| MLS Help Center - About the MLS

About the MLS

What is the MLS?

The Multilingual Literacy SIFE Screener (MLS) is an online, semi-adaptive suite of assessments designed to provide educators in New York State with information about the home language literacy and math skills of newcomer students. The MLS was designed as a key step of the identification process for Students with Interrupted/Inconsistent Formal Education (SIFE).

It provides teachers with an automatically generated summary of students’ home language literacy skills so that teachers can design instruction appropriately.

Overview

A tool for New York school educators and administrators
Part of New York State’s SIFE Identification Process
Recommended for students age 8 through 18

A Project of:

Funded by:

Identifying SIFE with the MLS

The MLS is an essential tool designed to support educators in identifying Students with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFE) and evaluating their literacy skills in their home or primary language.

What is SIFE?

The New York State Education Department defines SIFE as follows:

A SIFE student in New York State must meet the following criteria:

Speaks a home/primary language other than English
Places "Entering" on the NYSITELL (New York State Identification Test for English Language Learners)
Newly enrolled in a US school within the last 12 months
Performs two or more grade levels below age-appropriate grade
Indicates a possible interruption or inconsistency in education during the SIFE Oral Interview

The MLS assessment is one step of the larger Multilingual Learner and SIFE identification process. For a more detailed look at this process and how the MLS fits into it, visit our "SIFE Identification" page.

A flowchart titled "ML and SIFE Identification" with two parts. Part 1: ML Identification includes Home Language Questionnaire, Individual Interview, and NYSITELL, leading to a Checkpoint. Part 2: SIFE Identification includes SIFE Oral Interview and Writing Screener, leading to a Decision (SIFE or not SIFE).

During the intake evaluation of newcomer students, New York educators can administer several assessments and tools to determine SIFE status.

MLS Assessment Types

The MLS has 2 main test types: Reading Comprehension and Mathematics. All tests begin with a practice section with audio recordings of a welcome message, instructions and question examples in the selected test language. Reading Comprehension and Mathematics assessments are available in 19 languages.

Additionally, we offer a vocabulary test in five languages: Chinese, English, Haitian Creole, Spanish, and Urdu.

All assessments are self-paced and the amount of time needed for administration depends on the student’s performance. The tests are semi-adaptive, and once the student’s grade placement is determined, the test stops. Students who take the same assessment won’t necessarily see the same questions, and may take different amounts of time to complete the tests.

A Note on Available Assessment Types

The graphic presented here shows the available languages for Reading Comprehension and Math assessments. In order to be considered SIFE, newcomer students must perform two or more grade levels below age-appropriate grade in reading and/or math due to a possible interruption or inconsistency in education. Assessments were originally created with this in mind, starting at the 3rd grade level for Reading Comprehension and 2nd grade for Math. In response to feedback from New York State educators, the MLS team has begun to incorporate early literacy and math for grade 1 into these assessments. The graphic indicates which languages have been updated to include these earlier grade assessment portions.

Current languages include: Arabic, Bangla, Burmese, Chinese, Dari, English, French, Fulani, Haitian Creole, Maay-Maay, Nepali, Pashto, Russian, S'gaw Karen, Somali, Spanish, Ki-Swahili, Ukrainian, and Urdu. The MLS team regularly develops assessments in new languages.

If there is a language you feel we should consider, please fill out our Request a Language Form.

Languages and Assessment Types Available

A chart shows available educational resources in different languages for Reading Comprehension and Math across various grade levels. Each row denotes a language, and checkmarks indicate available resources for Early Literacy to Grade 2, Grades 3 to 9, Grade 1, and Grades 2 to 9.

Get Started with the MLS

Getting Set Up

Visit mls.slalab.org to begin using the MLS. The MLS can be accessed on a desktop, laptop, or tablet. We do not recommend taking the assessment on mobile devices.

Checklist with a heading "Before administering, do you have:" followed by the items: BEDS Code/Password, Quiet administration room, Stable internet connection, Computer, laptop OR tablet, Headphones, Scratch paper/pencil (Math ONLY), Student has been registered with MLS, and Enough time.

Whether you are preparing to administer and organize tests for your school/district or planning to use the MLS to proctor an assessment with your students, we have tailored guides for you. Please access the appropriate guide below:

Viewable/Downloadable Quick Start Guide (PDF)

Viewable/Downloadable MLS Preparation Packet (PDF) - This includes the Preparation Guide, Registration Worksheet, and Assessment Worksheet.

History of the MLS

The MLS is the current instantiation of a project that began as a RISLUS research program in 2005 (the SIFE Assessment Project, funded by NYC DOE 2005-2008). The New York City Department of Education commissioned RISLUS to help them better understand how to serve their SIFE students, a population that was and still is especially high-risk for dropping out of high school. Students were assessed on the ALLD, a literacy assessment RISLUS developed in Spanish for testing new immigrants to the US. Report summaries of that research (Klein & Martohardjono, 2006; 2009) had two relevant findings. (1) In order to access grade level academic content, SIFE students need to acquire both English language and literacy skills and develop background knowledge, and (2) further developing native language literacy fosters English language learning, especially for SIFE students.

In order to help educators serve this vulnerable population, the RISLUS team recommended development of home language literacy assessments and curricular materials tailored specifically to the needs and backgrounds of SIFE students. In 2011 New York City Public Schools awarded RISLUS a five-year contract for several projects relating to English Language Learner services, including work on a home language literacy screener in five languages. The resulting assessments in Arabic, Bangla, English, Haitian Creole, Mandarin, and Spanish became the Literacy Evaluation for Newcomer Students (LENS) used in New York City in 2011-12. The LENS grew to include Maay-Maay, S’gaw-Karen, and Urdu in 2013-14. It also transitioned from being a paper and pencil test to an online test entirely conducted in the home language, which could automatically generate teacher reports. In 2016, NYSED took over the work and our tool, first called the Multilingual Literacy Diagnostic (MLD), and now called the Multilingual Literacy SIFE Screener (MLS), became accessible to schools across New York State. In 2017, the MLS expanded to include Burmese, French, Fula, Nepali, Russian, Somali, and Swahili. The MLS currently has a five-year contract with NYSED (2023-2028) during which we will update and add tests, as well as improve website functionality, and provide user support and training. The MLS is available at https://mls.slalab.org/.

Publications

Garrison, L., G. Martohardjono, and M. Chodorow, 2019. The Impact of Home Language Skills on L2 Reading Comprehension: A study of newcomer emergent bilinguals. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.

Martohardjono, G. and E. Klein, 2015. English language learners with low native language literacy: A profile and an intervention. In Santos, M.G. and A. Whiteside, eds., Low Educated Second Language and Literacy Acquisition: Proceedings of the Ninth Symposium. Lulu Publishing.

Curinga, R. and L. Garrison-Fletcher, 2015. The Importance of First-Language evading Skills in English Reading Comprehension for Adolescent Newcomers. In Santos, M.G. and A. Whiteside, eds., Low Educated Second Language and Literacy Acquisition: Proceedings of the Ninth Symposium. Lulu Publishing.

Klein, E., & Martohardjono, G. (2009). Understanding the student with interrupted formal education (SIFE): A study of SIFE skills, needs and achievement (Phase II). New York: New York City Department of Education.

Klein, E., & Martohardjono, G. (2006). Understanding the student with interrupted formal education (SIFE): A study of SIFE skills, needs and achievement (Phase I). New York: New York City Department of Education.