ESOL Information

 

 

When a student comes to our district from another country, we refer the family first to the Cobb County International Welcome Center ("IWC").  Their telephone number is 770.819.2383.  Parents can also contact the person in charge at karen.beaham@cobbk12.org   Families should bring a copy of the student's birth certificate and transcript (translating into English if possible) to the IWC because they provide a transcript in our form for us to put into our computer system for international students.  It also helps us know how to appropriately place the student for academic classes.  The IWC will give you documents to bring to Pope for registration.  We will need to see documents showing your address to verify that you reside in our district and the student's immunization forms will need to be translated into English for the Cobb County health office to put on our required form.  The IWC has some translators available to assist you with this.

 

At the IWC, the student is given a simple assessment in math and English reading, speaking and writing to determine if the student is eligible for ESOL services and to assist the school in placing the student in the appropriate math class.

 

If the student scores below the 5% level in English proficiency, the student can attend a different Cobb County high school for the Intensive English Language Program (IELP) for up to one year.  Then that student would come to their regular school for instruction when their English skills are sufficient to attend some regular classes.  If the student scores above that minimal level, the student is registered at their regular school (Pope in our case) and can take one ESOL class per day along with regular classes.  Pope does not offer a variety of ESOL classes in other subjects because our ESOL population is very small.  Most of our students from other countries have had some English instruction in their home countries and are able to attend regular classes right away.  They may need to audit some classes (ie. take them without credit) while gaining in their English proficiency for the first semester or two.

 

Some of our students are able to graduate on time if they start here as younger students, 9th or 10th grade, and they are bright, motivated students.  Others may need an extra semester or year to complete the graduation requirements because they started at a later age or they are not as strong students academically.  Our curriculum is rigorous and it's difficult to manage the work load in a new language right away.  We have been very impressed with how well most of our international students do at Pope.

 

If you have additional questions specifically about ESOL, please contact Kathryn Sax at x233 in Guidance.