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NYSESLAT scoring turned a student’s answers across four modalities into a single performance level that decided identification, services, and exit. Spring 2026 was the final NYSESLAT, but its results set ELL services and exits for 2026-27, so knowing how they were scored still matters this year. This guide explains how the NYSESLAT was scored, how the four modalities combined, what the five levels mean, how those levels drive services, and how the move to WIDA ACCESS changes the scoring.
Table of contents
How Is the NYSESLAT Scored?
Quick answer: the NYSESLAT scored four modalities, listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Raw scores were converted to scale scores, which were added, unweighted, into a total scale score reported as one of five performance levels: Entering, Emerging, Transitioning, Expanding, or Commanding. The overall level determines whether a student continues to receive ELL/MLL services in 2026-27 or has met an exit criterion.
The Five Performance Levels
| Level | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Entering | Beginning English; heavy support needed. |
| Emerging | Short, simple sentences with support. |
| Transitioning | Expanded, connected language with moderate support. |
| Expanding | Organized, near grade-level work with light support. |
| Commanding | Grade-level academic English; the exit level. |
For each administration, NYSED published conversion charts that turned raw scores into scale scores, plus a table of total scale score ranges by grade that set the level. The 2026 charts were the last. A student who scored Commanding overall in spring 2026 has met an exit criterion under CR Part 154.
How the Modalities Combine
The four modality scale scores were added, unweighted, into a total scale score, and the total alone set the level:
| Step | What happened |
|---|---|
| Modality scale scores | Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing each received a scale score from 30 to 90. |
| Total scale score | Listening + Speaking + Reading + Writing = total scale score. |
| Performance level | NYSED’s total scale score ranges for the student’s grade set the level (in kindergarten, for example, Commanding was 316 to 360). |
Because the modalities were summed, a low score in any one modality, speaking included, lowered the total scale score and could lower the overall level even when the other modalities were strong.
How Levels Drive Services
NYSESLAT levels are not just labels; under CR Part 154 they set how much language instruction a student receives the following year. Lower levels (Entering, Emerging) trigger more units of study; higher levels trigger less. This is why an accurate score matters operationally: it determines staffing and scheduling for every identified student, not just whether they exit.
Why Students Plateau
Many students rise quickly to Transitioning or Expanding and then stall short of Commanding for years, becoming Long-Term English Learners. The usual reason is that conversational fluency outpaces academic language, and the speaking and writing demands of the top level are the hardest to build. Tracking the modality scores, not just the overall level, reveals exactly where a student is stuck.
Scoring After the Move to WIDA
The final NYSESLAT was given in spring 2026, and its results set 2026-27 services; WIDA ACCESS testing runs February 1 to April 9, 2027. WIDA ACCESS also reports proficiency levels from its four domains (on a six-level scale rather than five), so the concept, modality scores combining into an overall level, carries over even though the scale and level names differ. One difference matters: the WIDA ACCESS Overall score weights reading and writing (35 percent each) more heavily than listening and speaking (15 percent each), where the NYSESLAT simply added the four. See New York’s move to WIDA.
Reading a NYSESLAT Score Report
A NYSESLAT report is easier to use once you know its parts. At the top is the overall performance level, Entering through Commanding, which is the result that drives services and exit. Beneath it are the four modality results, listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and the total scale score, which is the sum of the four modality scale scores and alone places the student in a level. For a family, the overall level answers the practical question of whether the student still receives services, but for a teacher or the reviewing committee, the modality results are the more useful data, because they show which specific skill is holding the overall level down. Two students can both land at Expanding while one is strong across the board and the other is carried by literacy while speaking lags, and only the modality scores reveal the difference.
Scale Scores and the Annual Conversion Charts
The levels are bands, and underneath them are scale scores that give a finer read. For each administration, NYSED published conversion charts, by grade band, that turned raw scores into scale scores, because test difficulty varied from year to year; a separate table of total scale score ranges by grade set the level. The 2026 charts were the last. For district leaders, the value of the scale scores was that they exposed growth the level label could hide: a student could move up substantially within Expanding without the label changing, which looked like a stalled year if only the level was tracked. Because spring 2026 was the final NYSESLAT and WIDA ACCESS uses a different scale, there is no next NYSESLAT score to compare; spring 2027 ACCESS results start a new baseline.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the NYSESLAT scoring levels?
Five: Entering, Emerging, Transitioning, Expanding, and Commanding. Commanding is the exit level.
How is the overall level determined?
Raw scores from the four modalities became scale scores that were summed into a total scale score, mapped to a level using NYSED’s total scale score ranges for the student’s grade.
What score exits a student from services?
An overall level of Commanding; or, in grades 3-8, Expanding plus level 3 or above on the State ELA test, and in grades 9-12, Expanding plus 65 or above on the Regents ELA exam, in the same school year.
How do NYSESLAT levels affect services?
Under CR Part 154, a student’s level sets the units of study they receive the next year, with lower levels requiring more language instruction.
Will scoring change with WIDA?
Yes. From spring 2027, WIDA ACCESS replaces the NYSESLAT and uses its own six-level scale, though the combine-to-overall concept is similar.
What are the oral language and literacy strands?
NYSESLAT did not set the level by strand: the four modality scale scores were summed, and the total alone determined the level. Oral Language and Literacy composites are WIDA ACCESS scores.
What is a NYSESLAT scale score?
Each modality raw score converted to a scale score using that year’s grade-band chart; the four scale scores added up to the total scale score, which placed the student in a performance level. Scale scores reveal growth within a level that the level label alone would miss.
Can two students at the same level have very different needs?
Yes. Two students can share an overall level while one is balanced and the other is carried by reading and writing with a lagging speaking modality. The modality scores, not the overall label, show the difference and where to focus instruction.
Related Resources
Conclusion
NYSESLAT scoring added four modality scale scores into a total that set one of five levels, from Entering to the Commanding exit level, and the spring 2026 levels set the services a student receives in 2026-27. Because speaking is the modality students practice least, targeted speaking practice helps Multilingual Learners move up on WIDA ACCESS from spring 2027.
Sources: New York State Education Department, State Assessment; NYSED, Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages.
Moving the Modality That Caps the Score
Read the modality scores across a caseload and a pattern often shows up: one modality lags and the total stalls with it. When that modality is speaking, it is also the one students get the fewest chances to practice in many New York classrooms.
The cause is structural, not instructional. Listening, reading, and writing can be drilled by a whole group at once; speaking needs a responsive partner, and one teacher cannot be that partner for every Multilingual Learner in a period.
This is why districts look at tools aimed squarely at speaking practice. Telo AI is one example, giving each student individualized speaking practice and surfacing where they are stuck before the WIDA ACCESS window.
See how districts target the modality students practice least: https://mytelo.ai/how-telo-works/
The 2026 conversion charts were the last, but the skill behind the score still counts on WIDA ACCESS. The districts that move students toward exit are the ones that read the modality scores, not just the label, and acted on the gap they found.
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