Child getting pulled out for ESL help but isn’t an English language learner

[Anonymous]

I ran into the mother of my daughter’s classmate at school and she mentioned that she also knew my son because she’d worked with him at school. I said, oh, doing what? And she said she had been the ESL teacher.

The thing is, my son was not an English language learner. He is Korean but his language at home is English. I must’ve sounded really stupid trying to understand why he had been pulled out all last year for this. She said he had tested out (obviously).

Why would the school do this?

[Anonymous]

I do not believe the story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do not believe the story.

OP. Okay… regardless of your belief, it happened.

[Anonymous]

DP. I have heard of this with another parent.

[Anonymous]

I think if you write on the intake form whether ‘any other languages are spoken at home’ then they evaluate the child for esl. Or maybe he was super shy and the teacher wanted to rule that out. Either way though the teacher should have emailed you about it. Anyway you should never feel stupid asking for clarification about your child’s education! That’s absolutely your job.

[Anonymous]

ESL teachers are also reading specialists. If they only have a limited number of spots with the reading specialist for each grade, they will do evaluations together for several different kinds of kids. If the teacher had a concern about his reading, he may have been sent for an evaluation. If the school decided that he didn’t need an intervention, you wouldn’t necessarily have been informed of the testing. A year later, the teacher cannot remember which kid was sent to her for what reason. It might be a little racist to assume he was sent for ESL testing based on his appearance, but that is probably just her faulty memory and some unconscious bias.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think if you write on the intake form whether ‘any other languages are spoken at home’ then they evaluate the child for esl.

This is the answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think if you write on the intake form whether ‘any other languages are spoken at home’ then they evaluate the child for esl.

This is the answer.

OP - Yes evaluate is fine, but if he passed the test then why the pullouts all year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I ran into the mother of my daughter’s classmate at school and she mentioned that she also knew my son because she’d worked with him at school. I said, oh, doing what? And she said she had been the ESL teacher.

The thing is, my son was not an English language learner. He is Korean but his language at home is English. I must’ve sounded really stupid trying to understand why he had been pulled out all last year for this. She said he had tested out (obviously).

Why would the school do this?

The exact same thing happened to me! My son is Korean but spoke English from birth. Pulled out for esl.
It’s racist.
The only perk is he met other Korean boys to play with that he wouldn’t have met otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think if you write on the intake form whether ‘any other languages are spoken at home’ then they evaluate the child for esl. Or maybe he was super shy and the teacher wanted to rule that out. Either way though the teacher should have emailed you about it. Anyway you should never feel stupid asking for clarification about your child’s education! That’s absolutely your job.

That wasn’t the case for us (not op). We don’t speak anything but English at home. And my son was outgoing

[Anonymous]

Both my 2 DCs were in esol for couple of months in public 1st grade, they had private pre k and k before entering public school, but DC1 was really shy while DC2 would mix our language with English so that’s why, and it’s fine with us. They both passed esol test before end of 1st grade and got accepted into full time advanced. I think esol classes helped them in some way and didn’t op them out.

[Anonymous]

Your child was pulled out all year and you didn't ever hear about it?

[Anonymous]

Did she say she had taught your child, or that she had pulled your child out? In my school most ELL teaching, except for newcomers with almost no English, is with a push in model, in which the ELL teacher joins classrooms to intensify instruction, with the goal of supporting the English Language Learners, but groupings are flexible. So for some kinds of activities they might divide the class into two heterogenous groups and have them rotate between two teachers (ELL and gen Ed) for two different lessons, or the they might both pull small groups for phonics divided by level and your kid happened to be in one of the groups the ELL teacher pulled.

The other possibility is that the form you filled out with information about home language led to him being assessed. Those forms are screening forms. Screening forms of all kinds are designed to catch a group that is too large because the idea is that you then refine the group during assessment. In my district (and I think this is federal law), the form screens for kids who are born in other countries (even if it’s Canada) or who hear another language spoken in the household (even if its only between mom and Grandma). Those kids are then assessed and released from ELL services. So they have 1 or 2 individual interactions with the ELL teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your child was pulled out all year and you didn't ever hear about it?

DP. I believe it. Schools feel they have the right to do this and don’t really worry about the loss of class time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think if you write on the intake form whether ‘any other languages are spoken at home’ then they evaluate the child for esl.

This is the answer.

OP - Yes evaluate is fine, but if he passed the test then why the pullouts all year?

Passed the test could have multiple meanings. It could mean he passed the test to get into services.

Mine ended up on ESL for two reasons - reading ability and below expected vocabulary. He tested into services.