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District reports 958 English learners; ACCESS exit rate 8% last year
Summary
Carson City staff told trustees the district has 958 active English learner students (about 34% of enrollment when combined with monitored/exited students), 206 staff hold ELAD endorsements, and 8% of tested students met criteria to exit EL services on ACCESS last year.
Brandon Bringhurst, presenting for the district's English learner (EL) program, told the Board of Trustees on Sept. 9 that the district served 958 students identified as English learners during the 2024–25 school year and that roughly 1,500 additional students are in monitored or exited status.
"Enrollment wise... 958 students who are currently in the EL program, approximately 1,500 who are monitored or exited," Bringhurst said. He added that the two figures together represent about 34 percent of the Carson City School District student population.
Bringhurst described instructional strategies the district uses for multilingual learners, including High-Quality Sheltered Instruction (HQSI) and Academic Language Acquisition through Content (ALAC), and said about 206 staff hold an ELAD (English Language Acquisition and Development) endorsement. He also explained that ACCESS, the federal English-proficiency assessment, was administered to 956 students last year and that 8 percent of those tested met the exit criteria; elementary students had a higher exit rate at 12 percent.
Bringhurst acknowledged that the ACCESS exit percentage can look low without context. He noted the state’s NSPF metrics track whether students are on pace to exit within five years and pointed to middle‑school examples: Carson Middle was at 33 percent on the state growth measure (nearly earning full points), while Eagle Valley Middle was at 19 percent.
The presentation also covered SBAC academic results, which Bringhurst said have been relatively flat for EL students over five years, and that three schools (Carson Middle, Eagle Valley and Carson High) were designated for targeted support and improvement (TSI) based on subgroup performance. Board members asked about causes for long‑term EL status and whether absenteeism, special education status, or other factors explain persistent challenges; Bringhurst said those factors play a role and that staff are reviewing approaches to accelerate progress.
Bringhurst invited trustees to several family engagement events and noted a district event featuring Sonia Manzano on Sept. 30 for multilingual-learner outreach. The board did not take action; the item was informational.
