Oregon Education Service Districts

HB 3499 passed in 2015, appropriating 12.5 million dollars every biennium to support outcomes for English learners. The majority of these funds are being used to support districts who have been identified as either “Transformation” or “Target” districts. In addition to the support these districts are already receiving, we have also used the opportunity to use a small percentage of the funds to support our students through the hiring of EL Specialists, which are housed at five of our ESDs throughout the state.

Because funding is limited, we only have the capacity to house the EL Specialists at five of the ESDs. However, this is a statewide project and even though Specialists are only housed at 5 of the ESDs, every area of the state is supported. So if there isn’t an EL Specialist in your service area, you still have the opportunity to work with one. The one geographically closest to you would be the one you would work with.

The primary goal is to support those districts with less than 20 ELs and a few other districts whose data has shown they are in need of extra support. Support is different for every district and is dependent on the district’s specific needs. District leadership is a part of every step in the process of support. Additionally, Transformation and Target districts may also benefit from this support in the form of possible professional development opportunities.

We collaborated with the community and other offices throughout the department in the careful selection of which five ESDs would receive an EL Specialist. The ESDs were selected based on a number of criteria. First, we wanted to make sure there was geographic representation and they weren’t placed all in the same area of the state. We also looked at number of districts with less than 20 ELs, number of total EL students throughout the ESD, and number of districts whose data shows a high level of needed support. Because this is an ongoing grant and project, there is a possibility that ESDs who have not been selected to house an EL Specialist this biennium, will have an opportunity to do so in the future. Currently, the five ESDs who house an EL Specialists are listed above, and they are Clackamas, Willamette, South Coast, InterMountain, and Malheur.

Lastly, in an attempt to reach out to all districts with less than 20 ELs and other districts in need of supports throughout the state, we have been very purposefully planning how these five EL Specialists can additionally provide technical assistance to districts outside of these five ESDs. If you want to know more about possible supports your district could receive, please do not hesitate to contact one of the EL Specialists.

Project External Evaluation Results

We are currently in the fourth year of this project. We have had three full years of external evaluation through The Center for Education Innovation, Evaluation, and Research. Please see the results of this evaluation for each year.