Bound Brook reports strong ACCESS gains; district expands dual-language and Spanish offerings

A district staff member identified in the meeting as Claudia presented the Bound Brook Board of Education with ACCESS English-proficiency results and a multi-year comparison showing measurable gains for multilingual learners following expansion of the district—dual-language program.

Claudia said ACCESS (New Jersey epartment of Education/WIDA assessment) measures listening, speaking, reading and writing and noted that this year the district mailed individual student reports in English and the student—amily's home language in line with NJDOE guidance. "From that score, we get ... can-do descriptors, which gives us a picture of what the student can do at each of those proficiency levels across the four domains," she said.

Key data presented: district staff reported 676 identified multilingual learners as of the week of the presentation, with 70 additional students in process on the WIDA screener; if all are identified the total could reach about 743 multilingual learners, which the presenter said would be roughly 35% of the…