New York's New ELP Assessment

Understanding the Shift and Leading with Confidence

New York's transition to a new assessment places rigorous accountability expectations on districts statewide. Summit K12 supports educators in leveraging this opportunity to strengthen instructional clarity, deepen academic language development, and ensure every multilingual learner has access to the instruction and support that sets them up to succeed.
Our tried and tested three-dimensional approach — targeted professional learning, proficiency-aligned curriculum, and data-informed precision — translates new assessment expectations into practical classroom action, equipping educators to lead the transition with confidence and empowering students to demonstrate measurable proficiency growth.

WIDA™ and ACCESS™ are federally registered marks owned by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. Neither Summit K12, nor any of its courses or modules are sponsored by, endorsed by, or affiliated with the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.

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Why We Are Trusted by 1k+ Districts Nationwide

Districts don't navigate change alone. Summit K12 partners with over 1,000 districts nationwide — through targeted Professional Learning and assessment-aligned curriculum — to break down what the assessment demands into practical, classroom-ready instruction, so educators feel equipped and every multilingual learner has a clear path to demonstrated proficiency.

Rigorous, Grade-Level Instruction for Every Student

  • Every student engages in rigorous, grade-level learning.
  • Teachers provide structured scaffolds that accelerate independence.
  • Rigor remains high and confidence grows with it.

Academic Language Embedded Across Content Areas

  • Academic language is embedded in daily instruction, not treated as a separate subject.
  • Students explain, argue, analyze, and write with purpose.
  • Communication becomes a tool for deeper understanding.

Instruction That Builds on Students' Linguistic Strengths

  • Students' linguistic and cultural assets are leveraged, not overlooked.
  • Classrooms reflect identity, voice, and lived experience.
  • Strength becomes the starting point for growth.

Data-Driven Precision That Informs Instruction

  • Teachers receive actionable insights, not overwhelming reports.
  • Small-group instruction becomes intentional and targeted.
  • Decisions are timely, support is precise, and proficiency growth is measurable.

Continuous Growth Through Meaningful Feedback

  • Feedback is immediate and meaningful.
  • Students revise, reflect, and refine.
  • Language gains and increased independence are visible over time.

Family Engagement That Builds Trust

  • Expectations are explained clearly and accessibly.
  • Resources are inclusive of New York's diverse multilingual communities.
  • Communication builds trust and shared ownership of student success.

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Connect to Literacy™ brings these principles to life in daily practice — with real-time growth monitoring and Personalized Proficiency-aligned Learning Pathways built to support New York's transition to a new statewide assessment.

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Understanding New York's ELP Transition

What's Changing, What's Not, and What It Means for Your District

For district leaders, instructional coaches, and classroom educators, understanding exactly what this transition to a new proficiency measure requires — and what it doesn't — is the first step toward confident, coherent implementation.

Here's what it Means for Your District:

What This Transition Introduces

Greater Alignment to Academic Standards Across Disciplines

  • Instruction and assessment are more tightly aligned to grade-level expectations.
  • Students are asked to think, reason, and communicate like historians, scientists, and mathematicians.
  • Tasks increasingly reflect real disciplinary work.

Greater Emphasis on Academic Language

  • Students must demonstrate understanding through clear explanations and evidence-based responses.
  • Academic vocabulary, sentence structure, and organization matter more.
  • Language is not separate from content. It is how students show mastery.

Enhanced Accountability and Reporting

  • Growth is monitored more intentionally.
  • Data is used to identify progress and guide next steps.
  • Reporting structures provide clearer visibility into language development over time.

What's Staying the Same

High-Quality Instruction Is Still the Foundation

  • Strong teaching remains the most powerful preparation.
  • Systematic, explicit, and sustained language development continues to drive student success.
  • Clear modeling, guided practice, and structured feedback remain essential.

Daily Reading, Writing, and Discussion Remain at the Core

  • Students grow through consistent engagement with meaningful texts.
  • Frequent writing builds clarity.
  • Structured academic discussion strengthens reasoning and builds expressive language confidence.

Multilingual Learners Still Thrive with Explicit Support

  • Clear language objectives support comprehension.
  • Scaffolds build independence.
  • Respect for students' linguistic strengths remains central to effective instruction.

What This Transition Is Not

No separate program. No reduced expectations. No added paperwork.

This transition continues to weave language into daily instruction across every subject. It builds on the strong routines and sound pedagogy already happening in classrooms across New York. 
The goal has never been to add more to teachers' plates. It's to bring greater coherence, sharper focus, and stronger outcomes to the work they're already doing.
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What changes is clarity. What stays is strong instruction.

Supporting Every Stakeholder in New York's Transition

Lasting change happens when teachers, leaders, and families all move in the same direction, empowered by full clarity, data-informed precision, and powerful instructional tools.

Strong transitions require support that is practical, aligned, and built for the people doing the work. When teachers feel prepared, leaders see coherence, families understand expectations, and students thrive.

That's the standard we hold ourselves to at Summit K12 and it's why we provide every teacher, leader, and family with the support they need to empower proficiency growth.

Teachers

Summit K12 offers professional learning that helps educators turn new assessment expectations into confident classroom practice, ensuring every lesson is purposeful, every plan is coherent, and every student moves forward.

Leaders

We provide leadership and coaching workshops that build the alignment, coherence, and shared vision needed to sustain academic language growth — so systems run smarter, implementation sticks, and outcomes become measurable.

Families

Connect to Literacy™ equips families with the communication and resources they need to stay informed and engaged — strengthening support for students at home and reinforcing the connection between schools and the communities they serve.

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From Readiness to Results

Readiness is the first step. Optimal results demand a curriculum built for new accountability expectations.
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Connect to Literacy™ is designed for both Integrated and Stand-alone ENL environments — delivering targeted online instruction aligned to academic language progression at every proficiency level through:
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  • Personalized, assessment-aligned learning plans
  • Immediate, bias-free AI feedback
  • Actionable data and real-time reporting

Supporting Every Stakeholder in English Language Development

Connect to Literacy™ is built to provide support for educators, administrators, students, and families, ensuring all MLLs achieve stronger academic outcomes. 

Teachers
Administrators
Students
Families

Explicit and Systematic Instructional Resources

Provides structured, research-backed lessons to ensure students develop strong language skills.

Differentiated and Scaffolded Instruction

Designed for small groups and individuals, adapting to students’ varying proficiency levels.

Comprehensive Progress Monitoring and Reports

Gives educators real-time insights into student performance and growth.

AI Auto-Scoring for Speaking and Writing

Automatically evaluates responses to streamline scoring and feedback. Learn more about our AI Auto-Scoring.

Scope and Sequence for Year-Round Instruction

Provides a clear instructional roadmap to support consistent language development.

Comprehensive Progress Monitoring and Reports

Tracks student progress with data-driven insights for informed decision-making.

Practice and Assessments Modeled After State ELP Assessments

Prepares students with test-aligned tasks to improve performance.

Support for Long-Term ELP Growth Targets

Helps districts achieve and maintain high proficiency levels over time.

Guaranteed Proficiency Growth

Ensures all MLLs gain at least one proficiency level per year, backed by a money-back guarantee.

Reliable Predictor of Student Outcomes

Uses validated assessment data to project State ELP Assessment success.

Video Lesson Models, Guided Practice, and Assessments

Engaging instructional materials provide students with interactive learning experiences.

Content Differentiated to Grade-Level Clusters

Ensures appropriate challenges based on each student’s proficiency level.

Personalized Learning Plans (PLPs)

Targets individual student needs in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Student Progress Reports and Parent Letters

Available in 30+ languages to keep families informed about student growth.

Family Access Logins for Learning Support

Empowers parents and guardians to participate in English learning alongside students.

Family Engagement Workshops (Spanish/English)

Provides interactive sessions to support multilingual learners at home.

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Guaranteed Growth

Connect to Literacy™ delivers measurable proficiency growth at scale.

Grounded in ESSA Tier III research and backed by Summit K12’s proficiency-level growth guarantee, C2L ensures multilingual learners gain at least one proficiency level per year.

‍With Personalized Learning Pathways across all four language domains and embedded assessment rigor throughout, districts optimize multilingual outcomes and accelerate reclassification rates.

Our GuaranteeReview the ESSA Research
Line graph showing English Language Proficiency (ELP) levels of three students over a school year, divided into three progress monitoring periods (PLP #1, #2, and #3). Student 1 rises from Level 5 to Level 6, Student 2 increases from Level 3 to Level 5, and Student 3 progresses from Level 2 to Level 3. Beneath each PLP are descriptions of their duration and focus areas, including general ELD, test readiness, and language arts, with assessments generating each PLP noted.

Personalized Learning That Accelerates Growth

Based on an initial assessment, Connect to Literacy™ develops Personalized Learning Plans that steadily increase language independence and complexity, guiding students toward sustained progress and assessment confidence.

Personalized Learning Plans:

  • Prioritize the skills each student needs most
  • Close proficiency gaps faster
  • Adapt across proficiency levels and domains
  • Provide clear progress monitoring tied to state assessment readiness
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English Language Development progress report for Priyanka Shah from James Monroe Elementary showing assessment scores and activity counts in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Multilingual flow

Grounded in the Science of Reading

Connect to Literacy™ integrates the Science of Reading within a research-based language development framework, strengthening phonemic awareness, decoding, syntax, morphology, and academic vocabulary to build literacy and language together.

With explicit, systematic instruction, multilingual learners develop strong foundations while advancing toward the academic language proficiency required for success on the new statewide proficiency measure.

Explore Our Science of Learning Framework
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Comprehensive Newcomer Resources and Support

Connect to Literacy™ provides targeted Newcomer on-ramp treks and supports in 30+ home languages that help students with or without foundational decoding skills in their home language, confidently navigate and engage with learning from day one.

Additionally, translated parent letters and complimentary family access foster engagement and support at home from families across New York’s diverse multilingual communities.

List of languages currently supported
  • Amharic
  • Arabic
  • Armenian
  • Bengali
  • Chinese (Simplified)
  • Chinese (Traditional)
  • Dari
  • Filipino (Tagalog)
  • French
  • German
  • Haitian Creole
  • Hindi
  • Hmong
  • Ilocano
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Myanmar (Burmese)
  • Nepali
  • Pashto
  • Persian (Farsi)
  • Polish
  • Portuguese
  • Quechua
  • Russian
  • Somali
  • Spanish
  • Swahili
  • Ukrainian
  • Urdu
  • Vietnamese

Clear, Connected Reporting From District to Student

As New York transitions to the new Statewide Assessment, leaders need access to detailed oversight across the system. Connect to Literacy™ provides 40+ real-time reports spanning district dashboards, school performance monitoring, classroom insights, and individual student growth.

High-Level Oversight for District Leaders

Monitor multilingual learner performance across schools and grade bands. Executive dashboards surface trends and guide strategic decisions.

School-Level Performance Monitoring

Identify strengths and learning gaps across listening, speaking, reading, and writing to strengthen assessment readiness.

Actionable Data for Teachers

Track individual growth, pinpoint gaps, and align instruction to drive measurable assessment outcomes.

WIDA language proficiency levels chart showing six categories from Entering to Reaching with student names and scores in each category.

Seamless Access and Secure Rostering

We understand successful implementation goes beyond setup—it requires seamless integrations with your existing systems, secure data governance you can trust, and an ongoing partnership rooted in real classroom experience.

Our experienced customer support team works closely with district leaders, campus administrators, and teachers to ensure a smooth, secure launch and long-term success with our platform.
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Single Sign-On (SSO)

Single sign-on for Summit K12 platforms plus SSO support for all major LMS and SIS platforms with SAML or oAuth.

  • ClassLink
  • Clever
  • Rapid Identity
Operating Systems & Compatibility
  • Accessible on all major devices: PCs, Chromebooks, Macs, and iPads.
  • HTML 5 compatible and WCAG 2.0 compliant.
Class Rostering and Secure Nightly Sync
  • OneRoster™ Rostering Protocol
  • Clever
  • Classlink
  • Encrypted CSV
Security and Privacy
  • End–to–end encryption for all district connections.
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AI-Powered, Bias-free Scoring

Connect to Literacy™ uses AI-powered auto-scoring to accelerate English language development with real-time feedback and actionable insights

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Trained and refined using hundreds of millions of curated student recordings and written responses from multilingual learners across 120+ countries, the AI engine evaluates speaking and writing tasks with precision and consistency.

Strengthen Student Outcomes

  • Instant, actionable feedback provided on speaking and writing tasks
  • Clear recommendations strengthen student output

Amplify Teacher Impact

  • Clear data and actionable instructional recommendations drive high-impact teaching
  • AI-powered precision scoring reduces grading workload and minimizes bias
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A Strategic Partnership for Year-Round Success

Summit K12’s partnership model ensures sustained success through:

  • Dedicated customer support
  • Ongoing coaching and implementation guidance
  • Teacher and leadership workshops
  • Family-facing resources
  • Continuous professional learning

Endorsed by a 96% renewal rate, Connect to Literacy™ delivers sustained multilingual learner growth.

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Research-backed.
Federal Funding-aligned.

Connect to Literacy™ meets ESSA Tier III (Promising Evidence) requirements and supports allowable uses of Title I and Title III funding, including braided funding models.

Districts gain a research-validated, performance-backed solution built to ensure schools meet new accountability expectations for multilingual learners.

Prepare for the New State Assessment with Confidence

Join 1k+ Districts Transforming Multilingual Outcomes with Summit K12

Request a DemoPricing & Funding Guidance