Is a standardized test that:

• Is available to WIDA Consortium member states as a primary benefit of membership

• Is administered to Kindergarten through Grade 12 students who have been identified as MLs.

• Is given annually to monitor students' progress in learning academic English.

• Meets U.S. federal requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) for monitoring and reporting MLs’ progress toward English language proficiency

• Is anchored in the WIDA English Language Development Standards

• Assesses the four language domains of Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing

The test is administered by the school testing coordinator and teachers in the ELD Department.

NOTE: Teachers who administer WIDA receive training required by the WIDA Consortium, Prince George's County Public Schools, and the Maryland State Department of Education.

• ACCESS for ELLs Online is administered to MLs in Grades 1-12. MLs in Grades 1-3 continue to take the Writing domain in paper booklets.

• Kindergarten and Alternate ACCESS for ELLs remain paper-based assessments.

• MLs with special needs may take ACCESS for ELLs Paper if indicated in their IEP or 504 Plan.

• MLs in Grades 4-5 keyboard their Writing responses. For newly arrived MLs and/or MLs who have considerable difficulty in keyboarding, local school systems may order handwriting response booklets in the additional materials ordering window. (Handwriting response booklets for Grades 4-12 will not be sent to schools/local school systems with the initial shipment.)

• The online training courses for ACCESS for ELLs can be found in the WIDA Secure Portal. The PGCPS ELD Office will need to set up an account for you.

• All Test Administrators must take the applicable training courses and pass the included certification quiz in the WIDA Secure Portal in order to administer ACCESS for ELLs.

• Check with your Testing Coordinator to find out whether you must recertify for ACCESS for ELLs. If administering ACCESS for ELLs Paper, you must certify on the Speaking scoring training each year.

• Your Local Accountability Coordinator (LAC) will be able to view past training history, but check with your Testing Coordinator to find out whether you must turn in physical proof of your certification each year.

The Title III Office in the Maryland State Department of Education will offer training and the information will be shared directly with the school district.

• ACCESS for ELLs accommodations are available ONLY for MLs with disabilities when they are listed in an approved IEP and 504 Plan. Please refer to the Maryland Content Tests vs ACCESS for ELLs for ELSWD Crosswalk for additional information. 

• The Unique Accommodations Request Form should be completed in rare or unique situations when a request is made for an ML with a disability to receive an accommodation that is not part of Maryland's approved list of accommodations for ACCESS for ELLs. 

A practice test is embedded prior to the start of the online test. It allows students a chance to get comfortable with the test format before their official test session.

Practice Test

ACCESS for ELLs tests are scored differently, depending on the assessment (paper, online, Kindergarten) and the domain (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing):

ACCESS for ELLs Online (Bladensburg High School uses this one)

• The test engine automatically scores Listening and Reading during administration.

• Saved responses in the Speaking and Writing domains are automatically sent to DRC. DRC scores those responses in winter and spring.

Types of Scores

• Raw Scores are the actual number of items or tasks the student responded to correctly. This score is the starting point, but because it doesn't take item difficulty into account, it doesn't provide a meaningful measure of student performance. For this reason, raw scores are not included on ACCESS for ELLs score reports.

• Scale Scores take item difficulty into account, so educators can use them to examine groups of students, or student performances over time.

• Proficiency Level Scores are an interpretation of scale scores. On ACCESS tests, they align to the six WIDA English language proficiency levels.

Individual Student Report (ISR)

The ISR shows all the scores for an individual student. It provides brief descriptions of each proficiency level with a lot of visual support. Translated copies can be sent home with students and discussed at conferences with parents or guardians.

• Use when your focus is on a single student

• Use when talking to the student, their parents or guardians, and their other educators

• Refer to the Speaking and Writing Interpretive Rubrics when looking at those scores

Sample Reports

• Sample ISR (English)

• Sample ISR (Spanish)