ACCESS Test

The ACCESS test is the annual English proficiency test that all English learners must take every year. The official name is “ACCESS for ELLs” and it stands for “Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State for English Language Learners.” It was created by a company called WIDA, which has a consortium of 37 states + DC that participate in its standards and assessments for ELs.

All ELs that have not previously passed the ACCESS test must take the test every year in the testing window during January and February. We have now taken the tests 100% on the computers for two years. The first year had lots of technical issues, which was to be expected, but last year it went a lot more smoothly!

The ACCESS is scored on a scale from 1-6, in the four language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In order to “pass” the ACCESS to exit the ESL program, students must score at least a 4.8 composite. In 2017, they changed the grading of the ACCESS and made it a lot more difficult to get the same score. Therefore, lots of students' ACCESS scores went down that year. Because of this, you really can't compare 2016 ACCESS scores to 2017, but now that we have had 2018 and 2019 testing cycles, we have a better picture of students' growth. In addition, because of the more difficult grading, ISBE change the qualification score to exit the program. It used to be 5.0 composite AND 4.2 in both reading and writing. Now the only qualification is a 4.8 composite with no requirements for specific domains.

Students that don't have an ACCESS score are given the WIDA Screener during the first 30 days of school. This is a shorter test similar to the ACCESS that gives us a picture of a student's English proficiency so that we can place them in the correct section of ESL. Every ESL student should have either an ACCESS or WIDA Screener score on Skyward. To view it, go to the student's profile, click the "Test Scores" link on the left side, then click the arrow to expand the scores next to the test. If a student doesn't have a test score or you have trouble finding it, contact me and I will give you guidance!