Emergent Bilingual
Elmwood Park High School's emergent bilingual program offers classes to support students at every level of English acquisition, from entry-level to student transition into general education English classes.
Through this program, students learn to process, understand, interpret and evaluate the English language in a variety of spoken and written forms for an array of purposes and audiences.
Curriculum Goals
Our standards-aligned curriculum is designed to be a continuum that enables students to integrate fully into general education courses.
Using this curriculum, we help our students to achieve the three main goals listed below.
- Goal 1: To use English to communicate in social settings
- Goal 2: To use English to achieve in all content areas
- Goal 3: To use English in socially and culturally appropriate ways
Goal 1: To use English to communicate in social settings
Goal 2: To use English to achieve in all content areas
Goal 3: To use English in socially and culturally appropriate ways
The level of support that students receive within the emergent bilingual curriculum is determined by their results on the annual ACCESS test, which is explained below.
ACCESS Testing
Illinois requires that all students who have been identified as English learners take the state's English language proficiency test each year. The test is usually (but not always) given in January through February.
This test is known as ACCESS for ELLs, which stands for "Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State for English Language Learners."
The ACCESS test measures student proficiency in the four domains of English language development: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Students are required to take the ACCESS test annually, regardless of level of service, until they meet the Illinois state-mandated criteria of an overall composite score of 4.8.
2023-24 Testing Window
Information to come soon.