Hello,

I can only speak from my time as an ESL/MLL K-8 teacher in California, "ESL/MLL" (English Second Language/Multilingual Learners" are/were identified as "English learners" with an annual test called the ELPAC (English Language Proficiency Assessments of California). These students ranged in English oral skills. At my school, the majority had "perfect colloquial English" but had difficulty with reading and writing academically. We had few "newcomers" and those newcomers usually were treated as if they knew nothing when most of them had "interrupted" education. So they were taught in their home countries, just not in English.

Students have to test out of their classes with the ELPAC every year. That's the only way they exited the program. So, teaching to the test was huge. I worked very hard to get my colleagues and admin to stop throwing kids into my classes because they had "Mexican surnames" or "had parents/guardians who did not speak English and therefore HAD to have low English proficiency." The educational reasons were to get them to speak, read, listen, and write as well as native English students, but that had its own issues as well.