The ESOL Bilingual Migrant Program of the St. Louis Public Schools provides services to almost 2,400 English Language Learners (ELLs) who live in the city of St. Louis. The overarching goal of the ESOL program is to support ELL students and their families so that ELLs can develop both language and content knowledge in all subject areas and can achieve academically to their highest ability. In addition, the program aims at supporting St. Louis Public Schools teachers in their work of educating ELLs.
Program teachers provide English language development and content instruction to ELL students in Kindergarten through 12th grade. The program is implemented in 18 locations:
- 1 newcomer center (Nahed Champan New American Academy);
- 9 elementary schools (Buder, Dewey, Mann, Mason, Mullanphy, Oak Hill, Sigel, Woerner, and Woodward);
- 5 middle schools (Busch AAA, Compton Drew, Gateway Middle, Long, and Fanning)
- 3 high schools (Gateway STEM, Soldan, and Roosevelt)
Program actions:
- Provide orientation to newcomer students and families on the education system and school requirements, such as student attendance and performance;
- Provide English language instruction to ELL students to support the development of 4 language domains: speaking, listening, reading, and writing;
- Ensure that ELLs successfully develop academic skills;
- Provide support and professional development to district teachers working with ELLs
- Educate ELL families through a series of parent meetings;
- Provide bilingual support to ELL students and families in the following languages: Spanish, Bosnian, Arabic, Somali, Swahili, Nepali, Burmese, French, Mai-Mai;
- Provide support to ELL families as they integrate into U.S. culture.
- Will share Mosaic materials with foreign-born families.
See SLPS ESOL website here.
See SLPS ESOL press release here.