English Language Proficiency Standards Public Comment PeriodAbout MDE : 
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English Language Proficiency Standards Public Comment Period
Minnesota English Language Proficiency Standards Public Comment Period Open January 11, 2008
The Minnesota Department of Education welcomes your participation in its decision-making process regarding a change in Minnesota’s English language proficiency (ELP) standards. Your participation in an online survey will inform our decisions and policies concerning service to English language learners (ELL). The public comment period will be open for 30 days beginning January 11, 2008.
In spring of 2007, 18 ESL directors from districts with 500 or more English language learners met to discuss Minnesota's ELP standards. The ELP standards committee recommended adopting the 2006 TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) standards for use in Minnesota beginning with the 2008-09 school year. Key points that the committee took into consideration for its recommendation to adopt the 2006 TESOL standards for use in Minnesota are:
- TESOL standards provide a framework that will allow Minnesota to build on current Minnesota ELP standards.
- TESOL standards are national standards which reflect current research regarding successful second language acquisition.
- The TESOL framework provides a mechanism to bring content specificity to English language proficiency standards.
- The TESOL framework lends itself to working with ESL as well as mainstream content area teachers and would support a variety of program models.
Further information can be accessed at: National TESOL (Teachers of English to Students of Other Languages) Standards
An online survey is available to enter your comments. Access the survey.
If you would like to mail in the questionnaire via US mail, please contact Leigh Schleicher at 651-582-8326 or leigh.schleicher@state.mn.us for a paper copy.