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State updates EL screening; Lee County officials say fewer students may be identified
Summary
A district multilingual education director summarized state changes to English learner entrance and exit criteria and possible local impacts: a new 4.5 composite threshold could reduce identifications and increase timely exits; Lee County staff said local practices already follow many of the new state guidance elements.
State-level changes to English learner screening and exit criteria are likely to change who is identified for services in Lee County Schools, the district's multilingual director told the board.
Angel Mills, director of multilingual education and support, and Dr. Dawson Bach explained that the North Carolina screener's entrance and exit thresholds were reset to a 4.5 composite score. Under the old rules a student could be identified as an English learner if they scored below a 5 on any domain; the state psychometricians concluded that the previous thresholds were overly strict.
Mills said the new standard means fewer students may be identified for the EL program and more students may meet exit criteria: she gave examples drawn from local data, saying the change would have meant 13 fewer identifications for 2023-24, 78 additional students would have exited the program under the updated exit criteria, and 163 long-term EL students are within 0.5 of the new exit score.
The state also added nuance to the home-language survey process, Mills said, requiring a local investigation when a student's dominant home language is unclear to avoid unnecessary testing.
Dr. Dawson Bach noted the potential local effects: fewer identifications would change student-teacher ratios in EL classes and adjust the funding allotment to better match the students actually served. Staff emphasized that students who exit the program will continue to be monitored for up to four years.
Board members asked for follow-up and offered to receive a deeper briefing at a curriculum or instruction meeting.
