Abraham Lincoln High School

Incoming freshman ELLs' English class placement is based on:

- The District's student program code

- The student's CELDT score

- The student's middle school English teacher/resource teacher recommendation or:

- The District's Educational Placement Office's recommendation

Current students' placement is based on:

- The ESL department teachers' Student Placement Day recommendation (list will be sent to counselors in March for the following school year's placement)

- The Newcomer High School's (or other school's) student audit sheet recommendation

4. Procedure and requirement for students to skip a level of English language development course:

Students can only be allowed to skip one level each year.

4.1: Requirement:

4.1.1: Current students: a student can skip one level of English language development course if:

- He/She is getting "A" or "B" in both his/her LD and RD classes, OR

- He/She scores at that level on CELDT (i.e., "3" for level 5, "4" for level 7), AND

- He/She is recommended by both of his/her LD and RD teachers at the ESL department's Student Placement Day ONLY, OR,

- He/She passes the department's English Placement Test (EPT), AND

- He/She gets approval from the ESL department head.

4.1.2: New students: a freshman can skip one level of English language development course if:

- He/She scores at that level on CELDT (i.e., "3" for level 5, "4" for level 7), OR

- He/She passes the department's English Placement Test (EPT), AND

- He/She gets approval from the ESL department head.

4.2: Procedure:

4.2.1: A teacher, parent or student can initiate the process of skipping a level of English language development course. Student needs to go to the counseling department to complete a course change request form.

4.2.2: The student then sees a counselor to present his/her case on why he/she needs to skip a level. The counselor will conduct a review on student's recommendation by the ESL department, attendance code, CELDT/SAT9 scores, official transcript, report card, etc., to determine if the request is legitimate.

4.2.3: The student then takes the completed form with counselor's signature to Room 130 to see Mr. Fang, the ESL department head, for further evaluation.

4.2.4: Mr. Fang will send the student's course change request form back to the counselor with documentation to support the approval or not approval of the skip-level request.

5. English Placement Test (EPT)

The EPT is a diagnostic test used in the ESL department to determine students' English proficiency level. It has been used with other standardized assessment tools as part of our ways to assess students. When a student is asked to take the EPT, he/she must first go to Room 130 to make an appointment by signing up a testing day and getting a pass. After the test, the result will be sent to the student's counselor and a copy will be kept in the student's folder in the ESL department. A student can only take the EPT once per semester. EPT will not be given after the second week of a semester and three weeks before the end of the school year.

6. Exit Criteria

A student will be officially redesignated to general education program if he/she meets the following criteria:

- Scored 325 or above in the language section of the CAT6/CST test

- Scored "4" or "5" on the CELDT; 

- Placed in "Advanced" or "Transitional" through the Language and Literacy Assessment Rubric (LALAR)

- Maintained a report card grade of "C" or better in English language arts, Math, Science and Social Studies

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Copyright © 2001- 2005 Abraham Lincoln High School ESL/Bilingual Department
Last modified: September 29, 2005