The mission of the English Language Development (ELD) Program in the Mechanicsburg Area School District (MASD) is to provide non-native speakers of English with the support needed to achieve language proficiency and learning strategies to become successful in the mainstream classroom.  Instruction is designed to build academic language, using the curriculum to connect to prior knowledge and facilitate authentic learning opportunities.  The program is also designed to build social language by building relationships through heightened engagement in the school environment and therefore facilitating acceptance of differences in the world around us. The acquisition of social language and the building of self-confidence through meaningful relationships will allow English Learners to construct meaning that will transfer to the understanding of academic language needed to be successful participants in school and the community.