ESL Rural Mural

Teaching ELLs

This site was created by Laura Stevens and ENL professionals in Central & Northern NYS. Our mission of our non-profit Northern Region ENL PLC is to proide an online space where rural and suburban ENL professionals with a variety of expertise in ELL/MLL education come together voluntarily to promote a sense of camaraderie and belonging through a support system that shares ideas, collaborates and networks from a common understanding and respect they have for their field and for each other.

NEW!

NYS Performance Learning Assessment Plan The Performance-Based Learning and Assessment Networks (PLAN) program began to help NYSED shift their instructional practices, with the ultimate goal of improved outcomes for all NYS students.

NYSED PLAN (Performance Based Learning & Assessment) PILOT Many resources in a Google Doc are located here.

WELCOME!

NEW! WIDA NEW YORK WEBPAGE WITH UPDATES

WIDA ACCESS-WHAT DOES THE TEST EVEN LOOK LIKE?

TRAINING FOR TEACHERS ABOUT THE ACCESS TEST

WIDA TRANSITION QUICK LINK

NEW! TABLE OF OUR MOST HELPFUL RESOURCES

NYSED Joins WIDA! Last NYSESLAT is 2026.Starting in the 2026-2027 school year, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) will begin using WIDA ACCESS Online, WIDA’s summative English language proficiency assessment. With this transition, New York will move from paper-based testing to online assessment . https://wida.wisc.edu/news/new-york-joins-wida-consortium-strengthening-support-multilingual-learners

The New York State Education Department has offered the Science of Reading for Multilingual

LearnersToolkit. This toolkit combines leading research on teaching literacy to ELLs and MLs

and offers guidance for teachers, school leaders and administrators. It is designed to support literacy for NYS English Language Learners and Multilingual Learners.

More: Literacy Toolkit Teaching ELLs to Read ELLs and the Science of Reading Slideshow July 2026 Newsletter