About English Language Learners

ELL Vision Statement:

Our vision is to ensure that our English learners have meaningful access to rigorous instruction, materials, and academic choices within the Minneapolis Public Schools. We will ensure equity for English learners while maintaining their cultural and linguistic identity. ( paraphrasing of MPS Bilingual Student Education Policy)

Philosophy:

Many Views, One Vision is a representative sampling of Minneapolis Public Schools students in profile shots and created of a montage of their ovelapping faces all looking in the same direction. Home countries represented in the mural include Kuwait, Laos, Ethiopia, Bosnia, Guyana, Malaysia and the United States

"This temporary work has a simple message. In our diversity, we are all seeking the same basic things, and hopefully we can accept each other in the process."
By Norbert Marklin, Photographer

DEPARTMENT RESPONSIBILITES

The English Language Learners (ELL) Department Executive Director is responsible for implementing the MPS Bilingual Student Education Policy across the district. The department’s vision is to serve English learners through meaningful access to rigorous instruction, materials, and academic choices within MPS. Department responsibilities encompass the following areas:

To strengthen placement of ELL-serving staff in hiring, professional development, and evaluation;
To enhance ELL curriculum, materials, and student access to rigor;
And to increase quality & consistency of program implementation from elementary through high school due to exceptional ESL, NLL, bilingual content areas, sheltered instruction, and newcomer programs.

In addition, the ELL Department is responsible for the following areas:

to increase school leadership accountability for ELL success;
to centralize more ELL program decision-making;
to strengthen assessment/classification tools and usage;
to enforce exit criteria and waiving of services;
to increase funding to accomplish the above;
and to rebuild and strengthen ELL Department and District infrastructure to lead implementation and support school-level changes. Overall, the ELL Department strives to ensure equity for English learners while maintaining their cultural and linguistic identity.