Anonymous wrote:ESOL teacher here. OP, here's what you should know about MCPS and ESOL: in order to be tested, there must be documented evidence of another language at home. A home language survey is sent out at K orientation, asking what languages are spoken at home, even if your child always responds in English. I personally do not like this criteria, but it's a county policy. If another language is listed, teachers must test the student. There is a new test this coming school year, but a shy kid who doesn't talk much, especially on the first days of school, could easily come back as needing ESOL when he or she actually does not.

If you absolutely do NOT want your child in ESOL, put English for everything. It's what I did, even though my Hispanic husband speaks Spanish with our daughter. If your child was entered into ESOL, even if you refuse service, she will still have to be tested every spring for English proficiency, and it is a huge hassle that I would not want my child going through for no reason.

Also, ESOL and bilingual education are completely different things.

Anonymous wrote:ESOL teacher here. OP, here's what you should know about MCPS and ESOL: in order to be tested, there must be documented evidence of another language at home. A home language survey is sent out at K orientation, asking what languages are spoken at home, even if your child always responds in English. I personally do not like this criteria, but it's a county policy. If another language is listed, teachers must test the student. There is a new test this coming school year, but a shy kid who doesn't talk much, especially on the first days of school, could easily come back as needing ESOL when he or she actually does not.

If you absolutely do NOT want your child in ESOL, put English for everything. It's what I did, even though my Hispanic husband speaks Spanish with our daughter. If your child was entered into ESOL, even if you refuse service, she will still have to be tested every spring for English proficiency, and it is a huge hassle that I would not want my child going through for no reason.

Also, ESOL and bilingual education are completely different things.

Anonymous wrote:OP here: Thanks 21:39.Since I am the only one she hears Spanish from I will just be putting English for everything. I don't like the idea of her being pulled out of class just because she doesn't do well on that one day. I have seen her respond well to questions at home (ex. Q: What's this? while being shown a picture of a duck. Her response? DUCK!!). But when we are at gym classes or trying to show relatives she freezes up. I don't like the idea of her being pulled out of class and missing instruction time to receive services she does not need. If anything, I feel like that would only serve to further delay her.

Anonymous wrote:From my review of Clarksburg ES it statistics, it seems that every single person of hispanic descent is labeled as ESOL (I think there were 33 hispanic kids and 34 ESOL). Is the label automatic if you are of hispanic descent?? Will my child will be labeled ESOL despite being born in the U.S. of two highly educated parents who were raised in the U.S. because of her hispanic background and the fact that I am trying to teach her spanish and french? When I started school, my parents had to fight to keep me out of bilingual education and I really saw the difference between myself and the other students who spent their early years in bilungual education. Those kids were done a disserve by being taught by someone that barely knew english and they were not prepared for HS not to mention college. I guess my main question is what does this designation mean? Will she be pulled out of class for remedial lessons despite the fact that she is being raised in a household that teaches her standard american english (I think that's the way MoCounty describes it)?

Anonymous wrote:No, to answer your question. First of all, ESOL designation has nothing to do with speaking 2 languages at home. It has to do with how well your child can speak, comprehend, read, and write in English. If you are English speaking and she speaks English just as much as she does Spanish, there would be no reason to put her in ESOL. It is not an automatic designation, and even if her entrance testing results deem her suitable for ESOL, you could still choose for her not to receive the services.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From my review of Clarksburg ES it statistics, it seems that every single person of hispanic descent is labeled as ESOL (I think there were 33 hispanic kids and 34 ESOL). Is the label automatic if you are of hispanic descent?? Will my child will be labeled ESOL despite being born in the U.S. of two highly educated parents who were raised in the U.S. because of her hispanic background and the fact that I am trying to teach her spanish and french? When I started school, my parents had to fight to keep me out of bilingual education and I really saw the difference between myself and the other students who spent their early years in bilungual education. Those kids were done a disserve by being taught by someone that barely knew english and they were not prepared for HS not to mention college. I guess my main question is what does this designation mean? Will she be pulled out of class for remedial lessons despite the fact that she is being raised in a household that teaches her standard american english (I think that's the way MoCounty describes it)?

That is impossible. You read the stats incorrectly.

Anonymous wrote:From my review of Clarksburg ES it statistics, it seems that every single person of hispanic descent is labeled as ESOL (I think there were 33 hispanic kids and 34 ESOL). Is the label automatic if you are of hispanic descent?? Will my child will be labeled ESOL despite being born in the U.S. of two highly educated parents who were raised in the U.S. because of her hispanic background and the fact that I am trying to teach her spanish and french? When I started school, my parents had to fight to keep me out of bilingual education and I really saw the difference between myself and the other students who spent their early years in bilungual education. Those kids were done a disserve by being taught by someone that barely knew english and they were not prepared for HS not to mention college. I guess my main question is what does this designation mean? Will she be pulled out of class for remedial lessons despite the fact that she is being raised in a household that teaches her standard american english (I think that's the way MoCounty describes it)?