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Urbandale presents English Learner update; "Lau plan" submitted to board
Summary
District staff reported on English Learner staffing, screening delays, growth metrics and submitted the district's Lau plan for compliance with federal requirements; no formal board action was recorded.
Urbandale Community School District staff presented an update on the district's English Learner (EL) program Sept. 8 and submitted the district's Lau plan, required under federal law, describing how the district identifies and serves multilingual learners.
A staff presenter identified as Miss Davis (name recorded as Stephanie Davis in the agenda preview) told the board the district currently has roughly 11 EL associates and interpreters, and that about 12 percent of Urbandale students participate in the EL program. She said full screening of students was delayed because of state system issues tied to the early start of the school year, so final counts were not yet available.
Davis said the district measured growth using the FastBridge reading assessment for the students who were tested: of EL students who took fall and winter assessments, 52 percent showed growth; of students tested in both winter and spring, 75 percent showed growth. She said 10.4 percent of students exited the EL program at the end of last year and that 62 percent of EL students demonstrated growth of "plus 1 or better" in at least one assessment domain. Davis noted the district is updating program language, professional learning and resources at the elementary level, including adoption of a resource described in the agenda as Amplify CKLA and a "language studio" program.
Davis told the board the district submitted the Lau plan (referring to the 1974 U.S. Supreme Court case Lau v. Nichols) as required by federal law and that the plan updates EL program goals, clarifies responsibilities for an elementary EL lead and adjusts program terminology to reflect current practice. She said the district will continue professional learning for staff and plans a PK-12 EL strategies professional learning event in January.
No formal board vote to adopt or approve the Lau plan was recorded in the meeting minutes presented during the session; the document was described in the agenda as "submitted."
