Colorado
Member of the WIDA Consortium since 2012.
Assessments
Colorado uses Kindergarten W-APT and WIDA Screener (Online or Paper) for Grades 1-12 to assist in the identification of students who may be English learners (ELs). ACCESS for ELLs is administered to students who are identified as ELs, NEP or LEP during the annual testing window, which runs for five weeks, opening on the second Monday in January.
Testing Dates
| 10/23/19-11/8/19 | Districts order paper grades 1-12 test materials via AMS (Online, K and Alternate are ordered through the State Pre-ID File upload) |
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| 11/22/19-2/20/20 | WIDA AMS test setup available for test sessions |
| 12/12/19 | Districts receive test materials |
| 1/13/20-2/14/20 | Test Window |
| 12/12/19-2/7/20 | Additional test materials ordering window in AMS |
| 2/20/20 | Deadline for shipping completed test materials to DRC |
| 4/28/20 | Districts receive reports – Online |
| 5/12/20 | Districts receive reports – Printed |
Requirements and Resources
See below for state-specific information and resources related to EL assessment, including your state’s ACCESS for ELLs Checklist, where you can find each step in the ACCESS testing process from beginning to end.
ACCESS for ELLs Online Checklist State-Specific Directions
Identification and Placement Guidance
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State Testing Requirements
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All English Learners (NEP and LEP), including students with disabilities, must participate in the state English language proficiency assessment system. The educational team (IEP, 504, or EL), which must include the parents, determines whether the student will take ACCESS for ELLs with or without accommodations or, for a student with the most significant cognitive disability, meets the participation requirements for the alternate assessment. According to federal requirements, there must be evidence of alignment between a student’s educational plan, instruction, and the accommodations provided on any of the state assessments, as well as any determinations for students to participate in Alternate ACCESS. Three participation options exist:
- The student participates in ACCESS for ELLs without an accommodation.
- The student participates in ACCESS for ELLs with an accommodation*.
- The student participates in Alternate ACCESS for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities.
Note: It is not appropriate or ethical to give the Alternate ACCESS to students who do not qualify to take the assessment.
*Accommodations are practices and procedures that provide equitable access during instruction and assessment for students who have a documented need, including students with a disability and English learners. In order to use accommodations on ACCESS for ELLs testing, accommodations must be determined by the student’s educational team documented in the student’s IEP or 504 plan.
Professional Learning
Colorado’s Office of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education offers Professional Learning Opportunities.
2019 WIDA Annual Conference in Providence, Rhode Island - See the Special Colorado Educator Offer flyer for more details!
Please see the Colorado Department of Education’s website to learn more about the new WIDA self-paced eWorkshops.
- Starting September 1, 2019 to August 31, 2020, six self-paced eWorkshops that WIDA developed will be available for Colorado public school employees to access.
- The eWorkshops are aligned to the English Learner Quality Standards. Please read the WIDA eLearning FAQs for a list of the eWorkshops and what standards they align to.
- Certificates of completion can be printed and/or downloaded once an eWorkshop is completed. Participants are encouraged to download and/or forward certificates to their personal email as WIDA or CDE will not be able to reproduce certificates or verify participation.
- For more information, please read the WIDA eLearning FAQs and visit the Self-Paced eWorkshops webpage on WIDA's website.