News

Why choose play for learning for the multilingual children you serve? Hear from PreK-3 educators on why they choose play, and some ways they incorporate joyful learning into their teaching practices.

A new research paper, written by WIDA researcher Hannah Park, sheds light on the personal journeys of bilingual/ESL preservice teachers, uncovering the ways their linguistic and ethnic identities shape their development as educators.

Are you new to ACCESS for ELLs? Have you administered an ACCESS test before but can’t remember where to find things like training, test prep and test materials? Look no further than this brief reference to all things ACCESS!

Another WIDA Annual Conference has come and gone! Educators gathered virtually and in person to present and attend sessions on multilingual learner education. Read the article to get highlights from the week.

The true value of an interim English language proficiency assessment is the real-time measure of student progress. With several options available, choosing an interim assessment can be challenging. Educators, school leaders, and district leaders can make an informed decision by using researched-based interim assessment adoption criteria.

Carmen Sieleni grew up in a multilingual home in a small town in Minnesota. Her father immigrated to the United States from El Salvador. Carmen’s upbringing influenced her career path. Today, she’s an MLL teacher at an elementary school in the Roseville Area School District in Minnesota and she works with the district coordinator to build systems and support at all the elementary schools in the district. Read her conversation with Tim Boals and Merideth Trahan.

The Marco DALE Digital Explorer is a searchable database of the standards framework that categorizes the Marco DALE Language Expectations by Standard Statement and grade-level cluster, and by Key Language Use and mode of communication. It presents the framework’s Proficiency Level Descriptors (PLDs) by grade-level cluster and mode of communication.

El Marco DALE Digital Explorer es una base de datos que permite la navegación del marco con facilidad, presentando las expectativas del lenguaje por declaración de estándar y grupo de grado, y por uso clave y modo de comunicación. También presenta los descriptores del nivel de desempaño lingüístico por grupo de grado y modo de comunicación.

The Accessible Pathways Project has been awarded $3.998 million over four years through the Competitive Grants for State Assessments competition. This project aims to better understand and support multilingual learners with low incidence disabilities, in this case, students who are blind/have low vision and those who are deaf/hard of hearing.

The 2024 WIDA Annual Conference is just a few weeks away. The conference, which runs from October 15-18, features an award-winning headliner and over 100 sessions and workshops by teachers, for teachers. There’s also a curated virtual-track available with a virtual keynote for the first time ever.