Barnegat Township School District is committed to offer all of our English Language Learners with the opportunity to acquire English language success as well as academic success that will lead to obtaining a High School diploma. In doing so, Barnegat is dedicated to provide students with English language skills and cultural understanding they need to succeed academically as prescribed by national and state standards for English language acquisition.

Barnegat Township’s ESL program offers a focus on providing non-English speaking students with proficiency with the English language in a small group setting with other students of similar backgrounds. In doing so, the expectation is that students acquire oral as well as written competency and fluency. The courses provide assignments and tasks around the four major language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. We offer our ESL students with an opportunity to meet success in the ESL program, throughout their mainstream course work as well as in our community.

Testing English Proficiency

Barnegat Township assesses students English proficiency through:

• WIDA Screener is administered to newly registered students to assess oral, reading, and writing proficiency of each individual student.  These tests evaluate language ability in English for children from Kindergarten through 12th grade. 
• ACCESS (Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State to State), is a federally and state-required annual assessment and participation is a component of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) accountability. Even if a parent has refused ESL services, and that student has been identified as an English Learner, then that student must be administered the ACCESS for ELLs, annually until that student attains the State’s definition of English language proficient. This testing is administered to all English Learners in the spring of every year. This assessment score will determine a student's continued participation or exit from the program. A profile generated from this test provides teachers and parents with a view of their student's current ability in all four language skills-- listening, reading, speaking and writing.  ACCESS is a tool that measures progress for all identified ELLs, regardless of their use of program services or not.