POULSBO — The English Language Learner program is helping more than 200 students in the North Kitsap School District to become proficient in English not just conversationally, but academically, as well.

Interim program director Tom Wyman said conversational and academic English are “two different critters.”

“(The program is) critical for kids to have success in meeting high school graduation requirements down the line,” Wyman said. “A lot of the kids can socialize. … They have enough English to do that. But classroom and educational English and scientific English is much more difficult.”

Kate Moriarty, who helps run the ELL program, said that the numbers of students in the program is often changing as new students move to the district. Currently, she said about 75 percent are Spanish speakers, but the program also has students whose first languages include Tagalog, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, Amharic and more.

She also said that five years ago, the number of enrolled students was about half of what it is now.

“Looks like it’s going to expand a little,” Moriarty said. “Not in terms of student numbers, because those have already expanded, and we’re now trying to meet the needs of more of the students in more of the buildings on a regular basis.

“Currently, the needs are being met by para(educator)s who have training in ELL, but we’re trying to also add in some certified, endorsed people to oversee the program and check in more often and make sure they’re getting the pieces they need with a little more awareness of what it means to learn a second language.”

Moriarty works with the program part-time and at the district administration office the other part. Other than her, the program has “bits and pieces” of many paraeducators, totaling about two full time paraeducators, working with the program. But Moriarty and Wyman hope to increase the number of staff associated with ELL in the future. They also hope to add a parent liaison bilingual in English and Spanish for behind-the-scenes work such as calling parents when necessary or accepting calls from them when students are sick and won’t be in school.

That task currently is handled by ELL educators working overtime in each building, Moriarty said.

Every new student in the district is given a language survey when they’re registered, which includes questions about whether or not other languages are spoken at home, and if English is a second language. Based on those surveys, Moriarty gives assessment tests to new students who may need help learning academic English to determine if they qualify for the program, and at what level, out of five.

Level one is little to no knowledge of English, level two is “beginner,” level three is “intermediate,” and levels four and five are advanced and proficient. After the students test out of the program, they are monitored for two years to ensure their success, Moriarty said.

Wyman said about two-thirds of the students in the program are categorized as level three.

Moriarty said that they hope to adopt a standardized curriculum for the 2015-16 school year so that the same material is being used to teach the ELL program district-wide. Wyman added, what is being taught is not dependent on grade level, but on the individual needs of the students.

“If a student has no English whatsoever, their program is going to look different than a kid who has pretty good English, but needs a little help,” Wyman said.

Most ELL teachers in the elementary and middle schools have gone through GLAD — Guided Language Acquisition and Development — training, which “is designed to help teachers be more effective in working with kids with limited English proficiency,” Wyman said.

Moriarty has undergone GLAD training and introduced concepts of it at the high school, but as most high school students are at a higher level of proficiency, formally training all high school teachers isn’t as high a priority.

The amount of time it takes for a student go from level one to level five also varies, but statistics show that it takes about five to seven years to become proficient in a second language, Moriarty said.

Wyman said, “As I look ahead, I can see the program expanding, getting bigger, just because of the number of kids and the number of needs out there.

“I think we’re going to be looking at next year and the years beyond because I don’t see that trend reversing itself,” he said. “So it will be a challenge.”

Moriarty said, “A lot of the students come in and you learn conversational language within a year or two. It’s pretty quick to pick up English. But when you start getting into other academic language, things like ‘factor’ or ‘categorize,’ just words that we take for granted … they don’t have.

“To teach them enough English to be able to function in society as a whole is absolutely critical.”