News

Meet Michelle Skinner! Michelle is in her first year at a school with a large population of newcomers in South Carolina, but this isn’t her first year teaching. She has more than 20 years of experience! Read this edition to learn more about her approach to the new school year and her wisdom from the last 20.

Discover how collaboration is woven into the fabric of WIDA's mission, from the very beginning to current initiatives. Learn how this commitment benefits multilingual learners, educators, member states and the broader educational community.

WIDA is excited to welcome new and returning WIDA Fellows for 2023-2024. The program, launched in 2019, brings expert educators and WIDA staff together in a collaborative effort to enhance the development of WIDA products and services.

In this edition of Conversations with Tim, Tim speaks with Mai Chue Xiong and Nicole Potsane. Both Mai Chue and Nicole teach visual arts and work with multilingual learners. Together, they discuss the power of art across languages and cultures and the difficulties of teaching creativity.

Listening option: Listen to the audio here or click “Read more” to continue reading.

The Can Do Philosophy focuses on what multilingual learners can do and recognizes that students from diverse linguistic, cultural and experiential backgrounds bring a unique set of assets that have the potential to enrich the experiences of all learners and educators. Explore how the Can Do Philosophy is present throughout WIDA’s practices – in educator learning, in assessment and in communication about student progress.

Want a quick synopsis of what you need to know to assess, teach and grow with WIDA this school year? Check out this back-to-school guide!

Learn about what’s new in 2023-24 with WIDA Screener, ACCESS for ELLs and WIDA MODEL. Plus, we tell you what you can do to make sure testing counts and how to stay in the know about all things WIDA.

Anne Page, a speech and language professional and expert in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), joined the Advancing ALTELLA team to demo some of her go-to tools and share creative ideas that help multilingual learners who use AAC. Read this interview between Anne and Shea Head, WIDA inclusion researcher, to get insights and tips for how to best support multilingual learners who use AAC.

Here are some ways that WIDA endeavors to live out the value of service to multilingual learners and families and to the educators who support their engagement, belonging and success every day in their learning communities.

WIDA turns 20 years old this year. Read about how WIDA grew from the early days as a grant funded startup to the large-scale consortium it is today and see where the organization is hoping to go in the next two decades.