About Our District EL Specialists
Mrs. Shawna DeCola is the English Language Specialist for Grades K-5 at Barberton Primary School and Intermediate School. Mrs. DeCola has her master's degree in education, TESOL Endorsement, and Reading Endorsement. She is bilingual in Spanish and English and has extensive experience working with ELs in Ohio and California. She also served as a classroom teacher for several years, and most recently as the RTI coach at Barberton. She has presented at professional development workshops, most recently the KEEP conference (The Kent Education Excellence Partnership). In 2017, Shawna was awarded the Outstanding Educator Award for High Impact Instruction from the Summit County Education Service Center. Mrs. DeCola brings a wealth of experience with her to serve our English Learners and their teachers.
Randa Nemer Shaheen is the English Language Specialist for Grades 6-12 at Barberton Middle School and High School. Mrs. Shaheen has a master’s in education, teaching license in English Language Arts Grades 7-12 and TESOL Endorsement. Mrs. Shaheen is bilingual in Arabic and English. She has presented at the Ohio TESOL Conference, the Northeast Ohio Achieve Workshop, and the KEEP conference. She started the annual cultural festival which has been featured in the SST8 Family Engagement Showcase, Akron Beacon Journal, and Barberton Herald. In 2018 Randa was recognized with the Ohio TESOL Excellence in Teaching award, and previously, she was awarded Rookie of the Year by the Summit County Education Service Center. She also received the 30 For the Future award in 2019 from the Greater Akron Chamber. Mrs. Shaheen is devoted to advocating for the needs of her English Learners and their families.
About Our EL Program
Barberton City Schools Instructional Vision:
Teachers provide differentiated instruction ensuring students are actively engaged in rigorous standard-aligned lessons.
Our program helps ELs learn the language and use it to make social and academic progress. The goals of the English Learner Program are to:
1. Increase English language proficiency in reading, writing, listening, speaking, comprehension, and production.
2. Improve study habits and guide students towards the completion of assignments.
3. Increase social and academic vocabulary.
4. Provide language accommodations and modifications for students.
5. Help biculturate ELs to the American culture and adjust to their new surroundings, while nurturing and promoting their native culture.
6. Update parents, teachers, and administrators regarding EL information and activities.
ELs come from different cultural backgrounds and speak another language at home. They could have been born in another country or were born in The United States and were raised speaking another language, before they learned English. Speaking a language other than English impacts the students’ learning because they might have difficulty with reading, writing, listening, and/or speaking in English.
There are different ways of instructing ELs. Pull-out instruction entails pulling the student out of the mainstream classroom and teaching a lesson separately to the EL. Push-in instruction involves working with the teacher to instruct the EL in the mainstream classroom. Since each student has a different way of learning and depending on the lesson, the most effective and conducive learning strategy is used for our students.
Part of teaching ESOL entails evaluating our students' English language proficiency. The OELPA is the Ohio English Language Proficiency Assessment and helps us understand how we can better serve our students. Please refer to the link below regarding ELs and the OELPA assessment that will be conducted in February-April of 2017.
Students must meet the following criteria to exit the EL program (from the OELPA Exit Criteria) :
In OELPA, there are three overall performance levels: Proficient, Emerging, and Progressing. The performance levels are determined as follows:
As our mission states at Barberton City Schools, our goal is to help students learn, achieve, and act with purpose and compassion. We enjoy working with our students and hope that they achieve academic and social success!
Teachers provide differentiated instruction ensuring students are actively engaged in rigorous standard-aligned lessons.
Our program helps ELs learn the language and use it to make social and academic progress. The goals of the English Learner Program are to:
1. Increase English language proficiency in reading, writing, listening, speaking, comprehension, and production.
2. Improve study habits and guide students towards the completion of assignments.
3. Increase social and academic vocabulary.
4. Provide language accommodations and modifications for students.
5. Help biculturate ELs to the American culture and adjust to their new surroundings, while nurturing and promoting their native culture.
6. Update parents, teachers, and administrators regarding EL information and activities.
ELs come from different cultural backgrounds and speak another language at home. They could have been born in another country or were born in The United States and were raised speaking another language, before they learned English. Speaking a language other than English impacts the students’ learning because they might have difficulty with reading, writing, listening, and/or speaking in English.
- ELs at Barberton City Schools speak Arabic, Chinese, Pashto, Serbian, and Spanish; with Arabic and Pashto being predominantly spoken by our students and interpreters available for students and families with limited English.
There are different ways of instructing ELs. Pull-out instruction entails pulling the student out of the mainstream classroom and teaching a lesson separately to the EL. Push-in instruction involves working with the teacher to instruct the EL in the mainstream classroom. Since each student has a different way of learning and depending on the lesson, the most effective and conducive learning strategy is used for our students.
Part of teaching ESOL entails evaluating our students' English language proficiency. The OELPA is the Ohio English Language Proficiency Assessment and helps us understand how we can better serve our students. Please refer to the link below regarding ELs and the OELPA assessment that will be conducted in February-April of 2017.
- Ohio Department of Education: English Language Learners (ELs) Click here for more information about ELs.
- Ohio Test of English Language Acquisition (OELPA) Click here for more information about OELPA.
Students must meet the following criteria to exit the EL program (from the OELPA Exit Criteria) :
In OELPA, there are three overall performance levels: Proficient, Emerging, and Progressing. The performance levels are determined as follows:
- "Proficient" students are those scoring any combination of 4's and 5's across all four domains;
- "Emerging" students are those scoring any combination of 1's and 2's across all four domains;
- "Progressing" students are those scoring any combination across the four domains that does not fall into Proficient or Emerging.
- Students identified "Proficient" as defined above in grades K-12 are eligible to exit the English Learner program.
- Students who receive a combination of 4's and 5's with one 3 are placed in the "Trial Mainstream" period. This is the path towards exiting the English Learner program.
As our mission states at Barberton City Schools, our goal is to help students learn, achieve, and act with purpose and compassion. We enjoy working with our students and hope that they achieve academic and social success!
EL Resource Guide
This document details the following information to explain our EL program at Barberton City Schools:
*Please contact Randa Nemer (RNemer@BarbertonSchools.org) for a copy of our EL Resource Guide.
- About ESL at BCSD
- Title III & ESSA Requirements
- Best Practices
- School Year Responsibilities
- Procedures
- State Testing Accommodations
- Checklists
- Activities
- Ohio ELP Standards
- Materials/Forms
- Resources
- Contact Information
*Please contact Randa Nemer (RNemer@BarbertonSchools.org) for a copy of our EL Resource Guide.
Acronyms
- BCS - Barberton City Schools
- EL - English Learner
- ELD - English Language Development
- ESOL - English to Speakers of Other Languages
- OELPA - Ohio English Language Proficiency Assessment
- TESOL - Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
