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District reports ACCESS for ELLs results: most multilingual learners remain below NJ exit level, six recommended to exit program
Summary
At its Aug. 25 meeting, a district assessment presenter said statewide ACCESS for ELLs results show district averages below the New Jersey Department of Education exit threshold of 4.5 in each domain; enrollment of multilingual learners doubled and six students were recommended to exit the program.
Dr. Mark Riese, presenting to the Pascack Valley Regional High School District Board of Education on Aug. 25, said preliminary ACCESS for ELLs results indicate the district’s multilingual learners remain below the New Jersey Department of Education’s exit requirement of 4.5 in each language domain.
“District wide averages remain well below the NJ DOE exit requirement of 4.5 in each category,” Riese told the board, adding that listening and comprehension were the strongest domains while speaking was the lowest.
Context: ACCESS for ELLs (Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State to State) is an annual English-language proficiency assessment used in New Jersey as part of federal and state monitoring for identified multilingual learners. Riese said the state’s change in assessment vendor and the new adaptive format mean the district is still awaiting fuller results for some measures, and that more comprehensive assessment reporting is expected at the September board meeting.
Key findings Riese reported: district averages fall short of the 4.5 exit threshold across speaking, writing, reading and listening; speaking is the lowest-scoring domain and may limit oral academic communication; writing and reading also fall short and point to the need for stronger literacy instruction and scaffolding in content classes.
Riese said the district’s enrollment of multilingual learners has more than doubled—from 11 students in 2023–24 to 24 in 2024–25—creating programmatic implications for staffing and targeted instruction. As a result of the assessment, six students were recommended to exit the program; Riese said the district expects roughly 20 students to remain in the program in 2025–26.
To support students, the district has an MLL teacher in each building and plans regional training for non-language teachers organized by Alyssa Merritt, the regional curriculum and instruction coordinator, to coordinate services across five sending districts. The district also offers Spanish heritage speakers classes at multiple levels and is exploring technology supports to aid language development.
Riese summarized: “The gap between receptive skills and productive skills highlights the importance of increasing structured opportunities for oral and written output in academic contexts.” The board was told a fuller assessment presentation will be delivered at the September meeting to meet state reporting requirements.
