FAQ
ELD is mandated daily for the minimum of 30 minutes. It must be based on the students’ proficiency level. For ELD time, it is essential to have one or two levels only in the instructional group.
2. What additional academic resources are available for teachers of English Learners?
The department web link lists many resources to support the language and academic development of English Learners. I highly recommend that you visit the site. Our district also has Thinking Maps~Path to Proficiency facilitators at all sites, and many sites have EL experts prepared to share resources.
3. What are the main differences between an Intermediate EL and an Early Advanced EL?
On our website there is a powerpoint entitled "Journey of an English Learner." The powerpoint is available in English, Spanish, Korean, and Chinese. This powerpoint clarifies the various ranges of language development for English Learners. The main differences among Intermediate (I) and Early Advanced (EA) are the following: a student at (I) responds in complex sentences, using new vocabulary such as, “ The brown bear lived with his family in the forest.” The student at (EA) sustains conversation, actively with more extensive vocabulary such as “Can bears live in the forest if they find food there?”
Second difference, the student at (I) demonstrates good comprehension of specific meaning, and a student at (EA) demonstrates consistent comprehension of implied meaning.
4. What are the district criteria for the redesignation of English Learners?
The website has a powerpoint on PDF entitled Journey of an English Learner. This powerpoint speaks in detail to the reclassification process. RUSD also has a resource document entitled Master Plan for English Learners that provides the criteria for redesignation (click on link above for downloadable pdf, refer to pp. 28-32). This year we added redesignation criteria for Special Education English Learners (SEEL).
The main criterion for reclassifying a student are: 335 or higher on the ELA CST and 300 or higher on the Math CST; a 4 or 5 on the CELDT with no sub group below a 3 (although the scoring is different for K/1 ELs at the initial time of testing, they can have a sub group below a 3 on reading and writing), teacher input, and parent participation.
5. Where can I access information about an educational acronym?
Please visit the California State Department of Education website here for information on educational acronyms.
6. Do you have to teach ELD every day?
Yes, ELD is a core that cannot be skipped. A teacher must also address the ELD standards and language proficiency of the student during this instructional time.
7. Can there be more than 1 proficiency level in a class?
Yes, In a content core class, through the instruction of SDAIE. For ELD, there should be no more than two proficiency levels in a class.
8. What is the CELDT? How often is it administered?
The CELDT is the California English Language Development Test. It is actually a sub test of the STAR. It is a mandated test for all English learners until they reclassify. It is only given to English learners who meet the criteria on the Home Language Survey. The CELDT is not given nor is it allowed by the state to be given to English-only students.
9. Does the district have a Master Plan for English Learners?
Yes. It is on our department website in PDF form. Download it here.
10. What's the difference between SDAIE and ELD?
There are several differences between Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE) and English Language Development (ELD). See our Journey of an English Learner powerpoint in our department website. The main difference is that SDAIE’s focus is to teach content, and ELD’s focus is to teach language; both are critical for the language and academic development of the students to support all four domains of listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
11. What's the difference between ELs, LTELs, and Redesignated FEPs?
These identifications for students are very important to understand because they impact a student’s class placement and services. This also impacts the state and federal dollars that the district receives. These identifications never pertain to an English-only child/student.
· EL is an English Learner
· LTEL is an English Learner who has not reclassified and has remained an EL for 5 or more years
· R-FEP is an EL who has met the criteria to be reclassified ( see question #4)
· I-FEP is an English Learner who took the CELDT and scored initial fluent English proficient the first time they took the CELDT