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District reports 2025 ACCESS gains for multilingual learners; 100% participation noted
Summary
Metuchen staff presented spring 2025 ACCESS results for multilingual learners at the Aug. 12 board meeting, reporting full participation, a modest increase in students exiting ESL services and program supports including high-impact tutoring and family-focused activities.
Metuchen Public School District staff reported Aug. 12 that the district achieved a 100% participation rate on the spring 2025 ACCESS English-language proficiency assessment for multilingual learners and described program supports and next steps to continue language development and family engagement.
Why it matters: ACCESS results guide placement and services for multilingual learners (MLs) and shape EL/ESL supports, staffing and programming across the district.
Lindsay O’Mark, the district’s supervisor of elementary instruction, multilingual learning and instructional technology, presented district ACCESS results and programming. O’Mark said home-language diversity in the district is broad, with Spanish and Indonesian among the most common languages, and that multilingual enrollment has grown slightly (from 88 to 89 students year to year, reflecting both incoming and departing students).
O’Mark said the ACCESS composite score is weighted (35% reading, 35% writing, 15% listening, 15% speaking) and that students score on a 1–6 scale; students generally enter services with scores between 1 and 4.4 and exit when they reach 4.5 or higher. She reported that “multilingual learners scored a 4.5 or higher on the ACCESS assessment this year,” and that approximately 17% of MLs exited the ESL program this year (O’Mark’s presentation compared this year’s exit rate to last year’s ~15% exit rate).
The presentation broke down instructional models by school: push-in co-teaching at two elementary sites (Moss and Campbell), pull-out services at Edgar and the high school, sheltered English instruction in K–5, and double-block ESL for students scoring below 2.5 at Edgar and the high school. O’Mark said the district uses a bilingual waiver to provide a second high-intensity period for language groups of 20 or more students.
Staff described a set of supports and initiatives tied to ACCESS outcomes: a high-impact tutoring grant targeted at language and literacy acceleration; STAR Academy summer tutoring with family components; creation of multilingual student profiles; a newly formed ML parent advisory committee; annual professional development in WIDA standards and sheltered-instruction strategies; and the use of translation technologies and Pocketalk devices to expand family engagement.
Board members asked clarifying questions. When asked whether families opt out of ESL services, O’Mark said about four or five students waived services this year and that teachers and ESL staff continue to provide supports to those students. Mr. Suss asked which next-step initiative she was most excited about; O’Mark highlighted the parent advisory committee and said it provided actionable feedback to tailor family-facing supports.
O’Mark said the average time in ESL varies but the district expects a five-year target for many students, with mobility making a precise average difficult. She also said the district will continue to refine post-exit “bridging” supports and agreed to follow up with more specifics on transition services for recently exited students.
The district will use ACCESS findings to refine instruction, deploy targeted tutoring and parent engagement activities, and continue professional development for staff working with multilingual learners.
