Official Site of The State of New Jersey

1. District, school, and type of program.

Elizabeth Public Schools, Bilingual Program

2. Please provide dates when others can visit your program.

During the months of October, December, February, May and June

3. Contact Person, Phone Number, Address, and E-mail

Veronica Alvero: 908-436-5341, alverove@epsnj.org
Sandra Nunes: 908-346-5352, nunessa@epsnj.org

505 North Broad Street
Elizabeth, NJ 07208

4. District and school demographics

• 26 K-8 Schools and 6 High Schools
• Approximately 26,053 students 81% of students are eligible for Free or Reduced Lunches
• 71% of students are Hispanic
• 19% of students are African American
• 8% of students are White
• 2% of students are Asian
• 18% of students are eligible for Bilingual/ESL Services
• 47 languages are spoken by the students

Total Number of Multilingual Learners: 4,808 

5. Short Description of the Program

The Goals of the Bilingual Program:  Elizabeth Public Schools is committed to assisting students in achieving fluency (including listening, speaking, comprehension, reading, and writing skills) in English.  The district ensures that students learn content in their primary language while developing English language skills and ultimately achieve mastery of the State Standards.  The district is committed to creating excellence in academics by providing and ensuring equal educational opportunities for English Language Learners through the use of research-based, best practices, and the delivery of instruction that meets the needs of all students.  Student performance on state tests is boosted by providing intensive instruction in the listening, speaking, reading, writing and comprehension of English to cultivate strong academic language and skills.  The district celebrates and appreciates the linguistic and cultural diversity of its population.  By orienting and involving parents, the district's goal is to strengthen its professional learning community.

Franklin Township

1. District, school, and type of program.

Franklin Township, Somerset; (1) Elementary Bilingual & ESL, (2) high school ESL

2. Please provide dates when others can visit your program.

Visitors are asked to contact Julie Ochoa at (732) 873-2400 x. 509 or via email at jochoa@franklinboe.org at least three weeks in advance to schedule a visitation.

3. Contact Person, Phone Number, Address, and E-mail

Julie Ochoa,
Supervisor of ESL & Bilingual Programs K-12 & WL K-8
1755 Amwell Road
Somerset, NJ  08873
732-873-2400 x. 509
jochoa@franklinboe.org

4. District and school demographics

Franklin Township Public Schools is a very diverse, K-12 district serving approximately 8,000 students.  About 45% of students receive free or reduced lunch.  There are six elementary schools (K-4), one intermediate school (5-6), one middle school and one high school.  Over 65 languages are spoken in the district's schools, with Spanish being the most commonly spoken.  The ESL population is comprised of approximately 500 students K-12 and all of whom receive ESL services in all of our schools except for two elementary schools

5. Short Description of the Program

Elementary ESL & Bilingual:  In the bilingual program at Pine Grove Manor there is a full-time bilingual home room in Kindergarten, grade 1 and grade 2, while grades 3 and 4, which have smaller numbers, have pull-out bilingual services in Language Arts and Math.

Bilingual support is paired with ESL in a combination of pull-out from Science/Social studies and push-in during literacy.  ESL only support is provided at three other elementary schools:  Hillcrest, Elizabeth Avenue and Franklin Park.  Unit assessments are created to mimic the ACCESS and include PARCC-like questions.

High School ESL:  Level 1 & 2 students receive a high intensity program, or a double block of ESL.  At level 3, students receive a grade level English class plus an ESL class. Co-taught classes, which are taught by a content area teacher and an ESL teacher, are offered in History and Physics for level 1 & 2 students. 

Expectations are high for Multilingual Learners (MLs).  Grade level content and skill are taught even at the very beginning levels of English learning.  The curriculum is connected to the grade level Common Core and the WIDA standards. 

HoLa Hoboken Dual Language Charter School

District, school, and type of program:

Howell Township Public Schools is a K-8 district with 12 schools.  Adelphia School is home to the K-2 ESL Program.  Ardena School is home to the 3-5 ESL program.  Howell Township Middle School North is home to the 6-8 ESL program.  The program design includes a High Intensity ESL Program for grades K-8.  Kindergarten ESL is delivered through a push-in/ pull-out hybrid model with a strong emphasis on Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP)-based strategies for instruction to make content accessible to English Language Learners.      

Please provide dates when others can visit your program:

Visitations are available October through May, as arranged through the contact listed below.

Contact Person, Phone Number, Address, and E-mail:

• Adelphia School
  495 Adelphia Road
  (Howell Township)
  Freehold, NJ 07728
  Principal: Danielle Palazzolo
• Ardena School
  355 Adelphia Road
  (Howell Township)
  Farmingdale, NJ 07727 
  Principal: Dr. Deborah Pennell
• Howell Twp. Middle School North
  501 Squankum-Yellowbrook Road
  (Howell Township)
  Farmingdale, NJ 07727
  Principal: Paul Farley

Contacts:     
Stella Cohen, ESL Coach, scohen@howell.k12.nj.us
Jacqueline Moore, Supervisor jmoore@howell.k12.nj.us
Jill Broxmeyer, Secretary to the ESL Supervisor, jbroxmeyer@howell.k12.nj.us
732-751-2480 ext. 3807

District and school demographics:

The Howell Township Public Schools is a K-8 district, serving approximately 6,500 students.  The district includes five primary (K-2), five elementary (3-5), and three middle schools (6-8).  The ESL population is comprised of approximately 120 students district-wide.  More than fifteen languages are represented, including: Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese, Arabic, Bengali and Polish.

Short Description of the Program:

The Howell Township Schools ESL program consists of several components, including:

• High Intensity ESL Instructional Model in Grades K-8;
• Intensive Professional Development in Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) practices for all general education, special areas, and ESL instructional staff in magnet schools;
• Intensive Professional Development, on issues impacting learning for ESL students, for child study team members, guidance counselors, speech therapists, and administrators;
• Technology Integration – through the use of iPads, MacBooks, Web 2.0 tools, teacher-created web-based resources, FIRST Robotics LEGO League, and various other technology resources to support language acquisition and content-related learning;
• Summer Program for English Language Learners (K-8); and
• Instructional support through an ESL Coach available to all teachers in ESL magnet schools, as well as schools serving students who have previously exited the ESL program.

 District, school, and type of program.

Vineland, NJ, Johnstone Elementary School and Gloria M. Sabater Elementary School. K-5 transitional bilingual program.

2. Please provide dates when others can visit your program.

By appointment.

3. Contact Person, Phone Number, Address, and E-mail

Dr. JoAnne Negrin, Supervisor, ESL/Bilingual, World Languages, Performing Arts, ESSA - Wanda Santiago-Jimenez, secretary
625 Plum Street, Vineland, NJ 08360 (856) 794-6700 x2018/2030
jnegrin@vineland.org

4. District and school demographics

12,000 students, 1,000 MLs. School poverty rates range between 50%-95%. Approximately two-thirds of all VPS students have a language other than English in the home.

5.  Short Description of the Program

The program is a transitional bilingual program. This program focuses on the development of content knowledge in students' native language as they develop their English skills. Kindergarten and first grade focus entirely on native langauge literacy and content area development. Students gradually transition to English as they approximate grade level in their L1 and develop sufficient competency in English within their bilingual classrooms. As a final stage, students will be in an English-medium classroom with ESL support until that support is no longer needed. Since implementing this methodology, student achievement has greatly increased on both the ACCESS for ELLs and on content area achievement benchmarks. The first group of students who started the program in its current format as Kindergartners will take standardized tests for the first time  next year.