State Board of Education adopts changes to English language learner standards, Mount Edgecumbe High School credit requirements

Thursday the Alaska State Board of Education and Early Development voted to adopt regulation changes regarding the assessment of English language learners, exit criteria for English learners, and updated English language proficiency standards.

The updated standards, WIDA English Language Development (ELD) Standards Framework, 2020 Edition: Kindergarten – Grade 12, are available online here. The previous standards were published by WIDA in 2007.

The State Board also voted to approve Dorothy Chase, Lydia Agnus and Mary Suzzuk Huntington to the Mount Edgecumbe High School Advisory Board and adopted proposed changes to Mount Edgecumbe High School credit requirements.

Meeting dates for the 2021-2022 school year, subcommittee appointments and minutes from the March 2021 and April 2021 meetings were also approved.

James Fields was re-elected as board chair through June 30, 2022. Keith Hamilton was elected as First Vice-Chair and Sandy Kowalski was elected as Second-Vice Chair.

The next board meeting will be a regular quarterly meeting held Aug. 23-25, 2021 in person in Fairbanks.