Emergent Bilingual Education
Emergent Bilinguals (EB) are a diverse group of students who range from beginning to long-term. These students have a language other than English as their primary or home language.
We use sheltered instruction to ensure our students have equal educational opportunities. Our multilingual students can participate in various services and programs to help them become skilled in academics and language.
All Evolution students classified as Emergent Bilingual are placed in an English as a second language program.
About our program
Our goal is to support the district’s mission, vision, and values to ensure the success of our multilingual learners. Every action we take is designed to create equitable opportunities for students to master content and language.
Supporting Emergent Bilinguals
Our EB and Lpac District Coordinator and staff support our Emergent Bilinguals (EBs) affective, linguistic, and cognitive needs.
- Compliance
- EACS ensures That the district aligns with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) expectations by identifying and supporting English Bilinguals. We implement the State of Texas guidelines (primarily Chapter 89, subchapter BB) to ensure that Emergent bilingual (EBs) plans are documented and executed to meet the needs of each student through the Language Proficiency Assessment Committee (LPAC). Our Compliance team is here to connect the state expectations for Emergent Bilingual students by identifying students’ language needs, placing the student in the most appropriate language program, and providing ongoing instructional support through linguistic accommodations.
- Parent & Family Engagement
- We aim to strengthen parent/family and community engagement so that schools and families work together as equal partners and Emergent Bilinguals meet the same challenging state academic standards that all students are expected to meet. Through research in family engagement, ongoing professional development, alignment to Title III Part A, and alignment to the district goals, we work to support the families of Emergent Bilinguals, their schools, and teachers to build dual-capacity.
- Sheltered Instruction
- We pride ourselves on ensuring our language program follows the Sheltered Instruction framework. Together, we develop and deliver the support of research-based best practices for Emergent Bilinguals in content-area instruction. The two goals of sheltered instruction are to make content comprehensible and develop academic language. Sheltered Instruction ensures that Emergent Bilinguals are prepared to learn grade-level material while learning the language simultaneously. When a teacher “shelters” their instruction, making content more comprehensible, students develop their second language proficiency because they use it within the context of their learning. The result is that both content and language are supported, and the student masters both at higher levels.
- Data Analysis
- We analyze data for Emergent Bilingual students districtwide, including those with shared services such as GT, SPED, Economically Disadvantaged, and other special populations. This data is then organized into easily interpretable formats to be shared with departments and campuses. Finally, we use this data to draw conclusions and recommend actions to departments and campus leaders based on meaningful analysis.
- Student Support
- The district provides many services to EB students, families, and staff, such as crisis intervention, developing intervention strategies to increase academic success, and assisting with conflict resolution and anger management. Our staff assists Emergent Bilingual students and helps them develop appropriate social interaction skills, encouraging them to understand and accept themselves and others. We also examine factors in the home, school and/or community that impact a student’s education success and then assist in reducing those barriers to learning.
Identifying and placing students
- Home language survey
- The Home Language Survey aims to identify students who use a language other than English in the home. The student's guardian should complete the form when they register (or by the student in grades 9-12). A student may only have one finished Home Language Survey on file. If the Home Language Survey shows that a language other than English is used at home, the student must be tested for English proficiency.
- Language proficiency testing
- An oral language proficiency test will be used to determine English proficiency. If needed, students will be tested in listening, speaking, reading, and writing (LAS Links).
- Eligibility and placement
- The Language Proficiency Assessment Committee (LPAC) will review all information on students with limited English proficiency and decide on the initial instructional placement of the student in the appropriate program. Parental approval will then be requested. The student will be placed in the appropriate program pending parental approval. (See Bilingual/ESL Placement Criteria Charts).
Parent Resources
Program contact information
Shannon Boutte
Emergent Bilingual and LPAC Coordinator(409) 239-5553
shannon.boutte@evolutionacademy.org