English as a 2nd Language/
English Language Learners

Program Philosophy

The Edina School District offers an educational program to meet the needs of students who are English Language Learners in grades K-12. This program addresses two areas: language acquisition and cultural adjustment.

In the area of language acquisition, the goal of the English as a Second Language (ESL) Program is to provide students with the opportunity to develop communication skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing, thereby enabling the students to be successful within the academic mainstream classroom.

The program will assist the students through their cultural adjustment by helping them develop an understanding of American culture. At the same time, the students will be encouraged to share their cultural backgrounds and realize the importance of their role in a multicultural society.

Elementary and Secondary Programs

ESL service in the elementary schools is provided through a pullout and/or push-in program. ESL schedules are coordinated with the classroom teacher so that children do not miss important classroom instructional time or specialists (i.e., gym, music, art). The ESL teacher and classroom teacher work closely together to plan an instructional program that is most beneficial for the language and academic needs of each student.

Parent/teacher conferences are held twice a year - in the fall and in the spring - in order to communicate student progress. New students are tested for English proficiency when entering Edina schools and are tested again in May to determine eligibility for continued ESL instruction. All ESL students are given the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) WIDA-ACCESS Placement Test (WAPT) or Measure of Developing English Language (MODEL) upon entry, and the Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State for English Language Learners (ACCESS for ELLs) annually; Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test; the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) in the spring for grades 3, 4, and 5; the Cognitive Abilities Assessment (CogAT) in the spring for grades 2 and 4.

Secondary ESL service is provided within the student's regular class schedule. One or more class periods each day are designated as ESL classes, depending on the language needs of the student. Conferences are strongly recommended. Report cards are issued four times a year.

We encourage all English Language Learners to stay after school for extra homework help in the media center. Students can get help from teachers, use school computers, and study independently or in small groups.

District-wide All Students Assessment Schedule

ESL/ELL - Languages

Primary Languages of Edina's Elementary
English Language Learners (ELL)

Albanian	Japanese	Spanish
Amharic	Kiswahili	Swedish
Arabic	Korean	Tagalog
Cantonese	Kurdish	Tamil
Catalan	Malayalam	Telugu
Chinese	Marathi	Thai
Danish	Nepali	Tibetan
French	Oromo	Togolese
German	Punjabi	Urdu
Hindi	Russian	Vietnamese
Indonesian	Somali

Primary Languages of Edina's Secondary
English Language Learners (ELL)

Arabic	Liberian English	Slovak
Dutch	Oromo	Somali
French	Persian/Farsi	Spanish
German	Portuguese	Telugu
Korean	Punjabi	Tibetan
Kurdish	Russian

ESL/ELL - Registration

Registration

All new students must register at the:
Edina Public Schools' Welcome Center
Room 171
5701 Normandale Rd
Edina, Minnesota 55424
Open Monday - Friday
8:30-4:00 PM
952-848-3934

All new second language speakers will be given English language proficiency tests to determine students' eligibility for English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction.

Edina Public Schools Assessment Schedule