Identification

There are no provincial standardized instruments and procedures for identification of ESL learners. Consequently, school boards are inconsistent in identification of ESL learners. Some boards vastly under-identify ESL learners. The following table indicates the numbers of ESL learners identified in all school boards. More than half the identified learners are from the Calgary Board of Education. The Edmonton Public School Board, with a student population of 81,200 students in the 2004-05 school year, has identified only 3,600 ESL students.

Table 7: ESL learners identified in Alberta

School Year	ESL learners identified in Alberta
1989-1999	14,673
1999-2000	17,632
2000-2001	21,671
2001-2002	23,180
2002-2003	26,806

Source: Alberta Learning (2004)

Without standardized instruments, school personnel can easily overlook ESL learners who are conversationally competent, and yet struggling with cognitive academic language proficiency. Further, there is no clarity or agreement on coding of ESL learners. The current coding system only reports foreign-born or Canadian-born statuses (301 and 303 respectively). It neither captures the needs of ESL learners nor facilitates meaningful tracking of progress among the diverse ESL populations.

Initial Assessment

There are no provincial standardized instruments and procedures for initial assessment of ESL learners. While some school boards have centralized assessment services, others have nothing in place. Without formal initial assessment instruments and processes, school personnel can neither determine whether a learner requires ESL instruction nor assess the level is of his or her level of academic language proficiency. Moreover, without the appropriate instruments and processes in place, the board cannot ascertain whether a learner has additional special needs.

Placement

There are no provincial procedures for placement of ESL learners. Many ESL learners are placed in schools without an ESL program or in classes without explicit ESL support. Though schools commonly place students age-appropriately, they may not provide academic and language support to assist learners with a background of sporadic education.