The Concord School District currently provides English Language Learner (ELL) services in our five elementary schools including Abbot-Downing, Beaver Meadow, Broken Ground, Christa McAuliffe, and Mill Brook, one middle school, Rundlett Middle School, and one high school, Concord High School. There are magnet classrooms, at all levels, for students whose low English proficiency impedes them from being successful in their mainstream classes. English language development and core content instruction are provided in these classrooms. The ELL teacher is Highly Qualified in the content area, as well as in ELL.

 

At Rundlett Middle School, there is push-in support in language arts, science, social studies, and math (English language learners with ACCESS scores lower than level three in 6th grade attend a magnet math class). Sixth grade students with ACCESS scores less than three receive 2-1/2 hours of pull-out direct instruction as well as 15 hours of in-class support. Seventh and eighth graders with an overall ACCESS score lower than three receive 5 hours of direct instruction as well as 15-20 hours of in-class support. Students in grades 6, 7, and 8 who are level three or higher receive 3-5 hours of direct instruction.

At the high school, there are magnet language arts, social studies, science, and mathematics classes for grades 9-12. These classes meet for two 90-minute blocks and one 45-minute period per week. Non-English Development ELLs with an overall ACCESS score lower than 3 meet for four 90-minute blocks and two 45-minute periods per week. These students also receive 3-5 hours of support.

 

All of the schools provide pull-out and/or push-in ELL services for students who can succeed in the mainstream classroom with additional ELL support. For push-in instruction, the ELL teacher provides English language instruction in the mainstream classroom for one or more periods per week, and may also use instructional materials and learning tasks from academic content areas to reinforce academic content, cognitive and study skills. The pullout ELL instruction consists of a small group of same age/content students withdrawn from their regular classrooms, or study halls in the high school, for one or more periods a week for ELL support.

 

The goal of the English Language Learner Program is to transition ELL students out of the program so that they can successfully compete academically with their same grade peers in the mainstream classroom without ELL support. Following the attainment of an Overall Score of 5.0, with no subtest score below 4.0 on the ACCESS for ELLs, an ELL student is fully mainstreamed, without ELL support. This ELL student is then monitored for a two-year period prior to being exited from the ELL Program.

 

Methods of instruction in every facet of Concord School District’s ELL Program are research based and are taught by Highly Qualified, certified ELL teachers. Instructional materials and instructional programs used in the Concord School District vary. At the elementary level, Rigby Leveled Readers, Houghton Mifflin Leveled Readers, National Geographic Concept Books, and University of Chicago Everyday Math Program are used. The educational software used is Rosetta Stone. Examples of the materials used at Rundlett Middle School are as follows: Wilson Reading Program, Perfection Learning for Math and Reading, McDougal Littell for eighth grade math, Prentice Hall for seventh grade math, Everyday Math for sixth grade and various chapter books for Language Arts. At the secondary level, Pearson Longman materials, Shining Star series textbooks, Reason to Write, Oxford Press, various chapter books, and Wilson System materials are used.

 

Title III funds provide supplemental tutoring for daily pull-out support in the resource room at Concord High School. This support is provided by ELL tutors and is overseen by the certified ELL teacher. Title III funds also provide professional development through ELL teachers’ attendance at regional conferences. The ELL teachers and/or tutors share the information learned at conferences with mainstream teachers in their buildings.

 

If you believe your child is eligible for Title III services, at the elementary school level please contact Jacqueline Delorie or Ellen Kenny at Broken Ground School at (603) 225-0855. If your child is at the middle school level, please contact Anne Mills at Rundlett Middle School at (603) 225-0862. If your child is at the high school level, please contact Gordana Varagic at Concord High School at (603) 225-0800.