Sample ELL Community Report

Though there is a low percentage of ELLs in this district, there is a strong importance placed on the district’s ELL program. The district views their ELL program as a way to enhance the general education classroom experience for their students. The district has a positive view of their ELLs, stating on their website, “We value the native language, culture, and background knowledge of each of our students” (Sycamore Community School District #427, 2017). The district does not seem to have a specific definition for what defines an ELL in their district. When we asked the ESL director how the district defines English language learners, he just told us that an ELL in the district is any student who qualifies for services. He did make it a point

The team has been described by the ELL Director as “capable, smart, hard-working, passionate and professional within the learning community.” The team consists of the ELL Director, three certified ESL teachers, and one mainstream teacher. There is one certified ESL teacher placed at Southeast, one certified ESL teacher at North Grove and West, and the other ESL certified teacher is at the Middle school and High school. The ELL Director is stationed at North Grove since he is also the principal. There are two schools that do not have an ESL program because there is only one student at South Prairie Elementary School, and five students at North Elementary

According to Janisch, the MAP (measure of academic progress) test is one of the more important ones that is looked at. This may be in part because this test adjusts the difficulty of its questions based on the student’s previous answers and therefore comes a bit closer in evaluating specific areas of ability. The ELL page on the Sycamore website states that their programs place an emphasis on English vocabulary, reading, and writing. This is likely not very effective. According to Jim Cummins’ theory of common underlying proficiency, literacy skills do not need to be taught twice (de Jong, 2009). Therefore, for optimal results, any and all literacy skills the student has in their first language should be built upon and later bridged into English. In the middle and high school ELL programs, every student will have one period per day that is taught by a certified ELL teacher who is also fluent in Spanish. This helps to ensure that students are getting at least some comprehensible input each day they come to