EL vs. Bilingual Count: Maximizing Counts & Ensuring Accuracy

Dr. Taylor Tribble, President, EduSkills

Kathy Dunn, CCOSA Federal Programs Consultant

The OSDE funding formula developed in 1982 includes a .25 weight called the “bilingual weight.” Students who qualify for these funds are commonly called “bilingual students,” but this is not to be confused with the dictionary definition of bilingual; a student who qualifies for bilingual weight funds may or may not speak two languages fluently. A student who qualifies for bilingual weight funds will bring approximately $900 in additional state aid to your district.

A Home Language Survey (HLS) form is required to be on file for every student enrolled in a district, but schools are no longer required to collect a new form each year. The HLS form is to be collected for every new student in the district, and from those students who had moved away from the district for one year or more. There are two ways that a student can qualify for bilingual funds based on parent responses on the Home Language Survey (HLS).

Who may be counted as a Bilingual student?

1. The student is automatically designated as Bilingual if the HLS has indicated a language other than English is spoken “more often” than English.

2. The student is designated as Bilingual if the HLS indicates a student’s language other than English is spoken “less often” than English with one of the following eligible, state-approved test scores:

A. EL--Designated Limited English Proficient on an Oklahoma English language proficiency assessment: ACCESS for English Language Learners (ELLs) 2.0, Alternate ACCESS for ELLs, WIDA Screener, Kindergarten WIDA ACCESS Placement Test (K-WAPT), WIDA MODEL, or the Oklahoma Pre-K Language Screening Tool (These in #1 are the options called Qualifying EL Scores.)

B. Scores of Basic or Below Basic in Reading on the Oklahoma State Testing Program (OSTP)

C. Scores 35% or below on an NRT on the composite Reading score

All students whose HLS indicates a language other than English is spoken “more often” or “less often” than English must be screened with a state approved EL screener, as in #1 above. To know more about the student as a learner, you would also want to examine his performance on state tests as well as any Norm Referenced Tests that were given for Oklahoma’s Reading Sufficiency Act (RSA) or Driven to Read programs, as in B and C above. Any one of these tests with a qualifying score noted above would make the “less often” student eligible for the Bilingual weight, approximately $900 in additional state aid to your district.

In the 2020-2021 school year, to qualify a student for the bilingual weight by using the state testing or the NRT, B or C above, and if the student is in virtual learning and not accessible for in-person testing, you may use the most recent English/Reading OSTP or state-approved NRT (2018-2019).

Once districts finalize updates in their student information system for bilingual counts, the October 1 Consolidated Report must be certified by the superintendent.

USDE Title III Funds for English Learners Title III funds provided by the USDE are allocated to support students identified as English Learners (ELs) based on separate criteria. If a student comes from a home where a language other than English is spoken, the child must be screened with an approved English language proficiency exam. In Oklahoma, to qualify for EL services and approximately $100 in federal funding, the student must score below 4.8 on a WIDA test. The EL students are also designated as Bilingual in the Consolidated Report.

Does your district qualify for Title III Immigrant Funds? For the purposes of Title III, Part A, immigrants are defined as those students who meet all three of the following criteria:

1. Born outside the U.S. or Puerto Rico;

2. Enrolled in U.S. schools for less than three years;

3. Between the ages of three and twenty-one.

Immigrants who meet the three criteria are federally funded at about $200 (in Project Code 573) per Immigrant student, plus these students also count as Bilingual at about $900 in state aid. In order to generate Immigrant funds, the LEA must have at least a 2% increase over the previous year’s immigrant enrollment to receive any funding.

Ensuring Accuracy In conclusion, to ensure that ALL bilingual and EL students are identified, districts must work with an astute team to verify 1) an HLS has been received for every student, 2) all students who speak a language other than English have been screened with WIDA, and 3) district personnel have combed through OSTP and NRT scores for all “Less Often” students. Lastly, forms need to be organized in a specific manner for the Regional Accreditation officer. The total process is very time consuming, but working with the right team ensures that bilingual and EL counts are as accurate as possible. As you work throughout this process, make sure that you stay informed with updates from the State Department of Education at https://sde.ok.gov/title-iii.