extensive utilization of bilingualism schools yet they do not tolerate bilingualism to be used for official matters (Gorman, 2011) . During the school meetings only English is allowed. The school support the learning of the language, but it does not consider it in transacting official matters. Furthermore, the native English people think their language superior but what to learn other languages. 

All level of governance is promoting the learning of bilingualism by enacting laws that have seen more schools offer the subject. Goodwill is further demonstrated by funding bilingualism activities in schools. 

References  

Alexander, K., & Alexander, M. D. (2011). American public school law . Cengage Learning. 

August, D., Shanahan, T., & Escamilla, K. (2009). English language learners: Developing literacy in second-language learners—Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth. Journal of Literacy Research , 41 (4), 432-452. 

Baker, C. (2011). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism (Vol. 79). Multilingual matters. 

García, O. (2011). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective . John Wiley & Sons. 

Gorman, J. C. (2011). The Association Between Grades Pre K-12 Student Achievement And Differentiated Instructional Strategies in the Anytown Township School District Explored Through Units Of Study. Unpublished Ph. D. Thesis). University of Rowan, USA

Lunenburg, F. C., & Ornstein, A. C. (2011). Educational administration: Concepts and practices . Cengage Learning. 

Illustration
Cite this page

Select style:

Reference

StudyBounty. (2023, September 14). English Language Programs offered in Township school district 211.
https://studybounty.com/english-language-programs-offered-in-township-school-district-211-essay

illustration

Related essays

We post free essay examples for college on a regular basis. Stay in the know!

17 Sep 2023
Education

Personal Statement for College

Growing up in the inner city especially as a first-generation African-American is very challenging mainly because of poverty that makes every aspect of life difficult. These are neighborhoods with poor services and...

Words: 926

Pages: 3

Views: 114

17 Sep 2023
Education

Phonics and Phonemic Awareness Lesson Plan for Kindergarten

The objective of this lesson plan is to teach students how to add or interchange individual sounds within one syllable words. The will the students to learn new words and new pronunciations. The use of CVC word...

Words: 329

Pages: 1

Views: 222

17 Sep 2023
Education

Similarities and Differences of Educational Theories

As a philosophy of education, idealism is based on the notion that reality should only be inferred from ideas. People should strive to conceive ideas as the only source of world reality. They must apply conscious...

Words: 1304

Pages: 5

Views: 88

17 Sep 2023
Education

How to Overcome Financial Challenges in Research

Running a school and improving the way it operates requires the availability of resources, prime of which is money. The financing of school budgets in the US varies between school districts and states. The...

Words: 3007

Pages: 10

Views: 57

17 Sep 2023
Education

Suggestopedia Learning Method Analysis

The video is an explanation of the suggestopedia, and this is a learning method that’s used in classrooms, particularly in those ones in which students are taking English as their second language. This method is...

Words: 926

Pages: 3

Views: 61

17 Sep 2023
Education

Behaviorist versus Humanist Philosophical Orientation

Purpose of the philosophical orientation Psychologists and other researchers have for the longest time tried to unearth the behavioral orientations of individuals by integrating numerous approaches. One of the most...

Words: 2558

Pages: 9

Views: 134

illustration

Running out of time?

Entrust your assignment to proficient writers and receive TOP-quality paper before the deadline is over.

Illustration