“This has been a topic that this board has been grappling with,” School Board Chairman Javaid Siddiqi said after the presentation. “The next two years will be very interesting as to how we serve this population here in Chesterfield. I think, as a board, we are still quite torn as to what the best direction is.”

The local increase in English-language learners has coincided with some shifts in federal guidelines for how to serve these students.

The three major changes in standards, Senechal said, are the expansion of services into preschool, more engagement with the students’ families, and tighter accountability for school systems. For instance, the students will be tested more to assess growth.

Senechal said that submersion models where “you throw them in and hope they survive” are the least successful, while those that recognize both the home and new language, such as dual-language programs, are more successful.

School Board member Carrie Coyner said staff members have lamented federal guidelines that seem to push the students out of the English language-learning classification even though they still need the extra services, and she suggested the researchers take up that topic.