English Learners (EL)

Lau Plan Requirement

The Lau Plan Directions are a starting point to spur conversations for the planning process within districts. This is a collaborative process completed by a team.

*Note the updated Home Language Survey will be effective for enrollment of the 2022-23 school year. (see next section)

As of February 2022, the Standardized Entrance and Exit Procedures for Iowa’s English Learners are available from the Iowa Department of Education. Please review the entire document as all of the procedures are required in Iowa. The most significant change involves the Updated Home Language Survey. 

The Home Language Survey is the first step to identifying students with influence of a language other than English. Effective August 1, 2022 (or enrollment for the 22-23 school year), Iowa will implement a new HLS which replaces the language use current questions with three required questions. The three questions have been approved by the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR), and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). 

The required questions are: 

1. What is the primary language used in the home, regardless of the language spoken by the student? 
2. What is the language most often spoken by the student?
3. What is the language that the student first acquired? 

Reminders:

*While the 3 questions will determine screening eligibility, the broader form should be considered as it contains other data elements the LEA needs to collect. 

*LEAs do not obtain a new HLS for existing students, but must use the new form as described above for all new students entering the district beginning August 1, 2022 (or enrollment for the 22-23 school year).

*Only ONE HLS should be administered upon initial enrollment and NOT each year. If a student comes from another state, an Iowa HLS must be administered. If a student is transferring from within Iowa, the original HLS is to be used. The HLS is always requested with the student’s entire cumulative file.

This document is available, along with other EL forms, through the TransAct ParentNotices Site. The form should be given in its entirety. It includes the translations of the 12 most commonly used languages in Iowa.

About the ELPA 21: The ELPA21 state collaborative housed at the National Center on Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) housed at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) a group of states committed to supporting educators, member states and the public in the adoption of English Language Proficiency (ELP) Standards and college- and career-ready standards. The ELPA21 collaborative has developed an assessment system based on the ELP Standards that informs instruction so all ELs leave high school prepared for college and career success.

The ELPA21 assessment system includes a set of English language proficiency standards, a placement screener, a summative measure of English language proficiency and professional learning modules supporting the implementation of Iowa’s ELP standards. Information about the consortium can be found at https://elpa21.org/.

ELPA21 Dynamic Screener: The ELPA21 Dynamic Screener is the instrument required to be used in the EL identification process. Students are administered the Dynamic Screener if it is indicated that a language other than English is predominantly spoken in the home (Iowa Admin. Code r. 281—60.3). Students not scoring proficient on the screener are to be identified for English development services.

ELPA21 Summative Assessment: The ELPA21 summative assessment is administered annually in Iowa schools in an eight-week window which runs February through March.

Each test form includes a wide-variety of test items:

• Selected-response items require students to select one or more responses from a list of options and may include both multiple-choice and true-or-false formats.
• Technology-enhanced items, comprising at least 20 percent of the assessment items, require students to respond to questions by interacting with the test item. For example, a student might place words in the appropriate order, select text in a paragraph, or match objects to words.
• Constructed-response items require students to provide text or record speech or respond to a task, and include both short and long constructed-response items.

The item type used for a particular skill and context is determined by matching the evidence needed to the most appropriate method for acquiring that evidence. In addition, some of the items use digital media (sound, animation, video, or interactive widgets) as the setting for the test question.

Assessment Preparation:

The Iowa Portal for ELPA21 has a wealth of information and resources. Visit this site for important dates, practice tests, technology set up and requirements. 

Training for administration of the ELPA21 Dynamic Screener and Summative Assessments are available through AEA PD Online

The TransAct ParentNotices site is free for all schools in Green Hills AEA. It houses many forms for English Learner programs, including the updated Home Language Survey. Most of these forms are available in multiple languages. For log in information, please contact Eric Gebhart at the Iowa Department of Education. Once you log in, the ‘Iowa English Learners’ dropdown in the top right corner lists the current forms. 

• ¡ColorínColorado!
• NCELA (National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition)
• National Association of English Learner Program Directors
• ELPA21 (English Language Proficiency Assessment) Resources
• English Language Learners - Iowa Department of Education
• NABE (National Association for Bilingual Education)
• OELA (Office of English Language Acquisition)
• TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages)

• The Useful Links for GHAEA EL Teachers document contains a variety of resources available for staff. This is updated regularly with announcements and resources. 
• If you are looking for a specific document or support for a specific topic, please check out this Google Drive with a variety of resources.

For information on Green Hills Professional Learning Offerings, click on this link 

District EL teachers and coordinators who are administering the ELPA21 Dynamic Screener and Summative assessments are required to take several trainings. All of these trainings are available through the AEA PD Online website. After logging in to the site, click on the catalog at the top and scroll down to ‘English Language Learners’ along the left side. The chart below shows which trainings are required for the Dynamic Screener and the Summative. The third column lists other recommended trainings. This document contains more information about these trainings.