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| What is ESOL? | How many ESOL students are at Fairland Elementary School? | How do ESOL students exit from the program? |
| ESOL stands for "English for Speakers of Other Languages." This is an English language program for students who speak another language at home. | There are currently 85 students from Headstart through fifth grade enrolled in the ESOL program at Fairland Elementary School. This is approximately 14% of the school population. | ESOL students are tested annually. After the test, an English Language Learner (ELL) Committee meets to gauge each student's progress. The ELL Committee consists of a child's ESOL and homeroom teachers, the reading specialist and other individuals. |
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| Where do our ESOL students come from? | How do students become eligible for the ESOL program? |
| Some of the students in ESOL were actually born in the United States, but they have been exposed to other languages before coming to school. Many ESOL students at Fairland, however, have recently arrived from other countries including: Cameroon, China (mainland), El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guatemala, India, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Jordan, Mexico, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. | All students from multilingual backgrounds are screened for English proficiency either at the MCPS International Student Office (if they were born outside the United States) or at Fairland (all other students). The screening includes a test that measures their English oral language, reading and writing skills. Input from classroom teachers and performance on other assessments are also considered. |
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| How are ESOL students grouped? | Are ESOL students required to participate in state and local testing? |
| ESOL students are placed in regular classrooms where they spend the majority of their time. They are pulled out in small groups to work in the ESOL classroom. The students are grouped according to their grade level and the level of English acquisition. These groups work on a variety of objectives to improve their English oral language, reading, and writing skills. | In general, ESOL students must take the same tests as all other children. However, ESOL students may receive accommodations, such as extended test-taking time and/or repeating of directions. |
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Page Created by Douglas J. Blake
Last Updated: June 25, 2006