I. CALIFORNIA ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT (ELD) STANDARDS
- The California ELD standards were developed in 1999 with the purpose to provide a statewide set of standards for English learners in the development of language and academic proficiency in English. Consequently, the standards are vital in guiding educators’ efforts to assess student progress, identify instructional goals, and provide targeted instruction to assist English learners to attain language and academic success.
- The ELD standards define the levels of proficiency required for an English learner to move through the levels of English language development. The proficiency levels are as follows:
Level 1 Beginning
Level 2 Early Intermediate
Level 3 Intermediate
Level 4 Early Advanced
Level 5 Advanced
- The standards are written by grade span (K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12). They are grouped into three domains and seven strands:
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Domain
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Strand
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Listening & Speaking
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Strategies & Applications
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Reading
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Word Analysis
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Fluency & Systemic Vocabulary Development
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Reading Comprehension
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Literary Response & Analysis
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Writing
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Strategies & Applications
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Language Conventions
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ELD and ELA Standards
The ELD standards are written as pathways to, or benchmarks of, the English language arts. At the early proficiency levels, one ELD standard may be a pathway to attain several English language arts standards. At the more advanced levels, the skills in the ELD standards begin to resemble those in the English language arts standards and represent the standards at which an English learner has attained academic proficiency in English. English learners at the advanced level of the ELD standards are to demonstrate proficiency in all grade-level Language Arts standards.
II. STANDARDS-BASED ELD ASSESSMENTS
A. California English Language Development Test (CELDT)
- The California English Language Development Test (CELDT) was established in 2001 to provide a standardized assessment tool for English learners. The purpose of the CELDT is to:
- identify new students who are English Learners in kindergarten through grade 12,
- determine individual student level of English proficiency, and
- annually assess student progress toward becoming fluent English proficient (FEP).
- The CELDT is aligned with the California ELD standards. It is written by grade span (K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12). It covers four domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Student’s CELDT scores are grouped into five proficiency levels.
- Two Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives (AMAOs) have been established with increasingly higher targets toward 2013-14. AMAOs #1 & #2 specify the respective percent of students making annual progress in learning English & attaining English proficiency on the CELDT.
B. District Standards-based ELD Assessments
- While the California English Language Development Test (CELDT) provides reliable and valuable summative data on student progress, being primarily an annual assessment tool, its ability to inform daily instruction is limited.
- To ensure that student progress data are available to guide daily instructional decisions, the District ELD assessments are designed to be ongoing and integrated into the curriculum; henceforth, providing the necessary formative data on students’ learning needs for daily program planning.
1. ELD Progress Rubric
- The ELD Progress Rubric is a record-keeping tool designed to document the progress of the English learner in mastering the essential California ELD standards in multiple years. The standards are grouped into three domains and five proficiency levels.
- Mastery Level v. Instructional Level: When an English learner demonstrates consistent evidence in meeting all the standards of a particular proficiency level in one domain, he/she is considered to have mastered that level. The highest Mastery Level an English learner attains for each of the three domains at the end of the school year (i.e., Benchmark 3) is to be recorded as the Overall ELD Level on the Profile. On the other hand, the Instructional Level of an English learner is the next higher level in that domain. It is the level on which instruction should be focused.
2. Assessment Types
- The ELD standards are assessed through curriculum-embedded tasks. Evidence of the mastery of the standards can be obtained through a purposeful observation and evaluation of the English learner’s consistent performance in the ELD (and Language Arts) instructional and learning activities.
- At ELD Levels 4 & 5, the English learner’s performance on the District’s Language Arts benchmark assessments can also be used to assess the level of mastery of most the ELD standards.
3. Implementation
a. Ongoing Assessment
- To ensure that student progress data are available to guide daily instructional decisions, the District ELD assessments are designed to be ongoing and integrated into the curriculum; henceforth, providing the necessary formative data on students’ learning needs for daily lesson planning.
b. Data Collection by Trimester
- To support ongoing student progress monitoring, the progress on standards mastery of individual English learners will be recorded on the ELD Progress Profile Scantron at least three times a year, at the end of each trimester/benchmark period (i.e., ELD-B1, ELD-B2, and ELD-B3).
- The data will be scanned into the OARS (Online Assessment and Reporting System) and disaggregated reports may be generated by teachers in a timely manner.
c. Use of Data in Instructional Planning
- The ELD standards progress data reports are to be analyzed to help identify: 1) specific language learning needs of individual English learners, 2) learning needs of the class, 3) “gaps” in instructional programs, and 4) teachers’ needs in professi