Board hears strategic-plan update: English learner growth, ACCESS testing and expansion of Newcomer (Empower) Academy

District leaders told the Birmingham City Schools board on Jan. 14 that the district’s population of multilingual families and English learners has grown substantially and that the strategic plan includes a measurable goal to raise English learner progress on the state ACCESS test to 50% by 2029.

Dr. Chapman and ESL leaders presented data showing multilingual families increased from roughly 1,600 when the current leadership arrived in 2021 to about 2,500, and active English learners grew from about 1,172 to 2,052. The presentation tied those enrollment trends to the district strategic plan’s academic priority and explained monthly progress monitoring and forthcoming public dashboards on the district website.

Assistant/Staff member Nancy Blanco (ESL and multilingual programs) outlined ACCESS testing and said the spring ACCESS window began the day of the meeting: “It actually started today in our schools,” she said. Blanco noted the ACCESS test is administered once a year and measures students’ social and academic language; the district uses ACCESS results as the strategic-plan metric for English-learner progress.

Blanco described district targets and recent results: the percentage of English learners meeting ALSDE progress goals was about 42% in 2022 and 38.82% for the most recent year cited in the presentation; the strategic-plan goal is 50% by 2029. Staff emphasized that the state’s goals are rigorous and that the district tracks the subgroup longitudinally.

Leaders also reviewed Empower Academy, a newcomer program that began as one classroom at Carver and has expanded to fully operate at Carver and Putnam middle schools with about 60 students at each site and a wait list of about 20. Blanco said the program uses district curriculum with sheltered instruction and Edgenuity supplements; students begin the day in the Newcomer program, then return to their zoned school for electives and extracurriculars.

Blanco and staff reported strong interim gains: Better Basics tutoring combined with the Newcomer model produced notable reading growth (staff reported an average of three grade levels of reading improvement in one semester for participating high-school students). Communications staff reported outreach and translation efforts, including a Spanish-language parent event that drew almost 200 family attendees and expanded access to translated materials.

Board members praised the work and asked for school-level enrollment breakdowns for Hispanic and multilingual students, and for details on ESL staffing and translation resources. Staff said every school has an assigned ESL teacher and that 11 bilingual paraprofessionals handle school-level translation coverage; additional translation is provided through a district translation specialist, LanguageLine and state-provided master-word Zoom interpretation when needed. Board members and staff discussed budget amendment options to expand Newcomer capacity.

Staff committed to provide school-by-school enrollment counts and ESL assignment details to board members. The presentation is the first in a series of monthly updates tied to the district’s strategic-plan dashboards and public data visualization posted on the district website.