The local chapter of Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers is hosting a free STEM event for 7-12 grade students and families on Friday, December 7, 2018 from 6:00-9:00 p.m. at Collinsville Middle School.

Noche de Ciencias (Night of Science) is a an opportunity to learn about STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math – careers and meet professionals from STEM-related fields.  Several local universities will be on hand to talk about their programs.

SHPE developed Noche de Ciencias as a way to get students and parents involved with STEM.  The program allows students to participate in hands-on STEM activities, while interacting with STEM undergraduate students and professionals. Parents are provided with college resources that help encourage their children to pursue higher education and STEM careers.

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The mission of the English Learners’ program in the Collinsville Unit 10 School District is to embrace, respect, and build upon the unique cultural-linguistic characteristics that students and families bring to the learning community for the benefit of all aspects of American life and to be successful in the global community.

Collinsville Unit 10 School District provides Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) and Transitional Programs of Instruction (TPI) to eligible students within the district. The program employs full-time certified professionals as teachers and tutors to work with students in grades Pre-K-12. In addition, full time translators are employed to assist our bilingual families. Any family requiring the assistance of a translator to communicate with Unit 10 staff, may contact their school office.

The Transitional Bilingual Education program is for students to develop pride in their home language while learning all aspects of language in both Spanish and English and have an understanding of the promise of career success that biliteracy creates.  

The Transitional Program of Instruction in District 10 serves English Learners whose home language is one other than English.  The mission of this program is to develop linguistic and academic achievement through instruction that integrates both content and language learning, and by embracing, respecting, and building upon our students’ rich language and cultural backgrounds.

The following screeners: Pre-IPT (PK), MODEL (K),  or the WIDA (1st-12th) are used to determine student eligibility in the program. These tests assess English proficiency in the four domains: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Parents of eligible students are notified of program enrollment annually.

All K-12 students enrolled in the program, as well as those who have not previously scored proficient, are required to take the state administered ACCESS test annually. ACCESS for ELLs is a standards-based, criterion-referenced English language proficiency test designed to measure English language learners’ social and academic proficiency in English. It assesses social and instructional English as well as the language associated with language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies within the school context across the four language domains. The results give parents, teachers and schools one measure of student learning and school performance. PARCC is administered to all English Language Learners in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and high school students in English III and Algebra II. Testing accommodations are available to all students who take these exams as appropriate.

ILLINOIS BILITERACY SEAL & COMMENDATION

Collinsville High School English Learning students have the opportunity to be recognized by the State of Illinois for earning proficiency in English and one additional language. The Illinois State Board of Education’s Seal of Biliteracy program will place an official seal on diplomas and confer official recognition on transcripts of qualifying students.

Two honors are available: the Seal of Biliteracy and the Commendation Toward Biliteracy. The Seal of Biliteracy is awarded to those whose proficiency level is equivalent to the Intermediate High scale set by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. The Commendation of Biliteracy is awarded to students whose proficiency level is rated at Intermediate Low or Intermediate Mid in a second language.

To qualify for the Seal of Biliteracy, English Learning seniors must:

• Earn a minimum overall score of 5.0 with minimum subtest scores in reading and writing of 4.2 on the ACCESS for ELLs exam, AND
• Earn a minimum score of I-5 on the ACTFL’s Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages (AAPPL) exam. The following languages can be assessed with the AAPPL exam: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), French, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

To qualify for the Commendation Toward Biliteracy, English Learning seniors must:

• Earn a minimum overall score of 3.5 Literacy on the ACCESS for ELLs exam, AND
• Earn a minimum score of I-1, I-2, I-3 or I-4 on the ACTFL’s Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages (AAPPL) exam. The following languages can be assessed with the AAPPL exam: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), French, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
  
  If you are interested in applying for the Seal of Biliteracy, please see your counselor for an application to apply for testing.

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