The U.S. Departments of Education (ED) and Justice (DOJ) today announced the completion of the English Learner (EL) Tool Kit to support states, districts, and schools in meeting their legal obligations to English Learners (ELs) and ensuring access to quality education.
“Our work is motivated by the belief that all students—regardless of race, gender, income, disability, and English learner status—need and deserve a world-class education,” said U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. “This toolkit—along with the guidance we released in January—can serve as a critical resource for educators in their work with English learners to help ensure that all students have a chance to succeed in school, careers, and life.”
The EL Tool Kit is a companion to the English Learner Guidance released jointly by ED and DOJ in January, 2015, and consists of ten chapters, each aligned to one of the ten sections of the guidance, containing tools and resources relevant to that particular topic.
Included in the kit are tools and resources for identifying ELs, delivering high quality EL programs, evaluating the effectiveness of EL programs, preventing unnecessary segregation, providing qualified staff, ensuring access to school programs and activities (including disability-related services), exiting ELs from EL programs at the appropriate time, monitoring students’ progress, and supporting limited English proficient parents.
“We are committed to equity and access for all students, and in particular, English Learners,” said Libia Gil, assistant deputy secretary and director for ED’s Office of English Language Acquisition. “In our country we have a valuable yet untapped resource in our EL student population. These students come to school already speaking a variety of home languages. The heritage languages our English Learners bring to school are major assets to preserve and value.”
The tool kit is free and accessible to the public and can be downloaded here.
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