The North East ISD board of trustees received the yearly bilingual and ESL, or English as a second language, program evaluation during its Oct. 7 meeting, which showed a continued increase of students enrolled in the emergent bilingual programs.

The overview

Presented by Alicia Alvarez-Calderon, senior director of the NEISD Bilingual and ESL program, the evaluation showed that as of the 2023-24 school year, the bilingual and ESL programs account for roughly 20% of the district’s student enrollment.

Additionally, Alvarez-Calderon presented the average scores for each grade level from the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System, which assesses the progress of emergent bilingual students in learning the English language. The scores showed that out of grades 1-12, almost every grade met state expectations, with first and sixth grade students falling slightly under the state’s target average.

Alvarez-Calderon said students are tested in the four language domains of listening, speaking, reading and writing, and their scores are a composite of these components.

The evaluation also showed a marked improvement from dual-language students in the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness end-of-course exams, with every grade level surpassing state averages in all test categories.

Though the presentation highlighted a contrast between the test scores of students enrolled in the dual-language program compared to the ESL program, the difference lies in the difficulty in learning English on top of students' other studies.

Alvarez-Calderon said the bilingual program is a stronger program when it comes to teaching due to the difficulty ESL students have in learning English as well as their course materials.

Alvarez-Calderon also noted that there are currently over 60 languages spoken in the ESL program.

Going forward

During the presentation, Alvarez-Calderon laid out a series of steps the district will take to further advance the standards of the district’s emergent bilingual programs.

Next steps include:

• Elementary specialists will continue to provide professional learning on content-based language instruction to ensure proper implementation.
• Elementary and secondary specialists will provide professional learning on content-based language instruction, emphasizing student discourse and engagement.
• The district will base coaching lessons on teacher needs, classroom observations and student data.