Texas Administrative Code
Title 19 - EDUCATION
Part 2 - TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY
Chapter 120 - OTHER TEXAS ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
Subchapter B - ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY STANDARDS
Section 120.21 - English Language Proficiency Standards, Grades 4-12, Adopted 2024

Universal Citation: 19 TX Admin Code § 120.21

Current through Reg. 50, No. 13; March 28, 2025

(a) Implementation. The provisions of this section shall be implemented by school districts beginning with the 2026-2027 school year.

(b) General requirements. In fulfilling the requirements of this section, school districts and charter schools shall:

(1) identify the student's English language proficiency levels in the domains of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in accordance with the proficiency level descriptors for the pre-production, beginning, intermediate, high intermediate, and advanced levels delineated in subsection (e) of this section;

(2) provide instruction in the knowledge and skills of the foundation and enrichment curriculum in a manner that is linguistically accommodated (communicated, sequenced, and scaffolded) commensurate with the student's levels of English language proficiency to ensure that the student learns the knowledge and skills in the required curriculum;

(3) provide content-based instruction, including the cross-curricular second language acquisition essential knowledge and skills in subsection (d) of this section, in a manner that is linguistically accommodated to help the student acquire English language proficiency; and

(4) provide intensive and ongoing foundational second language acquisition instruction to emergent bilingual (EB) students in Kindergarten-Grade 12 who are at the pre-production, beginning, or intermediate level of English language proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, or writing as determined by the state's English language proficiency assessment system. These EB students require focused, targeted, and systematic second language acquisition instruction to provide them with the foundation of English language necessary to support content-based instruction and accelerated learning of English.

(c) Introduction.

(1) The English language proficiency standards (ELPS) outline student expectations and proficiency level descriptors for EB students in English. The ELPS are organized across four language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

(2) Language acquisition is a complex process that consists of several interrelated components, including phonetics, phonology, semantics, syntax, morphology, and pragmatics. As students develop proficiency in these language structures, they are able to make connections between their primary language and English.

(3) Classroom contexts foster social and academic registers, which are types of language appropriate for a situation or setting, to support language proficiency. Informal (social) language consists of English needed for students to effectively interact, exchange ideas, and engage in various settings and contexts. Formal (academic) language consists of oral and written language used to build knowledge, participate in content-specific discourse, and process complex academic material found in formal school settings and interactions.

(4) The progression of skills in the four language domains are developed simultaneously and can be divided into two categories: receptive skills and expressive skills. Listening and reading are the receptive (input) skills. Students' development in receptive skills is necessary for comprehension and attainment of the English language and content. Speaking and writing are the expressive (output) skills. Students' ability to express and share their personal ideas and content knowledge allow teachers the opportunity to check for understanding and adjust instruction. Effective content-based language instruction involves engaging EB students in scaffolded opportunities to listen, speak, read, and write at their current levels of proficiency while gradually increasing linguistic complexity.

(5) In order for EB students to be successful, educators must create an environment that welcomes and encourages students to leverage their unique cultural and linguistic experiences as they develop English language skills and learn academic content. Educators must cultivate an approach that integrates students' and their families' funds of knowledge into the classroom instructional practices. Culturally and linguistically sustaining practices leverage and celebrate students' cultural heritage and backgrounds while elevating their cultural and linguistic identities. Teaching and learning cognates that connect both (or multiple) languages can also construct bridges between languages and increase confidence as English language acquisition progresses.

(6) The ELPS student expectations are the knowledge and skills students must demonstrate. They indicate what students should know and be able to do in order to meet academic content standards. Proficiency level descriptors describe behaviors EB students exhibit across five proficiency levels as they acquire English. EB students may exhibit different proficiency levels within and across the domains of listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

(7) The ELPS demonstrate an asset-based approach to address the affective, linguistic, and cognitive needs of EB students in accordance with § 89.1210(b) of this title (relating to Program Content and Design) as follows:
(A) acknowledge and leverage the existing funds of knowledge students possess, including linguistic repertoire, cultural heritage, and background knowledge;

(B) demonstrate targeted and intentional academic language skills to ensure content-area teachers are able to accurately evaluate the abilities of EB students and scaffold toward the increasingly complex English that students hear, speak, and are expected to read and write; and

(C) provide an exact and incremental measure of the stages of English language acquisition with attention to the fact that EB students at all levels of proficiency can engage in cognitively demanding tasks and master the required essential knowledge and skills with appropriate language support.

(8) The proficiency level descriptors are organized into general proficiency level descriptors and content-area proficiency level descriptors. General proficiency level descriptors are descriptions of a broad scope of student behaviors that can be observed in a variety of educational settings and across content areas. Content-area proficiency level descriptors describe student behaviors and language associated with discipline-specific learning in English language arts and reading, mathematics, science, and social studies.

(d) Cross-curricular English language acquisition student expectations.

(1) Student expectations--listening. The EB student listens to a variety of speakers, including teachers, peers, and multimedia, to gain an increasing level of comprehension in all content areas. The EB student may be at the pre-production, beginning, intermediate, high intermediate, or advanced proficiency levels in listening. The student is expected to:
(A) distinguish sounds and intonation patterns by responding with gestures or images, orally, or in writing;

(B) use contextual factors or word analysis such as cognates, Greek and Latin prefixes, suffixes, and roots to comprehend content-specific vocabulary when heard during formal and informal classroom interactions by responding with gestures or images, orally, or in writing;

(C) respond with accuracy to oral directions, instructions, and requests;

(D) use context to construct the meaning of descriptive language, words with multiple meanings, register, and figurative language such as idiomatic expressions heard during formal and informal classroom interactions;

(E) demonstrate listening comprehension from information presented orally during formal and informal classroom interactions by restating, responding, paraphrasing, summarizing, or asking for clarification or additional details; and

(F) derive meaning from a variety of auditory multimedia sources to build and reinforce concepts and language acquisition.

(2) Student expectations--speaking. The EB student speaks using a variety of language structures for a variety of purposes with an awareness of different language registers (formal/informal) using vocabulary with increasing accuracy and fluency in all content areas. The EB student may be at the pre-production, beginning, intermediate, high intermediate, or advanced proficiency level of English language acquisition in speaking. The student is expected to:
(A) pronounce words, including high-frequency words, cognates, and increasingly complex syllable types, with accuracy;

(B) speak using content-area vocabulary during formal and informal classroom interactions to demonstrate acquisition of new words and high-frequency words;

(C) speak using a variety of language and grammatical structures, sentence lengths and types, and transition words;

(D) speak using appropriate register to convey a message during formal and informal classroom interactions with accuracy and fluency;

(E) narrate, describe, explain, justify, discuss, elaborate, or evaluate orally with increasing specificity and detail in academic context or discourse; and

(F) restate, ask questions about, or respond to information during formal and informal classroom interactions.

(3) Student expectations--reading. The EB student reads a variety of texts for different purposes with an increasing level of comprehension in all content areas. The EB student may be at the pre-production, beginning, intermediate, high intermediate, or advanced proficiency levels of English language acquisition in reading. The student is expected to:
(A) demonstrate awareness of print concepts and directionality of reading as left to right and top to bottom;

(B) decode words using the relationships between sounds and letters and identify syllable patterns, cognates, affixes, roots, or base words;

(C) use high-frequency words, contextual factors, and word analysis such as Greek and Latin prefixes, suffixes, and roots and cognates to comprehend content-area vocabulary in text;

(D) use context to construct the meaning of figurative language such as idiomatic expressions, descriptive language, and words with multiple meanings to comprehend a variety of text;

(E) use pre-reading strategies, including previewing the text features, connecting to prior knowledge, organizing ideas, and making predictions, to develop comprehension;

(F) derive meaning from and demonstrate comprehension of content-area texts using visual, contextual, and linguistic supports;

(G) demonstrate reading comprehension of content-area texts by retelling, paraphrasing, summarizing, and responding to questions; and

(H) read with fluency and prosody and demonstrate comprehension of content-area text.

(4) Student expectations--writing. The EB student writes using a variety of language structures with increasing accuracy to effectively address a variety of purposes (formal and informal) and audiences in all content areas. The EB student may be at the pre-production, beginning, intermediate, high intermediate, or advanced proficiency levels of English language acquisition in writing. The student is expected to:
(A) apply relationships between sounds and letters of the English language to represent sounds when writing;

(B) write text following conventional spelling patterns and rules;

(C) write using a combination of high-frequency words and content-area vocabulary;

(D) write content-area texts using a variety of sentence lengths and types and transition words;

(E) write content-area specific text using conventions such as capitalization, punctuation, and abbreviations and grammatical structures such as subject-verb agreement, verb tense, possessive case, and contractions; and

(F) write to narrate, describe, explain, respond, or justify with supporting details and evidence using appropriate content, style, register, and conventions for specific purpose and audience.

(e) Proficiency level descriptors.

(1) The following five proficiency levels describe students' progress in English language acquisition.
(A) Pre-production. The pre-production level, also known as the silent period, is the early stage of English language acquisition when receptive language is developing. Students develop comprehension when highly scaffolded instruction and linguistic support are provided. Student responses are mostly non-verbal.

(B) Beginning. The beginning level is characterized by speech emergence (expressive language) using one word or two-to-three-word phrases. Students at this level require highly scaffolded instruction and linguistic support. Students at this level begin to consistently use present tense verbs and repeat keywords and familiar phrases when engaging in formal and informal interactions.

(C) Intermediate. The intermediate level is characterized by the ability to use receptive and expressive language with demonstrated literal comprehension. Students at this level need moderately scaffolded instruction and linguistic support. Additional visual and linguistic support is needed to understand unfamiliar or abstract concepts such as figurative language, humor, and cultural or societal references. Students at this level begin to consistently use short phrases and simple sentences or ask short questions to demonstrate comprehension during formal and informal interactions.

(D) High intermediate. Students at the high intermediate level begin to consistently use a variety of sentence types, express opinions, share thoughts, and ask for clarification. Students at this level have an increased level of literal and abstract comprehension. Students may need minimal scaffolded instruction and linguistic support to engage in formal and informal classroom interactions.

(E) Advanced. The advanced level is characterized by the ability of students to engage in formal and informal classroom interactions with little to no linguistic support. Students at this level engage in discourse using content-area vocabulary and a variety of grammatical structures with increasing accuracy.

(2) The Grades 4-12 proficiency level descriptors are described in the figure provided in this paragraph.

Attached Graphic

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