Bilingual ESL Program Description
Querer es Poder
By Aida Guajardo
December 20, 2007
Program Description
Texas law requires that every student with a primary home language other than English who is identified as limited English proficient be provided with a full opportunity to participate in a bilingual/ESL program. La Villa ISD provides an early exit/transitional program using the 80/20 model. Bilingual education is provided at the elementary levels up to 5th grade and ESL is provided for 6th -12th grades. The goal of the BE program is to enable ELLs to become competent in comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing through the development of literacy and academic skills in the students’ primary language. The goal of the ESL program is to develop students’ literacy through the integrated use of second language instructional methods.
In compliance with state law, the Language Proficiency Assessment Committee (LPAC) on each campus makes instructional placement and testing decisions intended to assure that students will be served by the program that best addresses their language needs. The role of the LPAC committee members is to evaluate the academic progress and language of instruction of ELLs, determine if ELLs will take the state assessments in English or in Spanish. Parental permission is required for ELLSs to participate in either program. If parental permission is not granted, the student participates in an all-English classroom without BE or ESL services provided.
The purpose of this report is to provide information to district program decision makers and staff as well as to comply with the legal mandate. This report presents a brief description of the demographics pertaining to La Villa ISD’s ELLs, and summarizes their academic achievement on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) and their acquisition of English on the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS). In addition, academic achievement on TAKS is examined for ELLs who have obtained program exit status. ELLs must meet the passing standard on English TAKS and writing (when appropriate) to obtain program exit status.
