Branaie McDonald
#1 Go-Devil Road; Gurdon, AR 71743
870-353-4454 x 137
mcdonaldc@go-devils.net
English Language Learners (ELL)
English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Coordinator
Welcome
Welcome to the English Language Learners (ELL) section of the website.
Gurdon Public School District’s motto is “students first, student-centered.” With this in mind, the primary philosophy of the Gurdon Public School District’s ESOL program is to take into consideration the individual differences of our students and their families in order to implement a program that will benefit and improve education for each child who enters school regardless of their English proficiency and/or cultural backgrounds and perspectives.
By law and by practice, it is the expectation that all students will have equal opportunities to participate fully in the education system through appropriate communication with parents and/or guardians. Letters and other information sent home will be in a language or form the parents and/or guardians understand.
Furthermore, the Gurdon Public School District will provide a balanced ESOL program that will prepare English Language Learners (ELLs) to function in both the academic and social arenas. All personnel working with ELLs will be provided with information and training to enhance the role of each in this process. Other issues related to the educational needs of an increasingly diverse student population will be addressed in a timely and proactive manner.
This philosophy serves as the underpinning of our three goals for our ELLs:
to learn the academic skills associated with English language acquisition: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
to succeed in the content areas by utilizing while acquiring this language.
to maintain their own culture while learning to live and participate in their new community (biculturalism).
The Gurdon Public School District invites you to examine its ESOL Resources including the district's Program Guide, English Learner Plan, and other items.
District Obligations for English Language Learners
The obligation not to discriminate based on race, color, or national origin requires public schools to take affirmative steps to ensure that limited English proficient (LEP) students, now more commonly known as known as English Learner (EL) students or English Language Learners (ELLs), can meaningfully participate in educational programs and services, and to communicate information to LEP parents in a language they can understand. The district's program guide includes information for students and parents, OCR guidance and resources for education officials about their obligations to EL students and LEP parents, and added resources with related information.
The Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Office for Civil Rights do not prescribe a specific program design/educational approach. It is the district’s responsibility to ensure that the educational approach selected addresses:
how the district provides for English Language Development (ELD).
how the district provides access to core content programming for ELs (CCP).
District Implementation of ESOL Program
The district provides for English Language Development (ELD) using Pulled-Out options at Gurdon Primary School and using Class Period options at Cabe Middle School and Gurdon High School. Currently, we are using Systematic ELD Achieve as our curriculum to help these students to acquire the English language in addition to what they will see and hear in a traditional English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. We started as part of a cohort to implement this curriculum in Fall 2019 but lost time due to Covid-19. Therefore, we are adapting the activities to meet the current health and safety requirements as we move forward with it this year. The ESOL Coordinator and bilingual paraprofessionals attend training through Dawson Educational Cooperative. In order to supplement the face-to-face instruction and in order to support remote learners, the ESOL Coordinator prepares online versions of the instruction using slides to supplement the curriculum.
Gurdon Primary School serves students in kindergarten through grade four and offers a daily pull-out program by grade-level cohort using the Systematic ELD Achieve curriculum.
Cabe Middle School serves students in grades five through eight and offers a few sections of a daily class period in the master schedule using the Systematic ELD Achieve curriculum.
Gurdon High School serves students in grades nine through twelve and offers a section of a daily class period in the master schedule using the Systematic ELD Achieve curriculum and offering embedded support for some ELLs on campus.
The district provides access to core content programming for ELs (CCP) using Content Classes with Integrated Support. The ESOL Coordinator offers annual training and ongoing updates on best practices for campus faculty. The ESOL Coordinator accesses student transcripts, student assessments, and similar data sources to monitor student performance. The ESOL Coordinator offers online assistance with academic subjects using a Google Classroom. Each campus has a bilingual paraprofessional position to offer support and translation assistance to classroom teachers.
The TransACT® parent notifications are available to personnel in order to communicate with parents/guardians and family members in a language that they can understand. ADE purchased subscriptions to TransAct for Arkansas schools. This allows communications (e.g., permission slips, illness notifications) to be sent home in the family's preferred language of communication as part of the state and federal requirements. Again, Covid-19 interrupted the utilization of this in 2019-2020. Additional updates and resources are being implemented during Fall 2021.
We are excited to have these three major aspects of the program as we support the students, their families, and the faculty going forward.
Identifying English Language Learners
Per state and federal requirements, we use the Arkansas Home Language Usage Survey (HLUS) to identify potential English Language Learners (ELLS) new to Arkansas schools.
The likely candidates for services are screened by the ESOL Coordinator using the ELPA21 Screener. Students who qualify for services are scheduled by the campus' Language Proficiency Assessment Committee (LPAC).
Families of students who qualify can reject the services; however, the students must still be assessed annually using the state's ELPA21 assessment.
Students who score sufficiently well on the ELPA21 and who have at least two other data pieces (e.g., scores on NWEA; scores on ACT Aspire) to show that the student is on par with grade-level peers are exited from ESL services but are monitored for four years in case the services need to resume.
Changes and Updates
Our update to our District ESOL Program Guide was delayed last spring due to Covid-19. The District ESOL Program Guide was delayed again this fall by pending updates. The latest draft from ADE:DESE personnel was previewed by the District ESOL Coordinator in January 2021. The local committee will review this version once it is available from ADE:DESE. We hope to submit the District ESOL Program Guide for review by the end of February.
By using Zoom recordings and Google Classroom, we are adapting our Systematic ELD Achieve curriculum in order to help these students to acquire the English language despite obstacles created by quarantining and remote learning.
We look forward to seeing the continued growth on the ELPA21 by our students receiving support through these resources. We also will notify principals and faculty members about the ESOL training opportunities in order to increase our number of ESOL-endorsed and ESOL-certified personnel to replace the ones who have left CMS and GHS, those who have left the regular education classroom at GPS, and those who have retired from the district.
We also will notify principals and faculty members about the ESOL training opportunities in order to increase our number of ESOL-endorsed and ESOL-certified personnel to replace the ones who have left CMS and GHS, those who have left the regular education classroom at GPS, and those who have retired from the district. After completing the R.I.S.E. initiative, other campus personnel will be encouraged to attain their ESL credentials. Currently, those with ESL credentials include the following:
the ESOL Coordinator
the district’s Literacy Instructional Facilitator
four employees at Gurdon Primary School
no faculty members at Cabe Middle School
one on ALP pending enrollment and completion of credentials at the ESL Institute through Dawson/HSU
no faculty members at Gurdon High School
one on ALP pending enrollment and completion of credentials at the ESL Institute through Dawson/HSU
one participating in the ESL Institute through Dawson/HSU with credentials pending completion