New Brunswick Public Schools

• Grades K-5
  • Students participating in the Elementary ESL program receive instruction for forty minutes each day by a certified ESL teacher. During this “push in” period, the ESL teacher and mainstream teacher co-teach and collaborate to coordinate small group instruction according to their proficiency levels. During this time, the ESL teacher follows a curriculum based on the WIDA and New Jersey Student Learning standards and provides instruction to strengthen the student language in all four domains: listening, speaking, reading, with an emphasis on writing.  The goal is to create a true partnership in which the mainstream teacher and ESL teacher work with the students to foster a sense of self-efficacy and ownership of learning.
• Grades 6-8
  • This program is designed to use English as the language of instruction. Students’ receive 40 minutes of structure ESL. During this time, the ESL teacher follows a curriculum based on the WIDA and New Jersey Student Learning standards and provides instruction to strengthen the student language in all four domains: listening, speaking, reading, with an emphasis on writing.
• Grades 9-12
  • This program is designed to use English as the language of instruction. Students’ receive 80 minutes of structure ESL. During this time, the ESL teacher follows a curriculum based on the WIDA and New Jersey Student Learning standards and provides instruction to strengthen the student language in all four domains: listening, speaking, reading, with an emphasis on writing.
• High Intensity ESL
  • Students receive two or more periods of ESL instruction a day. One period is the standard ESL class and the other period is an ESL reading class.

English as a Second Language Only Program (ESL Only Program)

NBPS also provides ESL services to multilingual learners who are not in the Bilingual Transitional Program or in the Dual Language Program. These multilingual learners receive ESL only services for 40 minutes a day provided by a certified ESL teacher.  

Student participation in the ESL Only program depends on multiple criteria, such as ELP level as measured by the WIDA Screener or WIDA ACCESS assessments, ESL and classroom teacher recommendations, and academic performance. 

Multilingual Learners in the ESL Only Program interact 100% of the time with non-Multilingual Learners in academic and non-academic activities throughout the school day.  Students interact during regular classroom instruction, extended school programs, and special area subjects like Physical Education, Health, Art, Music, Library and Media, and World Languages. Students also have additional opportunities to interact with non-Multilingual Learners during non-academic times like lunch and recess and other school activities and events (see below for a more detailed list of school events and activities).