Nebraska College and Career Ready Standards
English Language Development Solutions:
Accelerate English Language Acquisition

Nebraska & ELPA21 Assessments

All students who attend school in grades K-12 in Nebraska are eligible to receive ELL services, while participating in the English Language Proficiency Assessment for the 21st Century (ELPA21). The exam consists of online tests of reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. There is also a paper written section for students in Kindergarten and first grade. Students’ scores are used for state and federal reporting and in decisions about continuation of ELL services.

What is ELPA21?

The English Language Proficiency Assessment for the 21st Century (ELPA21) measures students’ proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, listening to, and understanding English. ELPA21 defines “proficiency” as the ability to use the English language to communicate ideas, knowledge, & information.

English Language Educators and Multilingual teachers can help English Language Learners accelerate their English language acquisition, ensure equity for all English Language Learners, and feel confident that their ELL students can succeed and pass the ELPA21 exam.

What does the ELPA21 Assessment Measure?

The ELPA21 assessment system focuses on student growth based on a set of English Language Proficiency (ELP) Standards developed by educators. The assessment system was designed to ensure English Language Learners leave high school prepared for college and career success. The ELPA21 approach to ELP standards centers on features and professional learning for not only ELL educators and administrators, but for content teachers as well.

Summit K12 Language Development is evidence-based and aligns with the ELPA21 Assessments.

Ensure your K–12 English Language Learners are making steady progress toward their English Language Proficiency Growth Goals throughout the year and are prepared for Spring and Fall testing with the Connect to Literacy™ online Review and Readiness program.

Summit K12:

Is adaptive to all learners through Individualized Language Learning Plans (ILLPs)
Provides Autoscoring—including enhanced AI for Speaking Items
Offers Embedded ELPA21 Speaking and Writing Rubrics
Was created to differentiate across The 6 Grade bands: K, 1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-8, 9-12

Summit K12 helps all English Language Learners in ELPA21 States meet the Achievement Level Descriptors (ALDs) at six different grade bands, covering all five ELL standards. Connect to Literacy supports growth in all four domains with just 30-60 minutes of practice a week.

Other States that Use the ELPA21 Assessments:

Oregon
Iowa
Arkansas
West Virginia

Achievement Level Descriptors Include:

Level 1 – Beginning
Level 2 – Early Intermediate
Level 3 – Intermediate
Level 4 – Early Advanced
Level 5 – Advanced

REQUEST A QUOTE

Help Students Progress At least One Proficiency Level

ELPA21 Readiness — Listening-Speaking

Developed specifically for the ELPA21 exams, and including grade-level benchmarks, Connect to Literacy offers more than 2,000 practice items modeled after the ELPA21 Listening and Speaking item types. Using Connect to Literacy, English learners from Beginning to Advanced High will develop their vocabulary and practice speaking and listening in a supported online environment designed to accelerate English language acquisition and prepare students for their exam.

Through audio, video, and ELPA21 Listening-Speaking practice assessments, students actively engage with English and build language proficiency.

Listening Practice Items

Connect to Literacy provides listening items for all proficiency levels, modeled after ELPA21 item types so that students become confident in listening, comprehending, and responding to English in a variety of ways. All Listening item types include Lesson modeling videos to guide student practices.

Speaking Practice Items

Students will practice speaking using a variety of prompts, differentiated based on proficiency level and modeled after ELPA21 item types. All speaking items include Lesson Model Videos to guide students and Model Exemplar recordings for students to listen to after they submit their recordings. Every answer is recorded so that teachers can listen to the responses, rate them using the interactive speaking rubric, and provide coaching to guide student growth.

ELPA21 Readiness — Reading-Writing

ELPA21 Reading Readiness

The Connect to Literacy online ELPA21 Reading and Writing program provides structured skills practice to help students become proficient readers and writers and prepare for success on the ELPA21 exam.

With its easy-to-use interface designed for students with limited English proficiency, Connect to Literacy can be used independently by students at home or at school. Comprehensive reporting enables teachers to monitor students’ progress and provide support remotely or in person.

The Connect to Literacy Reading Course includes content differentiated at 6 grade-bands to mimic the ELPA21 grade-level differentiation and provide you with an accurate predictor of test outcomes.

ELPA21 Writing Readiness

Connect to Literacy guides English learners through the process of completing five practice writing activities during the fall semester that mimic the official ELPA21 writing samples that will be completed in the second semester. First, students prepare using Connect to Literacy’s writing skill-building activities, mini-lessons and examples.

The Connect to Literacy Writing course includes Writing Skills and Grammar lessons covering 100% of the standards. This gives teachers the lessons, practice items, and assessments to help students prepare for the ELPA21 exam.

Note: For Kindergarten students, the writing portion of the ELPA21 assessment is given by paper and pencil, not online.

ELPA21 Mastery

The Connect to Literacy online English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS) Mastery Course covers 12 areas of foundational language development to build proficiency in all four language domains.

This interactive, engaging program provides more than 23,000 grade—and language proficiency-level activities for students to learn and practice their English language skills. Used along with the Connect to Literacy Listening-Speaking and Reading-Writing programs, you can accelerate language acquisition for your English Learners and prepare them for success on the ELPA21 exam.

12 Comprehensive ELPA21 Mastery Course Skill Building Modules

Teachers unlock the skill building modules they want students to work on. Built for the ELPA21 test and aligned with The Common Core and WIDA standards, students listen to words and phrases and record themselves speaking them back, practice using words such as abstract nouns, and listen to sentences and practice writing them, and much more.

Embedded Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Several ELPA21 Mastery modules include embedded AI to automatically rate student pronunciation and writing skills while providing automatic feedback to students to promote self-efficacy and mastery while accelerating the learning process.

Distinct Sounds of English

Provide students with practice using the 44 unique sounds of English which are not part of the Spanish language.

Phonemic Fundamentals

Reinforce the building blocks of English from consonant and vowel sounds to suffixes, prefixes and root words.

High-Frequency Words

Students are introduced to grade appropriate research-based high frequency vocabulary words and practice using them.

Thinking Words

Students learn and practice using often overlooked words — like describe,
differentiate, interpret, and predict — that are essential to success on the ACCESS exam.

Cognates

This module will help Spanish speakers gain confidence in English quickly as they learn words that look familiar and have the same meaning in their native language.

Antonyms

Students formally learn what antonyms are and are introduced to them in word pairs through audio and visual content.

Synonyms

Students are introduced to word pairs using both audio and visual content that have the same or similar meanings.

Homonyms

Covering Homophones, Homographs and Homonyms, this module teaches the differences between the three types of word pairs with hundreds of examples.

Connecting Words

These words are necessary for students to write and speak clearly. Students will learn the different types of conjunctions and their uses.

Academic Vocabulary

This module provides interactive flash cards for all TEKS and STAAR academic vocabulary in core subjects from K-12.

Idioms, Expressions, Adages & Puns

Students are shown a visual of the literal meaning of an expression and then a visual of the actual meaning of grade appropriate, high frequency idioms as well as common adages and puns.

Abstract Nouns

Designed for students at the Advanced or Advanced High proficiency levels, this module provides guided practice using some of the most challenging words for English learners.

Monitor Student Progress Towards Mastery

Easy-to-understand, yet data-rich, reports provide teachers with insights into students’ ongoing language growth. At-a-glance, see which proficiency level students are at, then drill down to learn in which areas students need additional practice and support.

ELPA21 Exam Prioritized Focus Area & Essential Action Reports

The Connect to Literacy program includes two diagnostic Listening, Speaking, and Reading benchmarks that can be administered in the fall and winter to monitor student proficiency growth and support.