ESL Standards for Pre - K - 12 Students

Appendix A:

The TESOL Standards

Ensuring Access to Quality Educational Experience for Minority Students

Click here To Return to Courses

    Language minority students are those students who learned a language other than English as their first language. These students may be immigrants, refugees, or native born Americans. They may come to school with extensive formal education or they may be academically delayed or illiterate in their first language. Such students arrive at school with varying degrees of English proficiency. Some may not speak English at all; others may speak English, but need assistance in reading or writing English.

    Whatever the case, it is clear that schools that hope to help these students meet the National Education Goals must provide special assistance to them. While the type of special assistance may vary from one district or school to another, all special assistance programs must give language minority students full access to the learning environment, the curriculum, special services and assessment in a meaningful way.

    Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL) offers the following standards of access to help school judge the degree to which programs of special assistance are helping language minority students to meet the National Education Goals. The standards have been developed by the TESOL Task Force on the Educational of Language Minority Students, K-12, in the United States. They are based on the most current research on language learning in academic settings.

Access to a Positive Learning Environment

  1. Are the schools attended by language minority students safe, attractive, and

       free of prejudice?

   2. Is there evidence of a positive whole - school environment whose

       administration and instructional policies and practices create a climate that is

       characterized by high expectations as well as linguistically and culturally

       appropriate learning experiences for language minority students?

    3. Are teachers, administrators, and other staff specifically prepared to tailor

        instructional  and other services to the needs of language minority students?

    4. Does the school environment welcome and encourage parents of language

        minority students as at - home primary teachers of their children and as

        parents in the life of the school? Does the school inform and educate parents

        and others concerned with the education of language minority students? Does

         the school systematically and regularly seek input from parents on

         information and decisions that affect all critical  aspects of the education of

         language minority students, their schools and school districts?

Access to Appropriate Curriculum

     5. Do language minority students have access to instructional programs that

         support the second language development necessary to participate in the full

         range of  instructional services offered to majority students?

      6. Does the core curriculum designed for all students include those aspects that

          promote (a) the sharing, valuing, and development of  both first and second

          languages and cultures among all students and (b) the higher order thinking

          skills required for learning across the curriculum?

      7. Do language minority students have access to the instructional programs and

         related services that identify, conduct and support programs for special

         populations in a district? Such programs include, but are not limited to, early

        childhood programs, special education programs, and gifted and talented

        programs, as well as programs for students with handicapping conditions or

        disabilities, migrant education programs, programs for recent immigrants, and

        programs designed for students with low levels of literacy or mathematical

        skills, such as Chapter 1*

Access to Full Delivery of Services

    8. Are the teaching strategies and instructional practices used with language

         minority students developmentally appropriate, attuned to students' language

         proficiencies and cognitive levels, and culturally supportive and relevant?

     9. Do students have opportunities to develop and use their first language to

         promote academic and social development?

   10. Are non - classroom services and support services (such as counseling, career

          guidance, and transportation) available to language minority students?

   11. Do language minority students have equal access to computers, computer

         classes and other technologically advanced instructional assistance?

    12. Does the school have instructional policies and procedures that are

          linguistically and culturally sensitive to the particular needs of language

          minority students and their communities?

* Chapter 1 is now referred to as Title 1 according to the reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1995.

Top of Page

Click here to continue the standards