Superintendent - Responsible for implementing School Board policies and responsible for the teaching and learning of all students in the Portland Public Schools.
Director of Language Development - Ensures that all aspects of the Lau Plan are in place and that all federal and state requirements around ESOL instruction and assessment are met and that ESOL teacher supervision and evaluation is carried out. Working with ESOL teachers, building and district administration, the Director also ensures that there is a clear vision and adequate resources to implement the vision with ample opportunities for feedback and continuous improvement.
Assistant Director of Language Development for ELD Programming - The Assistant Director works closely with the Director of Language Development to support multiple aspects of the English Language Development program including ELD curriculum, assessment and instruction, onboarding and orientation of new ESOL staff, professional development, supervision and evaluation of ESOL staff (teachers and Language Acquisition/ESOL ed techs) and the establishment and maintenance of collaboration structures among ESOL and educators/specialists at the school and district levels.
Special Education Multilingual Coordinator - Under the supervision of the Director of Student Support Services and with the support of the Director of Language Development, this person supports staff and administrators in the referral, identification and instructional programming of English Learners who have, or may have, disabilities. The Special Education Multilingual Coordinator will guide the work to develop a district-level, systematic approach for appropriately serving dual-identified students. They will also advise school personnel at the detailed implementation level, based on the procedures and protocols required by applicable special education laws and regulations, as well as the Lau Plan, PPS’s strategic plan for serving English Language Learners.
District Assessment Coordinator for ACCESS - This person supports the ACCESS Coordinators at each school in order to prepare for, administer and conclude annual ACCESS testing. This person works closely with the Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment and the Director of Language Development to ensure that schools have the necessary resources and information to complete testing.
High School ELD Coordinators - ESOL Teachers at the high school level who have release time to coordinate with administration, guidance, leadership teams, etc. in service of ELD programming. They may also lead Meet & Greets and take on other administrative tasks related to Multilingual Learners.
ESOL Specialists (District-Level) These professionals are ESOL endorsed. They support content and ESOL educators in integrating content with language goals, analyzing language demands of content areas and co-designing culturally and linguistically responsive instruction and assessment. They support professional learning to:
- Analyze the academic language demands involved in grade-level teaching and learning.
- Apply the background knowledge of MLs, including their language proficiency profiles, in planning differentiated teaching and assessment.
- Plan for integrating language and content teaching and learning around discipline-specific topics.
- Capitalize on the resources and experiences that MLs bring to school to build and enrich their academic language.
Language Coach / ESOL Teacher Leader (School-Level) - Has ESOL endorsement along with a literacy and assessment background. This person has the expertise to help teams (MTSS/IEP/504) distinguish between language acquisition and learning difficulties. The Language Coach is a resource for general educators in the use of various assessments (running records, NWEAs, WIDA Performance Definitions, WIDA Rubrics, formative assessments, etc.) and instruction (including collaboration/co-teaching, coaching cycles, and supplemental programs such as Imagine Learning, System 44 and Read 180) in much the same way as the math and literacy coaches do in PPS. Coaches add the language lens to overall student achievement across all content areas.
ESOL Teachers - These professionals are ESOL (660) endorsed and provide services from direct student instruction to instructional specialists within the general education setting. Teachers work with students and collaborate with teachers. Additionally, all ESOL teachers take the lead with a caseload of students (between 25 and 45 based on grade span) on the Language Acquisition Committees (see below).
Ed Techs (English to Speakers of Other Languages and Language Acquisition) - LA Ed Techs help with acculturation for new arrivals which includes transitions to American schools, guidance in the classroom and heritage/dominant language literacy in order to support English development. ESOL Ed Techs work as cultural brokers with all Multilingual Learners serving as a linguistic and cultural liaison between the school and home. They support students and teachers in ensuring that academic standards and language targets are achieved, especially for students who have already transitioned to American schools. All ESOL and LA ed techs may be called upon to be interpreters at various school events and meetings including parent conferences. In order to interpret at IEP/504 and other student study meetings, ed techs must have the proper interpretation credentials and training. They also help teachers to meet culturally and linguistically diverse student’s individual needs while providing social-emotional and cultural support to students and their families.
Literacy Specialist/Coaches - Use age-appropriate literacy strategies, curricula and intervention strategies to teach literacy to all students who are emerging readers in a culturally and linguistically responsive way. ML students will benefit the most from professionals who are ESOL-endorsed.
Multilingual and Multicultural Center (MLC)
Provides support for multilingual students and families through registration assistance for new students, language access for families who need translation and interpretation services, parent orientation sessions for new arrivals to the United States, and parent workshop sessions.
Language Access Coordinator - The Language Access Coordinator manages the programs and services that ensure our non-English speaking students and families have equal access to important school information. The Coordinator is responsible for facilitating the interpreting and translation needs of schools and the district. The Coordinator manages Family & Community Engagement Specialists to carry out the interpreting, translating and cultural brokering which allows non-English speaking students and families equal access to education in the district.
English Language Assessment Specialist - Responsible for administering and scoring the English Proficiency screener and communicating the results to families and schools.
Family & Community Engagement Specialists - Bilingual and bicultural specialists work out of the Multicultural and Multilingual Center to provide outreach and services for multilingual parents in the PPS in a variety of ways: translation and interpretation services, parent advisory council (PAC) meetings, cultural brokering and referral to agencies and services. At the time of publication, we have FCS for language groups of 50 or more students.
DEFINITIONS AND ACRONYMS
Lau Plan - named after the landmark Lau vs. Nichols U.S. Supreme Court Decision of 1974, is a required equal access plan that protects MLs. The plan describes what a school district will do to align the instruction of MLs to state and local content standards. Essential components include: the legal foundation, student assessments, an instructional plan, parental involvement, qualified personnel, a coordination plan, a budget, adjunct services, and other possible considerations.
Multilingual Learner (ML) - A student, who by law, understands or speaks a language other than English at home and must take the ACCESS exam annually until he/she/they demonstrate “proficiency” (currently with a score of 4.5 Composite or higher). Formerly known as LEP (Limited English Proficient) and also referred to as ELL (English Language Learner) or EL (English Learner). Multilingual Learners (MLs) bring a wide range of linguistic skills and experiences to their learning.
English Proficiency Level (EPL) - Measured by a score of 1.0 to 6.0 on the ACCESS Test. Officially, the state of Maine defines proficient as a Composite score of 4.5 or higher (as of 2018).
English Language Development (ELD) - Refers to the various programs a school district employs to teach English to Multilingual Learners. The most common ELD programming includes various types of Sheltered English Instruction (SEI).
Dual Language Learners (DLL) - Students up to age five who acquire two or more languages simultaneously, and learn a second language while continuing to develop their first language.
Language Acquisition Committee (LAC) - The LAC (formerly known as the MET - Multilingual Evaluation Team) is a school team responsible for guiding and monitoring the placement, services and assessment of students who are MLs. The LAC may consist of content-area or general classroom teachers of MLs, assessment specialists, school administrators, school counselors, ESOL staff, parents/guardians, students and other members as appropriate. To ensure parent/guardian understanding, qualified interpreters may need to attend LAC meetings and document translations may need to be provided as well. The LAC is responsible for guiding and monitoring the placement and services of MLs using WIDA Performance Definitions, WIDA Rubrics, Can Do Descriptors and formative classroom assessments.
Individual Language Plan (ILP) - Developed by the ESOL teacher and reviewed by the Language Acquisition Committee (LAC), this document (see Section 4 for specifics) explains the reading, writing, listening and speaking goals and strategies to reach those goals for each Multilingual Learner (ML). It is reviewed at least once annually.
English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Endorsement- The endorsement (660) in the state of Maine which allows educators to assess and plan for the English language development program of students who are Multilingual Learners (MLs).
Intensive English Language Development (IELD) - Programming that focuses on the introductory instructional language of Multilingual Learners (in addition to academic language in all content areas) whose English Language Proficiency levels are 1 and 2.
Cognitive Academic Language Skills (CALS) - Programming that focuses primarily on the academic language skills (in addition to expanded instructional language) of Multilingual Learners whose English Language Proficiency levels are 3.0 to proficiency.
WIDA (formerly the acronym for World-Class Data and Assessment out of the University of Wisconsin) - Advances academic language development and academic achievement for children and youth who are culturally and linguistically diverse through high quality standards, assessments, research, and professional learning for educators. WIDA develops the ACCESS exam.
ACCESS for ELLs and Alternate ACCESS for ELLs® is a computer-based adaptive exam (paper-based for kindergarten) given annually in the State of Maine (and over 35 other states) to test Multilingual Learners in four language domains: reading, writing, speaking and listening.
Gifted and Talented Programming (Chapter 104) - School districts in Maine are mandated to screen, select and provide programming for students with exceptional abilities. Gifted and talented students are defined as children in grades K-12 who excel, or have the potential to excel beyond their age peers in the regular school programming, to the extent that they need and can benefit from programs for the gifted and talented.
Language Use Survey (LUS) - Official document that every student’s family must complete upon enrollment into a publicly funded school. If at least one answer on the LUS indicates that the student speaks or understands another language, the student is identified as a potential Multilingual Learner and will require an English language screening to be administered.
Individualized Education Plan (IEP) - A written statement of the educational program designed to meet the needs of a student who receives special education services.
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) - This federal law passed in December 2015 governs the United States K-12 public education policy and replaced its predecessor, the No Child Left Behind Act.
Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) - Formerly known as Response to Intervention (RTI), this is an instructional framework that includes universal screening of all students, multiple tiers of instruction and support services, and an integrated data collection and assessment system to inform decisions at each tier of instruction.
Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE) - “English Learners who have experienced interrupted education due to war, civil unrest, migration, or other factors; who have never had the opportunity to participate in any type of schooling before entering the United States; or who have experienced limited education in their home countries due to lack of resources or trained teachers, the type of schooling they participated in, or other circumstances.” (Decapua & Marshall, 2016) Until there is direct guidance from the MDOE about Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education, we will employ a modified version of Dr. Andrea DeCapua’s definition. In Portland, SLIFE are “secondary students who are beginning level Multilingual Learners, have lower than a 3rd grade literacy level in their L1 (native language), have missed two or more years of schooling, are unfamiliar with age-appropriate school-based tasks and the academic ways of thinking associated with them”.
Long-term English Learners (LTELs) - Students who have been in English Language Development (also referred to as EL, ELL or ESOL) programs for the majority of their schooling are considered long-term ELs. The term refers to students who have been in the English Language Development program for more than five years.
Culturally & Linguistically Responsive Teaching: Using the cultural characteristics, experiences, and perspectives of ethnically diverse students as conduits for teaching them more effectively (Gray, 2002).