Customer Overview

Like a lot of communities in Virginia, the English Language Learner population in Roanoke is constantly growing in both size and diversity, driven by a large refugee organization in the community. Three years ago, Joe LeGault took over Roanoke’s ESOL program and quickly became overwhelmed by the inefficiencies of a paper-driven management system. He also saw an opportunity for more collaboration in the ESOL program, admiring the work of his colleagues in the Special Education department. Joe’s decision to invest in the Ellevation software platform allowed him to streamline paperwork while enabling the department-wide collaboration he sought. 

Inefficient Systems and Lack of Collaboration

Prior to implementing Ellevation, Joe had to track ESOL data by interviewing each teacher individually and then manually entering the student’s information into a spreadsheet. But in an environment of high student mobility, his work would often be outdated as soon as he finished entering it.  Worse, the hard-copy information he gathered and organized – stored in folders at the central office – could not be shared with educators. When Joe learned about Ellevation, he became one of the first districts in the country to use the platform. He hasn’t looked back since. 

Personalized Student Planning

Now that Roanoke’s ELL data is centralized on the Ellevation platform, Joe and his teachers can easily create individual language plans for each of their ELL students. ESOL teachers can write customized goals for their students, track growth, and collaborate with classroom teachers to ensure language support is embedded in their instruction. Roanoke’s teachers can teach more purposefully as a result. Increased collaboration among each of the ELL stakeholders, from the general curriculum teacher to the school testing coordinator, has been indispensable for Roanoke.

Thanks to the array of tools that Ellevation’s platform offers – such as the goal center, data dashboard and data audit – Joe has been able to better serve his ELL students and raise the expectations for what was possible for his school district.