Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
The California ELD Standards define what English Learners should know and be able to do in English at each stage of their development, and they shape daily instruction for more than a million students. This guide explains what the standards are, the three proficiency levels, how they are structured, how designated and integrated ELD work, and how the standards connect to the ELPAC and content instruction.
Table of contents
What Are the California ELD Standards?
Quick answer: the California English Language Development (ELD) Standards, adopted in 2012, describe the English language skills students need to access grade-level content and demonstrate their learning. They work hand in hand with California’s content standards: the content standards say what students learn, and the ELD standards say how English Learners develop the language to learn it. They are organized around three proficiency levels, Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging.
The Three Proficiency Levels
| Level | What it describes |
|---|---|
| Emerging | Students beginning to use English; need substantial support. |
| Expanding | Students using increasingly varied English; need moderate support. |
| Bridging | Students using English for a wide range of academic tasks; need light support. |
These levels align with the ELPAC, so a student’s assessment results connect directly to the instruction the standards call for.
How the Standards Are Organized
The ELD standards are built in two parts that work together:
- Part I: Interacting in Meaningful Ways. The purposeful use of English across three modes: collaborative (engaging in dialogue), interpretive (understanding spoken and written texts), and productive (creating spoken and written language).
- Part II: Learning About How English Works. Understanding the structure of English, from how texts are organized to how sentences and vocabulary build meaning.
The emphasis throughout is using language for real communication and academic tasks, not isolated grammar drills. The collaborative and productive modes in particular depend on students actually speaking and being heard.
Designated vs Integrated ELD
California requires two complementary kinds of ELD:
- Designated ELD: a protected time when teachers work with English Learners on language at their proficiency level.
- Integrated ELD: language development woven into every content class, so all teachers support English while teaching their subject.
Both use the ELD standards, and both are required, because English develops all day, not just in one block. In practice, integrated ELD is where most English Learners spend their time, so content teachers, not just ELD specialists, carry the standards.
What This Means for Districts
Implementing the standards well means more than adopting a curriculum. It means giving every teacher the tools to support language in their subject, protecting designated ELD time, and, crucially, creating enough opportunities for students to use English in the collaborative and productive modes the standards prize. That last point is the hardest to deliver at scale, because meaningful speaking practice is bounded by a single teacher’s attention.
The Proficiency Continuum Within Each Level
Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging are not three rigid boxes but points along a continuum. Within each level, a student moves from an early range, where they are just beginning to work at that level of English, toward an exit range, where they are ready to move up. This is why two students both described as Expanding can look quite different: one may have just left Emerging while another is nearly ready for Bridging. The standards frame each level by how much support a student needs rather than by what they cannot do.
| Level | Support needed | What students can typically do |
|---|---|---|
| Emerging | Substantial | Use English for immediate, familiar needs; students often progress quickly at this level. |
| Expanding | Moderate | Use growing English in more varied and advanced ways across academic tasks. |
| Bridging | Light | Use high-level English independently across a wide range of grade-level tasks. |
Reading a level as a range rather than a fixed label helps teachers pitch scaffolds accurately. A student in the early Expanding range still needs frequent modeling and sentence frames, while one approaching the exit of Expanding can handle more open-ended academic talk. The Summative ELPAC performance level descriptors draw directly on this Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging language, which is what lets an assessment result translate into an instructional starting point.
Planning Integrated ELD in a Content Classroom
Because integrated ELD is where most English Learners spend their day, the standards ask every content teacher, not only the ELD specialist, to plan for language alongside content. In practice this means identifying the language demand of a lesson and then differentiating the scaffolds by proficiency level. Consider a middle-school science lesson where students must explain a cause-and-effect relationship.
| Proficiency level | Sample scaffold for the same task |
|---|---|
| Emerging | A sentence frame with word bank: “The _____ caused the _____ to _____.” |
| Expanding | An open frame plus connectives: “Because _____, the _____ began to _____, which led to _____.” |
| Bridging | A prompt to explain the relationship in a short independent paragraph using target vocabulary. |
The content goal stays the same for every student; the language support flexes to the level. Planning this way keeps English Learners in rigorous, grade-level content while still giving them access to it, which is precisely the balance the CA ELD Standards are designed to strike. It also makes the collaborative and productive modes concrete, since each scaffold is built around students producing language and interacting about it, not just listening.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the California ELD Standards?
Standards adopted in 2012 that define the English language skills English Learners need to access grade-level content, organized around Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging levels.
What are the three ELD proficiency levels?
Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging, describing increasing English proficiency and decreasing need for support.
How are the ELD standards structured?
In two parts: Interacting in Meaningful Ways (collaborative, interpretive, and productive modes) and Learning About How English Works.
What is the difference between designated and integrated ELD?
Designated ELD is a protected time focused on language at the student’s level; integrated ELD embeds language support in every content class. Both are required.
How do the ELD standards relate to the ELPAC?
The ELPAC measures where a student sits, and the ELD standards guide the instruction that moves them forward; both use the Emerging/Expanding/Bridging framework.
Is a student always the same within a proficiency level?
No. Each level spans a range from an early phase to an exit phase, so two students both at Expanding can differ substantially in how much support they still need. Teachers read the level as a continuum and adjust scaffolds accordingly.
How are the three levels defined?
By the amount of support a student needs: Emerging students need substantial support, Expanding students need moderate support, and Bridging students need light support to work with grade-level English.
Do content teachers have to use the ELD standards?
Yes. Integrated ELD makes language development the responsibility of every content teacher, who plans for the language demand of a lesson and differentiates scaffolds by proficiency level while keeping the content goal the same for all students.
Related Resources
- English Learner Funding in California
- English Learners in California
- ELPAC Explained
- ELPAC Levels Explained
- RFEP and Reclassification in California
- Dual Language Programs
Conclusion
The California ELD Standards give teachers a shared language for developing English alongside content, across three proficiency levels, two parts, and both designated and integrated instruction. Their emphasis on purposeful, interactive English is a reminder that students build the language by using it, which is where individualized speaking practice makes the biggest difference.
Sources: California Department of Education, ELD Standards; CDE, English Learners.
Giving Every Level the Interaction the Standards Demand
The collaborative and productive modes are the heart of the ELD standards, and they are the two a teacher cannot fake. A student at Emerging needs different scaffolds than one at Bridging, and in a single classroom both sit side by side, each waiting for a turn to actually use English out loud.
That is where the standards outrun a classroom’s capacity. Interaction, by definition, takes a partner who listens and responds, and one teacher divided among a full roster cannot be that partner for every student, every day, at every level.
So districts add ways for students to interact at their own level beyond the teacher’s direct time. Telo AI is one example, offering practice matched to the Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging ranges, in English plus Spanish and French for dual language programs.
See how practice can match a student’s proficiency level: https://mytelo.ai/how-telo-works/
Used alongside designated and integrated ELD, that kind of practice lets the standards live in daily use rather than on paper. Students build the language the standards describe the only way anyone does, by using it, at their level, again and again.