It reads like a one-sentence horror story written especially for education professionals: A school district is in perfect compliance with its English Language Development (ELD) initiatives, but multilingual learners still aren’t reading on benchmark.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: It’s easy to become so focused on compliance — documenting services and meeting required ELD minutes — that we sometimes lose sight of the actual goal, which is teaching students to read proficiently.
For many districts, ELD is challenging to get right, and it’s not for lack of trying. Teachers can be dedicated, administrators can follow all of the rules and regulations, but if kids aren’t learning the skills they really need or the goals aren’t centered on outcomes, the results simply may not happen.
Trying to make headway on reading development for your English language learners and still just scratching the surface?
Let’s dig deep into the English language development landscape. The answers are out there.
Why Is English Language Development Time So Important For Multilingual Learners?
English Language Development time is essential for multilingual learners (MLLs), but there’s a catch: it has to be done right.
What do we mean by that? Language acquisition doesn’t happen by osmosis. Yes, kids will pick up conversational English through immersion, but the academic language proficiency needed for literacy and content learning requires explicit, systematic instruction.
In other words, you can’t just put multilingual learners into English-speaking classrooms and hope for the best.
They need targeted support that classroom teachers can’t always provide in a whole group setting, such as:
- Explicit phonics instruction that addresses the specific phonemes that don’t exist in their home language
- Morphology instruction that unlocks thousands of English words
- Practice with English syntax patterns that are dramatically different from their first language
- Academic vocabulary and language structures that native speakers acquire incidentally but ELLs need taught explicitly
ELD time should be the place to fill in gaps and accelerate growth. It’s also where we can provide the emotional and academic safety net these kids need.
Lessening the Load
Learning in a second language is cognitively exhausting. Having a space where someone understands your challenges, where you can take risks without feeling “less than” your peers, and where your home language is valued? That’s huge for confidence and motivation.
How To Move Beyond ELD Service Minutes To Support Reading Growth
So, how do you actually move beyond just tracking minutes to really prioritizing outcomes? We’re so glad you asked.
The short answer is that it requires a fundamental shift in how we think about and measure success: Districts have to assign value to reading outcomes, not just compliance documentation. How do you make that shift? Here’s a practical roadmap.
1. Shift The Way Your District Defines Success
Old Thinking: “We provided the required minutes, so we met the goal.”
New Thinking: “Are students learning to read? If not, what needs to change?”
How To Get There
In leadership meetings, replace “Did we meet required minutes?” with “What percentage of our MLLs are on track in reading, and what’s their growth rate?”
To answer this question, start with a data audit and by examining the specifics of your current program. Try to assess both as honestly as possible. Consider the following:
- What percentage of MLLs meet reading benchmarks at each grade level?
- What is the performance gap between MLLs and the overall student population?
- What is the trajectory for late-arriving students?
- What actually happens during ELD time?
- How does ELD time connect to core literacy instruction?
Next, determine how to measure student literacy outcomes. One way to support this approach is to establish clear reading benchmark goals. For example:
- By end of 1st grade — All MLLs can decode CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words and simple sentences.
- By end of 3rd grade — MLLs are reading within one year of grade level.
- By end of 5th grade — MLLs are at or near grade level.
Use progress monitoring to track how students are doing. Lastly, as you move forward, celebrate your wins, and be willing to evaluate and adjust the system when students aren’t progressing.
2. Examine Scheduling To Protect Core Instruction
Old Thinking: “ELD means pulling kids out during class.”
New Thinking: “How can we provide intensive support without interrupting core instruction?”
How to Get There
We get it: Time is limited, and scheduling is complex. Most schools face an impossible puzzle in trying to figure out how to provide the required ELD minutes (and make them count!) without pulling students from core literacy instruction.
Ideally, ELD should supplement, not replace, core literacy teaching. Think of it this way: if a student is pulled from core literacy instruction and misses, say, a systematic phonics lesson, that can ultimately make reading more difficult for them in the long run.
So, what’s the solution? In scheduling, aim to:
- Protect literacy instruction time by scheduling ELD services during other content areas, intervention blocks, or before and after school.
- Keep ELD groups small and skill-focused, if possible.
- As much as possible, prevent teachers and students from needing to move between buildings for ELD.
This is, of course, more difficult in practice than in theory. A lot will depend on your individual district resources, staffing, and other considerations, and compromise is inevitable.
As you adapt new strategies, don’t aim for perfection. Instead, keep this question in mind: How can your district create compromise without undermining program effectiveness?
3. Differentiate Instruction To Prioritize High-Need Students
Old Thinking: “All ELLs get the same services.”
New Thinking: “Students have different needs based on home language literacy, prior education, and phonological challenges.”
How To Get There
It can be easy for late arrivals or learners who need more support to get lost in the system. A 6th grader who reads well in his home language may really need explicit phonics instruction in English, but may be placed in a higher-level class that doesn’t focus on the right skills simply because of his age and grade-level.
Ideally, assessment should drive instruction, not labels. For example, within your MLL population, you might work to identify and differentiate students by their foundational skill needs. Some possible categories might include:
- Students With Interrupted/Limited Formal Education (SLIFE). These students may not be literate in any language and need intensive foundational literacy instruction
- Students literate in L1 but struggling with English decoding. These learners need focused instruction on English-specific phonics patterns, but don’t need to relearn foundational concepts.
- Students who can decode but lack fluency and vocabulary. These learners need fluency practice and vocabulary development
- Students who are nearly proficient readers. These learners need support with academic language and complex texts.
You can also differentiate based on home language phonology, entry time in U.S. schools, or a number of other factors. Once you know what students need, you can target instruction to build those skills and grow their reading skills. You can also allocate more resources to the groups with the highest level of need.
Remember: Differentiation doesn’t mean doing everything for everyone. It means being strategic and focused.
Where can you make an impact?
Start there.
4. Focus On Training, Collaboration, and Professional Development
Old Thinking: “The ELD teacher handles language, the classroom teacher handles content.”
New Thinking: “Every adult working with this student shares responsibility for reading growth, and we must coordinate efforts.”
How To Get There
Many classroom teachers and paraprofessionals who work with MLLs have received minimal training in language acquisition or literacy development. As a result, they’re often being asked to do complex work without adequate preparation, which isn’t fair to them or to students.
We have to find ways to support teachers and lessen burnout while still creating accountability and moving steadily towards our goals. Start by evaluating teachers and paraprofessionals to determine how to make the most of professional development time.
For example, do your educators understand:
- The Science of Reading?
- How to teach foundational phonics skills?
- How to diagnose reading difficulties?
- The specific challenges MLLs face with English orthography?
You can use professional development time to train the people working with students in whatever skills they need. Here are some low-cost ways to do that:
- Use free resources like Reading Rockets and Colorín Colorado.
- Have interested faculty lead monthly one-hour training sessions, focusing on one skill at a time.
- Create simple resources teachers can use immediately, like how-to guides with scripts, one-page sentence frame guides, and scaffolding strategy checklists.
Additionally, encourage all staff to take ownership of program goals and collaborate on the best ways to serve students.
One easy way to do this? Consider implementing simple progress monitoring. For example, pick one quick assessment (oral reading fluency, nonsense words, or a phonics screener) to administer to all MLLs every six to eight weeks.
Then, establish a quick, 45-minute monthly grade-level data meeting where ELD and classroom teachers can review MLL reading data together and strategize.
5. Move From a Deficit-Based Approach To an Asset-Based Approach
Old Thinking: “These students are behind.”
New Thinking: “These students bring linguistic and cultural assets. How do we build on their strengths?”
How To Get There
MLLs need the same foundational reading skills as native English speakers. They often just need more explicitness, more practice, and more attention to their specific challenges. Rather than focusing only on deficits, try to center students’ strengths and build on them. Additionally, keep important cultural and language considerations in mind.
- Students’ home language is an asset. Bilingualism correlates with cognitive advantages like enhanced executive function and metalinguistic awareness. Celebrate and build on students’ linguistic resources rather than viewing them as deficits.
- Family engagement looks different across cultures. Family engagement is essential, but schools must meet families where they are and genuinely partner with them, not just send notices.
- Resources matter. Reading success for MLLs starts with investing adequately in ELD programs, literacy instruction, coaching, materials, and assessments.
Helping MLLs become proficient readers is essential work, but limited resources, budgets, staff, and time constraints can easily make it feel like trying to climb a mountain with your shoelaces tied together.
Perfection doesn’t exist, but good, functional literacy and language systems that achieve stellar outcomes for MLLs are possible.
What really matters when you’re trying to make every ELD minute count is the willingness to examine what’s not working, openness to evidence-based practices, commitment to believing in students’ capacity for learning, and persistence in working towards and advocating for better systems all the time.
