Harrisburg School District English Learner Program

MISSION STATEMENT

The Harrisburg School District provides an English Learner program to provide experiences that promote individual, social, and academic growth to students whose primary or home language is not English. The EL program helps students grow essential skills for learning both social and academic language and adjusting to a new culture. With each student’s unique strengths and needs in mind, the program offers a variety of service models.

The EL program emphasizes instruction in all four literacy components: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Assisting developing and newly proficient English students to develop English language skills, the program encourages growth for students to be successfully mainstreamed in the general education classrooms, to graduate, and to function successfully in our community.

Harrisburg School District celebrates the unique skills that multilingual learners possess. The program encourages a positive self-concept of the learner, a school-wide climate of understanding, empathy, and interaction between staff and students, and fluid communication between school and home.

EL PROGRAM COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS

Districts having EL student enrollments shall:

  1. Identify the influence of additional languages using a home language survey of all students.

  2. Assess the language proficiency of students from homes where English is not the primary language.

  3. Diagnose student instructional needs.

  4. Establish an English language program that meets the needs of each EL.

  5. Establish language instruction program entry and exit criteria.

  6. Provide comprehensible instruction in content areas using scaffolding and language acquisition strategies.

  7. Provide EL’s opportunity to develop a positive self-concept and identification with their culture.

  8. Provide qualified teachers.

  9. Provide equal access to all district programs and services.

  10. Provide opportunities for parental involvement including ways to communicate with parents in their language.

  11. Regularly monitor student progress and provide support even after the exit process.

Contact Us

Dr. Laurie Wenger, Director of Engish Learning

Cari Olson, EL Coordinator

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