ÁùºÏ²Ê×ÊÁÏ´óÈ« ÁùºÏ²Ê×ÊÁÏ´óÈ« Emergent Bilingual

  • The Emergent Bilingual Department designs, guides, and monitors quality programs for emergent bilingual students. We envision emergent bilinguals achieving high levels of language proficiency and content knowledge so that they will be prepared for success in college, careers, and community leadership.

    The goals of the Fort Worth ISD Emergent Bilingual Programs Department are:

    • All students who enter the Fort Worth ISD in grades PK-5 placed in a Bilingual program reach full proficiency in both English and Spanish within five to seven years, pass all state-required academic tests, and develop sociocultural competence.
    • All students who enter the Fort Worth ISD in grades PK-8 placed in an ESL program reach full proficiency in English within five to seven years and pass all state-required academic tests.
    • All students who enter Fort Worth ISD in grade 9 or above and are placed in an ESL program meet graduation requirements in four years, including passing all state-required academic tests.

     

Emergent Bilingual Offerings

  • Elementary

    Dual Language

    Dual Language (One-Way and Two-Way) is a biliteracy model of instruction where students acquire a second language through grade-level content instruction while maintaining their native language. Students become balanced bilinguals with high levels of academic language in both Spanish and English.

    ESL: English as a Second Language

    The Elementary ESL Program serves students who are emerging in their understanding of English and speak a language that qualifies them for English language support. Their instruction includes linguistic accommodations. The goal of the Elementary ESL program is to accelerate English proficiency as they learn grade-level content.

    SET: Structured English Teacher Services

    Structured English Teachers (SETs) work directly with elementary-level ESL students who are refugees, unschooled refugees, or asylees, and speak a language other than Spanish. These EB students have been in the country less than 2 years and have documented interrupted formal education of 1 or more years. SET teachers embed linguistic accommodations and use ESL best instructional practices to accelerate English language development and grade-level content mastery.

     

    Secondary

    ESL: English as a Second Language

    The Secondary ESL Program serves emergent bilingual students in an English-only context. Students receive on-level core instruction with embedded linguistic support. Use of Content-Based Language Instructional strategies aligns with our goals.

    Language Centers

    Language Centers are located at specific secondary campuses and serve students who speak multiple languages. Centers are staffed with ESL teachers specially prepared to address the cognitive, linguistic and affective needs of a specialized EB group.

    Newcomer Campuses

    These campuses offer specialized intensive ESL instruction for newcomer students and focus on language and content for simultaneous learning. Teachers provide scaffolded instruction incorporating language acquisition development in core content teaching. Students include refugees, unschooled refugees, and asylees.

  • Identification

    When a student enrolls in a Texas school, one of the documents they receive is The Home Language Survey. The survey has three questions:

    1. Which languages are used at home?
    2. Which languages are used by the child at home?
    3. If the child had a previous home setting, which languages were used?

    If any of these questions have a language other than English, the child must take a language proficiency assessment.

     

    Placement

    If the identification assessment shows the child is not English proficient, they are recommended for either a Bilingual or ESL classroom setting:

    Bilingual
    The student’s home language is Spanish.

    ESL
    The student has a home language other than Spanish.

    Next, students are placed with a Bilingual or ESL certified teacher, depending on which program(s) their home campus offers.

    ÁùºÏ²Ê×ÊÁÏ´óÈ« Emergent Bilingual campuses:

    • 63 campuses offer both Bilingual and ESL
    • 21 campuses offer only ESL

     

    Reclassification

    Read about reclassification at www.fwisd.org/reclassification