Academic Language Development (ALD) is a 1-year pilot course designed to build academic language, critical thinking, and critical writing skills for Long Term English Learners (LTEL). Students who have been enrolled in our system for 5+ years, perform at the Below Basic or Basic level on the CST, and who have a CELDT level of Intermediate or Early Intermediate will be enrolled in this course. This course is considered enrichment and not an intervention. As such, it will replace the elective in the students' schedules and be taken concurrently with a grade level English course.