Ms. Cash

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Willow Springs has had as ESL program for approximately 15 years.  The program began with about 25 students and has grown steadily.  In the fall of 2000 we had 90+ students!  In 2001-2002, a new ESL program was opened at Fuquay Varina Elementary and some of those ESL students who were not in our base were transferred to Fuquay.  In the past several years our numbers have been approximately 50-60 students in the program at Willow Springs. 

  The law requires that any  student who lists a language other than English on the Home Language Survey, as an answer to any of the questions, must be given a language proficiency test.  North Carolina uses the IPT (Idea Proficiency Test).  Any student who scores below Superior in any of the domains (Listening, Speaking, Reading, & Writing) is considered LEP, or Limited English Proficient.  Depending on the scores, the student may qualify for ESL services.

The ESL program in Wake County is optional.  Parents of students who speak a language other than English are given the option of having their children in our program.  ESL offers these students additional support in learning English so that they can more quickly participate successfully in the regular classroom setting.  Classes are approximately forty minutes and vary from several times per week to five times per week depending on the language proficiency level and the needs of the students.  Our classes are conducted in a small group setting and instruction is all in English.

We have been fortunate in our program to serve students from a variety of language groups such as Spanish, Russian, French, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Arabic, etc.  These students are motivated learners and add much to the flavor of our school climate.