• Purpose and Use

    Educators use ACCESS results, along with other WIDA resources, to make decisions about students' proficiency with English in academic contexts and to facilitate their language development.

    Students' scores reflect proficiency levels ranging from Level 1 (Entering) to Level 6 (Reaching).

    Test scores can be used

    • For accountability purposes

    • As benchmarks against which educators can measure future performance
    • As a measure to make reclassification decisions about whether a student can exit English language support services
    • To support decisions about placing students into appropriate classes or groups for instruction, instructional planning
    • To show the progress students have made

    WIDA offers many resources to aid in educators' placement decisions and instructional planning, including:

    Scores

    Each test is scored differently, depending on assessment type (paper, online, kindergarten) and domain (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing).

    ACCESS for ELLs Online
    The online test engine automatically scores Listening and Reading during administration.Our test delivery partner scores the Speaking and Writing domains in winter and spring.

    ACCESS for ELLs Paper
    States send test booklets to our test delivery partner, which scores the Listening, Reading and Writing domains.Test administrators score the Speaking domain in the test booklet and send to our test delivery partner, which captures the scores for reporting.

    Kindergarten ACCESS for ELLs
    Test administrators score all domains in the test booklet and send them to our test delivery partner, which captures the scores for reporting

    Alternate ACCESS for ELL
    Test administrators score all domains in the test booklet and send them to our test delivery partner, which captures the scores for reporting.

     

    Helpful Websites:

    ELD Standards Framework | WIDA (wisc.edu)

    Can Do Descriptors | WIDA (wisc.edu)