What is ESL?
English as a Second Language is a Federal Program which requires Local Education Agencies to educate all children who come to the district with varying degrees of proficiency with the English language yet have not attained mastery of designated standards including STAAR Reading and the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System(TELPAS).
Who are ESL students?
Texas Education Code (TEC) Sec. 29.052.
"Student of limited English proficiency" means a student whose primary language is other than English and whose English language skills are such that the student has difficulty performing ordinary classwork in English.The terms LEP and English Learners (ELs) are used interchangeably.

Program Models
Districts shall implement Intensive language programs using two program models provided in the Texas Education Code(TEC).
In a Pullout program model, an ESL certified teacher  provides the Language Arts instruction to a student in a pullout  setting or in an inclusionary setting. The student is mainstreamed in the remaining content classes.  
In a Content-Based program model, second language instruction is integrated
with the content in all core classes.  The student receives all instruction in the inclusionary setting, where supplementary support may be provided.
Perryton Kinder runs a content-based program.  All other campuses in Perryton School District follow a pull-out program model.  Each campus is able to implement one type of program which is independent of the other campuses.

What can you do to support our ESL program?
*As a district we need to work toward getting more teachers ESL certified. Currently, we have a total of 75 ESL certified teachers across the district.
*We need quality, focused professional development to support our teachers who work with English Learners.

What can we celebrate?
We are celebrating very successful Title III Family Engagement events on two campuses:  Williams Intermediate and PJH.  PJH hosted about 90 people on October 24th.  We provided snacks, presented ESL program information, and showcased our kiddos.
Williams intermediate hosted about 40+ family members in September.  Our goal is to build rapport with our families in order to encourage involvement in the educational processes of their children.