How do we know what the needs of ELLs are?

Welcome back educators and all...

Before even starting to be able to talk about how to get English Learners what they need, we need to identify the needs of these English learners in relation to some goal or benchmark they need to attain in order to fully access the core curriculum taught in a typical, mainstream classroom. Enter that vile word for some teachers, a misunderstood word for most others: assessment

The CELDT (California English Language Development Test)

In California, we have developed a holy grail of assessments- okay it's not really- but it has been improved recently and the newer edition will roll out this coming school year. But I digress...

Without boring anyone, the CELDT is an assessment that serves to identify which of our incoming students are English Learners. It is given once a year to students new to CA schools.
For a quick and easy primer on the CELDT here's a good place to visit:

http://www.sandi.net/testingunit/pdf/celdtptbroch07.pdf

That is a good starting point, and unfortunately, where we stop as well. After all, from an instructional point of view, it is even more useful to measure and continually monitor the English proficiency of an English learner. CELDT is a summative snapshot, a one time deal.

So how do we REALLY make CELDT work for us?

Well, since most districts do not have formative assessments to continually monitor the growth and development of an ELL's level of English proficiency, we also use the CELDT results as an attempt to take that "snapshot" of an ELL's proficiency in all four language domains: listening, speaking, reading and writing as a starting point. And that is how we start to identify different types of English learners- along a continuum of developing English proficiency.

We'll move along the continuum next time...

But a quick note on who takes the CELDT before we go...

Well the short answer of course is English Learners. But these are determined through completion of a "Home Language Survey," which ideally is done at the time of registration. Different districts handle these in different ways but generally, families are asked to identify the language(s) spoken at home. If a non-English language is spoken, that student is required to have his/her language proficiency assessed- via the CELDT of course.

For an example of how one district goes through this process (and then some) watch this video:



Till next time!