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Portland Public Schools’ educational program for English Language Learners (ELLs) began in 1980 with approximately fifty K-12 students from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. The first program was partially funded through a federal grant which allowed the district to design an effective educational program and develop teaching and learning materials appropriate to the needs of ELLs. Through the Center’s efforts, the school district has been awarded various innovative grants by the U. S. Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition and has earned national recognition as a Program of Academic Excellence.
Over the years, Portland’s multilingual community has grown exponentially and become increasingly more diverse. Currently, the district has over 1,800 students who come from homes where over 50 different languages are spoken. These students represent about 25% of Portland Public Schools’ total enrollment; some 1,400 of them are identified as English Language Learners.
The Multilingual and Multicultural Center houses the Family Welcome Center, the Multicultural Resource Library, and the Intensive English Language Program for high school newcomers. The Family Welcome Center coordinates the registration, intake data, health screening, and English language proficiency/literacy assessment of language minority students entering Portland Public Schools. The Multicultural Resource Library has a special collection of books, professional materials, and videos in 24 different languages available on loan to staff, parents, and community members. An Intensive English Language Program serves high school-age students who are newcomers with no schooling or literacy in their native language.
District LAU Plan
Portland Public School system is committed to providing appropriate placement, along with curricular, instructional, and other related services to ensure that all language minority students are equipped to participate effectively in the schools’ educational programs. To accomplish this, Portland Public Schools is charged with implementing the LAU Plan (PDF format), which details the procedural requirements and services to be provided to language minority students, including identification, registration, assessment, placement, and exit from self-contained multilingual classrooms, entry into and monitoring of language minority students in mainstream classrooms, and pre-referral procedures to ensure appropriate identification of language minority students requiring special education services.