The group of students benefiting from the English Language Learner program within Rockford Public Schools has grown in more ways than one over the last few years.
That's according to Kirsten Myers, executive director of special services for the school district. Myers and certified English language instructor Andrew Najor recently gave an update to Board of Education members on the program.
The program currently serves 30 non-native English-speaking students in the district who originate from 13 different countries and who can speak 16 different languages in total, according to Myers.
The students' countries of origin include such places as Mexico, Honduras and Brazil, as well as more far-flung destinations like Pakistan and Somalia, while their native languages include common tongues such as Spanish and German and lesser known languages like Urdu and Farsi.
"In the last couple of years, we've noted that we have had growth in our program," Myers told board members. "As a result, we needed to look at how we could best service our students, because we do have students needing much intervention from kindergarten through that secondary level."
To help meet growing language needs, Myers said the program added two new English classes at Rockford High School, in addition to bringing on a certified instructor in Najor and an English language paraprofessional in Susan Almy, over the last few years.
"What we're finding is our students at the high school were really struggling in that environment," Myers said. "Our staff was struggling, too, because when students come in with limited English or no English, it's extremely difficult to instruct them."
Bringing Najor on staff, Myers said, has been very helpful for ELL's increasingly diverse set of pupils in the school district.
Najor, for his part, said he focuses on oral language development, phonemic awareness (the ability to recognize the sound of certain letters) and writing intervention when working with the students. The students, he said, range in proficiency level from newcomers to the country who have had extremely limited exposure to the English language to those who can participate in an academic setting at essentially the same level as their native-speaking peers.
"Our elementary students are at various proficiencies," Najor said. "Some come in with very low proficiency when they're new to the country, and they receive a minimum of one and a half hours of pullout service a week where I take them out of the classroom and I work with them, developing anything from phonemic awareness ... (to) getting them speaking and talking.
"A lot of kids come in not able to communicate on the playground or things like that so with a little bit of time I get them telling their teacher, 'I need to go to the bathroom,' or 'I need help.' They can play with their friends, they can talk and chat."
Students' proficiency levels are tested once a year in the spring using the standards set forth by the WIDA Consortium, an educational consortium of state departments of education that designs and implements standards and assessments for English language learners in kindergarten through 12th grade.
Students are slotted into different tiers based on performance on the WIDA assessment, anywhere from level 1 up to level 6, with higher levels signifying higher proficiency rates.
Najor instructs students at all six levels in his classes at the high school, one of which focuses on the teaching of the English language for less proficient students and another which focuses on supporting the students, regardless of proficiency level, as they attempt to succeed in their core classes.
Dr. Douglas VanderJagt, the district's assistant superintendent of human resources, said Najor, who also works with teachers and staff to help them identify best practices when working with non-native English-speaking students, has done a phenomenal job in his short time with the district.
"We've had English language learning in Rockford for years, but up until the last probably four or five years, it's really skyrocketed in numbers," VanderJagt said.
"Andrew has come to us ... recently and done a phenomenal job from a teaching standpoint, truly supporting our staff, supporting our kids and really helping our district as we navigate kind of different territory for us."