Attending a new school is nerve-wracking. Attending a new school where only a handful of teachers or study materials use your native language can be outright scary.

But for the 446 students actively participating in Limestone County Schools’ English learners program, it’s a fear that’s dissipating more and more each day. Just ask the 196 who were honored Monday for achieving proficiency growth targets on a recent assessment, or the 27 who scored high enough often enough to exit the program as fluent English speakers.

Allison Usery, federal programs director for LCS, said the students are predominantly Spanish-speaking, though dialects vary. In some cases, their family moved here from another country, or the student was adopted from another country.

“I had a school yesterday that got one in from Guatemala, and this one happened to be a second grader, but quite often there may be another (school) that gets a ninth-, 10th- or 11th-grade student,” Usery said.

When they register to attend an Alabama school, their English language mastery is assessed. Students are usually tested every year, Usery said, and those who need additional help learning English get to work with special teachers and instructional assistants to make sure they reach the same level as their classmates.

“It allows them to speak English proficiently and be able to articulate,” Usery said of the program. “It’s so beneficial for them to be bilingual when they’re ready to go out into college, the job force — whatever they choose to do once they leave our school system.”

LCS has seven EL teachers and three instructional assistants who work with students at each of the 15 schools in the system. Some schools have so many EL students they have a teacher who works solely with that school; others share a teacher.

“I’ve got one teacher who serves Cedar Hill (Elementary), Ardmore (High) and Johnson (Elementary), because it takes all those to equal what the other teachers have,” Usery said.

Generally, it takes five to seven years for a student to exit the program as a fluent English speaker. The district uses ACCESS 2.0 to assess students each year on a 0.0 – 6.0 scale. The scores from last year determine the growth targets for this year, and on Monday, nearly 200 students received certificates recognizing their success in hitting their targets.

Those who scored at least a 4.8 were deemed fluent enough to exit the program, earning them a certificate, a plaque and a yard sign that reads, “A High Achiever Lives Here!” Usery said 26 of the 27 exiting students were in elementary school, and many scored in the 5.0 – 6.0 range, meaning they were at grade-level proficiency.

Usery said the awards ceremony held Monday evening to honor them was a first for the system, and they were glad to see such an outpouring of support for the students. She said they weren’t sure how many would show, but event planners gave up counting the crowd once it reached 312. One person estimated as many as 350 students and family members attended.