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.

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 Resources

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)