English Language Learner KnowledgeBase for Administrators & Teachers

Toolkit for Hispanic Families

As noted via the U.S. Department of Education's website, "This U.S. Department of Education toolkit will show Hispanic families what to expect from their schools, their teachers, and their child at all ages and grade levels. It will tell them how to help their child through school, what resources are available, and what they, their family, and their community can do to help their child learn."

Alternate version in Spanish

Develop a Communications Strategy

Informing the community involves many aspects depending on the stage of program development of a particular district or school. Districts at the stage of early program development will be concerned about a community adjusting to a growing immigrant population. On the other hand, districts with established programs will focus more on parent-school interaction. These resources from the Strategic Communications KnowledgeBase provide assistance to a district or school in developing an approach to communicating with those constituencies concerned with the ELL program.

Equal Educational Opportunity to Limited-English Proficient Students OCR Pamphlet

This pamphlet, prepared by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, provides a summary of the legal basis for providing equal educational opportunity to students with limited English proficiency. It is a useful tool for explaining the legal requirements to parents, board of education members, district and building level staff, and community leaders. The pamphlet is available in English and Spanish versions.

Alternate Formats: Spanish Downloadable PDFs: English and Spanish

Opening Day Flyer

This handout, in both English and Spanish, from the National Coalition of Advocates for Students describes the requirements placed upon schools as a result of the Plyler v. Doe decision.

What Will ESSA Mean for English Learners

This is the first in a series of posts via AIR (American Institute for Research) about ESSA’s implications for student subgroups. Over the past few decades, English learners (ELs) have become an increasingly significant student population, outpacing the demographic growth of non-EL students by more than 40 percent nationwide and growing by as much as 800 percent in some states.  ESSA’s Title III requires states to implement standardized, statewide procedures for identifying ELs (“entrance procedures”) and for determining when special language services are no longer needed (“reclassification procedures”). States must also dis-aggregate English learners with a disability from English learners without disabilities. Both measures are critical for monitoring EL progress.

Working with Translators and Interpreters

This resource provides a collection of documents about different aspects of working with translators and interpreters.