Successful ELL Policies

After reading about the issues school districts are facing around the country trying to meet the needs of English Language Learners or ELL students, I searched the Education Week archives looking for articles talking about school districts that have had some success.  I found this article published online on October 22, 2009:  Four Cities Cited For Successful ELL Policies.  Four urban school districts in Dallas, San Francisco, New York City, and St. Paul, Minnesota, demonstrated an improvement in state reading test scores of 3rd and 4th grade ELL students between 2002 and 2006.

According to the article, which was based on a report by the Council of the Great City Schools, school districts that are successful with ELL students employ three common best practices:  1.  They provide strong oversight from a central office responsible for ELLs.  2.  These districts ensure that teachers receive training and professional development on how to work with ELLs.  3.  Successful districts use student data to improve instruction.

The report also stated that districts that are not successful with ELL students have the following in common:  1.  They do not have a vision for educating ELL students.  2.  They limit access to the general curriculum.  3.  They have not given authority and resources to the district office responsible for ELLs.
4.  They do not use disaggregated student data in a systematic way.

This article leads me to yet more questions.  What are the policies in the Salem-Keizer School District regarding English Language Learners?  What are the current state laws regarding ELL education in Oregon?