[lg policy] Report: Illinois Gets Early Start With English-Language Learners

[Harold Schiffman]

Report: Illinois Gets Early Start With English-Language Learners
By Julie Rasicot on April 12, 2012 7:21 AM

Providing adequate services to help English-Language learners succeed
in school and later in life is a growing issue for school districts
across the country. Can embedding services as early as prekindergarten
help these kids build the language skills they need to succeed?

That's the topic of a new policy paper by the Early Education
Initiative of the New America Foundation, which examines the approach
that one state—Illinois—has taken toward ELL students.

Released Tuesday, "Starting Early with English-Language Learners:
First Lessons From Illinois," by policy analyst Maggie Severns,
discusses how Illinois changed its laws in 2008 to provide its
state-funded preschoolers with ELL services, leading to new rules
concerning teacher preparation and classroom instruction that are to
be implemented by 2014, according to the report. Most states provide
ELL services beginning in kindergarten or 1st grade.

In the report, Severns describes Illinois' approach as "cutting edge,"
noting that "no other state has gone this far in implementing a
comprehensive plan for educating English-Language learners in
state-funded pre-K."

"Illinois hopes the new policies will create more continuity between
pre-K and the early grades of school when students are developing
crucial language skills, and reduce remediation for students in later
grades by building important language skills early on," the report
said.

Severns said that Illinois' approach is not perfect, and that the
state's efforts offer lessons to other policymakers looking to better
serve ELL students. She offers these three recommendations:


    Make sure that pre-k programs and schools receive money from the
state and local districts to cover ELL services, and there is an
adequate budget to serve all eligible kids.

    Track outcomes for ELL students and provide funding to evaluate
which services are the most effective.

    And, finally, continue to align the ELL experience in pre-K
through the early grades while also providing professional development
for teachers.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/early_years/2012/04/illinois_prepares_to_start_early_with_english_language_learners.html

-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents.
Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal,
and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message.
 A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well.  (H. Schiffman,
Moderator)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************

_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list