Policy – Category 5000 (Students) BP 5001 – Identification and Referral of Individuals for Special Education 10.0 Teaching and Assessing California’s English Language Development (ELD) and English Language Arts (ELA) Standards for English Learners A document provided by West Ed, Northern California Comprehensive Assistance Center, 2000, reformats the State of California’s English Language Arts (ELA) standards with those for English Language Development (ELD). The intent is for English Language students to acquire the standards established for language development to become proficient with the English Language Arts skills for reading, writing, listening, and speaking. It is further proposed that one document could be provided to cluster standards from both ELA and ELD requirements with a single assessment. The assessment instrument would be helpful to identify students who are English learners, to provide information for instructional decisions, and to determine when reclassification is appropriate. This paradigm shift promotes current thinking for competent language proficiency for all students. Rather than using language arts standards from an earlier grade level, the ELD standards follow a research-based progression from beginning to advanced language skills and provide intermediate skills that ELD students need. Additionally, the shift for future development is away from isolated use of ELD instruments toward the use of assessments representative of ELA standards. 11.0 English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) School districts in California are required under federal and state laws to administer the ELPAC to determine English proficiency to students in kindergarten through grade twelve, whose primary language is not English. Students with exceptional needs who cannot take the entire ELPAC, or a section of the test may be tested with special assistance and/or take alternate tests. All assistance or alternate tests must be documented in the student’s IEP or Section 504 plan. The purpose of the ELPAC is to determine how well each student tested can listen, speak, read, and write English. ELPAC scores should be used annually in developing educational needs and appropriate goals to determine the level of assistance needed and to ensure the student’s placement in an appropriate program. 11.1 A Map for Teaching and Assessing ELD and ELA Standards for English Learners A map developed by West Ed, Northern California Comprehensive Assistance Center matches the standards for English Learner Development and for Language Arts Development in seven strands. Additionally, it is divided into the academic areas of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. They are available by grade span, (K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-10, and 11-12). A model that is generic for all grade level follows:
BP 5001 – Identification & Referral of Individuals for Special Education Desert Mountain Charter Special Education Local Plan Area (DMCS) (rev.08/21)
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