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Enid schools report 1,719 English learners and “largest” recent WIDA score gains, district says
Summary
Federal programs coordinator Leslie Wicker briefed the board on Title I/III and other federal funding, enrollment and English‑learner assessment results, including a reported rise in WIDA scores districtwide.
Leslie Wicker, the district’s federal programs and English‑learner coordinator, presented the board with the district’s federal program allocations, English‑learner counts and assessment results.
Wicker told the board the district serves 1,719 English‑learner (EL) students, which she said is about 23% of the district’s enrollment, and that the district also counted 228 immigrant students and 562 "bilingual only" students for funding purposes. "This year, we received immigrant funding in addition to the EL funding," she said.
Wicker highlighted results on the WIDA English proficiency assessment and characterized the latest year as an unusually strong improvement: "This last year was probably the biggest score increase of our students that I've seen... As you can see in the very last column, you can kinda see by, the students of improvement of this year. We had 78% in elementary. We had 39% in middle school, 57 in high school, and its total overall is about... 62 percent of an increase." She described the WIDA test as a rigorous federal assessment measuring academic language and said staff had used new approaches to raise student engagement.
Wicker also described programs funded through federal allocations, including ELD classes at the secondary level and a newcomer academy that this year served 34 middle‑school and 28 high‑school students. She said the district is now able to award a high‑school English credit and a high‑school history credit for students in the newcomer program, in cooperation with Lincoln Academy.
Board members offered no substantive objections during the presentation. Wicker said allocations can vary year to year based on state formulas and that the district experienced a delayed allocation this year but received necessary revisions and funds.
The board received the report as information; no formal vote was taken.
