What Can the Regional Bilingual Education Resource Network Do?
District Level
Provides technical assistance for ENL and Bilingual program development
Identifies funding streams for programs, translators and interpreters: i.e. Title III
Supports and informs administrators regarding:
- NYS P-12 Learning Standards and Assessments
- ELL/MLL Identification and placement
- NYS regulations and initiatives: CEEPS, CR-154, NYS ESSA
- Culturally Responsive Sustaining Framework, Portrait of a Graduate, NYS Seal of Biliteracy
Teacher Level
Provides small and large group professional development regarding content specific strategies for: ELLs/MLs, culturally responsive practices and age and proficiency-level appropriate resources
Provides embedded coaching for individual educators, specific to their needs and content
Training educators on analysis of assessment data to inform practice
Offering an extensive professional lending library
Facilitating collaborative exchanges between teachers across districts
Community Level
Offers parent and community informationand outreach about NYS learning standards, assessments and graduation requirements
Collaborates to involve parents in the educational process and understand parental rights and responsibilities
Helps protect families who are undergoing struggles with immigration, citizenship and refugee status
Why Choose to Work with the RBERN?
We are grant funded by NYS so there is never any cost for our services
Our Resource Specialists are experienced educators and coaches with elementary certifications as well as TESOL certifications
Our Professional Development offerings are CTLE credit bearing
- 15% of all professional cert. holder PD mandated for ENL and 50% mandated for ESOL cert. holders
Our network extends across 19 counties and 149 school districts
We are non-evaluative and do not report to the state or BOCES about our work with districts:
- We are a support system!
We tailor our work to meet your needs at any level from:
- Large venue conference presentations, individual classroom collaborations
- To serving as confidential thought-partners in order to explore and resolve educational issues
The RBERN does much more than provide Professional Development!
Professional Development (Regional & In-District)
- Make & Take Language Scaffolds Lab where teachers leave with ready-to-use visuals, language routines, & sentence stems for the next day’s lessons.
- Content + Language Co-Planning Day where RBERN facilitators help grade-level teams rewrite one upcoming unit to ensure linguistic access.
- CTE English Learners Hackathon where CTE & ENL teachers collaborate in real time to redesign tasks for multilingual learners.
Job-Embedded Coaching & Mentoring
- Real-time Coaching Cycles where RBERN staff visit a teacher’s class three times over a month to co-teach, model, & analyze a target area, such as student talk time.
- Walkthrough with a Purpose where RBERN coaches & building leaders visit classrooms together, calibrate on what to look for, & plan next steps.
- Virtual coaching office hours for teachers wanting rapid feedback on lesson plans, rubrics, or data.
Technical Support
- Set up your NYSESLAT data dashboards using district spreadsheets so teachers can analyze growth & think instructionally.
- Troubleshoot district ENL scheduling & build a clean, compliant master schedule for the year.
- Help districts adopt or revise a Home Language Questionnaire workflow to reduce misidentifications or delays.
On-Site Consultation
- Full-day EL Program Health Check reviewing student rosters, schedules, proficiency levels, & services for compliance + instructional quality.
- Schoolwide language access walkabout to audit multilingual signage, communication pathways, & translation needs.
- Collaborative curriculum planning session where RBERN sits with teacher teams to embed language objectives & scaffolds.
ENL & Dual Language Program Design & Planning
- Co-create a Dual Language launch plan including staffing, curriculum alignment, parent outreach, & professional learning.
- Design a newcomer program with intake processes, social-emotional supports, content-specific language routines, & progress monitoring.
- Restructure existing ENL services to balance integrated (coteaching) & stand-alone per Units of Study for maximum impact.
Family Engagement
- Family curriculum nights where RBERN models how to explain instructional expectations & assessments to multilingual families.
- Student + family voice circles to identify barriers families face & co-create solutions with the district.
Translation & Interpretational Referrals
- Set up a translation request workflow that streamlines how teachers request services.
- Help districts vet interpretation vendors to ensure they receive accurate & appropriate language support.
- Create a multilingual communication library for recurring messages (e.g., attendance, grading, events).
Title III & CR Part 154 Requirements
- Annual Part 154 Tune-Up Day where RBERN helps check service minutes, certifications, units of study, & scheduling.
- Build a Title III application narrative that aligns with district goals & ensures high-quality use of funds.
- Run mock audits so districts feel confident in their documentation & compliance processes.
Seal of Biliteracy Implementation
- Host a Seal of Biliteracy student bootcamp to prepare students for evidence collection & interviews.
- Design rubric-aligned tasks for districts to use as evidence of biliteracy.
- Set up a community panel of bilingual professionals to serve as interview evaluators.
World Languages
- Co-design thematic units with actual language targets rather than grammar-heavy ones.
- Help WL teachers implement high-leverage teaching practices like target-language routines, interpretive tasks, & storytelling.
- Create progress monitoring tools for novice, intermediate, & advanced learners.
Puerto Rican / Hispanic Youth Leadership Institute
- Live virtual info sessions for families to learn about the program (with interpretation).
- Partner with counselors & ENL teachers to identify students with leadership potential who might not self-nominate.
Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Initiatives
- Curriculum equity audit for one unit or course.
- Co-develop student identity maps to embed culturally responsive practices in daily lessons.
- Facilitate schoolwide equity design teams focused on multilingual learner experiences.
Portrait of a Graduate
- Map each competency to language practices (e.g., collaboration → accountable talk stems; critical thinking → evidence-based language).
- Create ML-friendly student self-assessment tools tied to the Portrait of a Graduate.
- Support districts in adapting exhibitions or capstone projects to ensure linguistic access.
Types of Programming that fall under CR Part 154:
How Can I Access the RBERN Team?
Subscribe to our website!
Call the RBERN at 518-479-6820
Email us at marcia.ranieri@questar.org