The Nevada Department of Education’s Title III and English Learner (EL)/Immigrant program is designed to enhance school districts and other local education agencies’ capacity to provide high quality education to EL and immigrant students who represent at least 14% of Nevada’s school population. Per the Elementary and Secondary Education ACT (ESEA) as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) (2015), students are initially identified for language screening in a Nevada school if a language other than English is identified in one of the three following areas: the primary language of the student, the language of the home, or the language spoken with peers. Upon initial English proficiency screening, students whose results are less than a 4.5 on the WIDA Screener qualify for English learner services and assessment.

English learners are vastly diverse in their ages, home languages and cultures, length of time in the United States, academic achievement, as well as the assets they bring to their learning community. According to state and federal law, identified ELs are afforded affirmative steps to meet their unique linguistic needs as they developmentally progress towards academic English language proficiency and mastery of content grade level standards. Some ELs may only be a year from reaching this goal, while others may require support (including explicit language instruction) for another 2-5 years. Many studies indicate that some language learners can even take 7 years or more to acquire academic language.

To achieve this purpose, the Nevada Department of Education (NDE) supports school districts by providing professional development opportunities and technical assistance to increase their capacity to serve these students diverse linguistic needs so that they can succeed academically. Department support to districts and local education agencies includes: coordinating EL initiatives and EL policy development; providing programmatic leadership to share the knowledge base of issues related to EL programs; and supporting local institutions of higher education to develop creative professional development programs for teachers, principals, and other school-based educators.