Resources/Recursos

This document describes WIDA's viewpoint of the criteria for an assessment to be used as a valid interim English language proficiency assessment in support of the annual administration of WIDA ACCESS.

Released November 2018

This ALTELLA Report explores how item and task development – a critical component of assessment design – might be implemented for an alternate assessment of English language proficiency standards.

Released October 2018

This research report summarizes findings from a recent WIDA study exploring the potential long-term English learner (LTEL) population across 15 geographically-representative WIDA member states during the period 2009-10 through 2014-15. The findings highlight a continuing need for research that rejects an overly simplistic understanding of the LTEL designation. Additionally, future research should more carefully examine how educational systems, practices, and policies structure the experiences and diverse trajectories of students identified as LTELs.

Published October 2018
Authors: Narek Sahakyan and Sarah Ryan

Released October 2018

This study examines how 476 K–12 educators in 35 U.S. states identify and place English learners in language instruction educational programs. Findings reveal information about these educators, the instruments and information sources they use for decision making, and their perceived appropriateness of the decisions. Results provide practical implications for improving the English learner identification and placement decision at the district and school levels.

Released October 2018

This video provides an overview of the WIDA Can Do Philosophy – the foundational belief that every learner brings valuable contributions to everything they do.

Released September 2018

This article advocates for language-focused family engagement in schools serving multilingual students, emphasizing the importance of honoring home languages as critical to students’ cognitive and academic growth. The text highlights that schools still discourage the use of home languages, sending harmful messages that devalue students’ identities and limit the inclusion of their familial language practices in curriculum.

Released August 2018

WIDA builds the foundations of success one classroom at a time. We know what multilingual students and their educators can do! We continually establish the industry’s best practices, support student advocacy and offer second to none professional development opportunities for teachers. Watch how we work!

Released August 2018

WIDA establece las bases para el éxito un salón de clase a la vez. ¡Estamos conscientes de lo que pueden lograr los estudiantes multilingües y sus educadores! Continuamente establecemos las mejores prácticas en la industria, apoyamos la defensa estudiantil y ofrecemos oportunidades de desarrollo profesional de primera clase para los maestros. ¡Vea cómo lo hacemos!

Released August 2018

WIDA intends to fully retire the WIDA English Language Development Standards and Resource Guide, International Edition: Kindergarten-Grade 12. However, we recognize that schools have different timelines for implementation of the updated WIDA ELD Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. With that in mind, the earlier International Edition will remain in the Resource Library so that schools that are still using it may access it as needed.

The international edition of the 2012 Amplification of the WIDA English Language Development Standards was developed in response to growing interest from educators outside the U.S. for standards and assessments that can support and document the development of academic English among their students.

The 2012 ELD Standards Framework represented the social, instructional and academic language that students need to engage with peers, educators, and the curriculum in schools and included examples of how language is processed or produced within a particular context through Model Performance Indicators (MPIs). MPIs were meant to be examples and not fixed guidelines of the language with which students may engage during instruction and assessment.

Released August 2017

Los descriptores Podemos (Podemos) ofrecen ejemplos de lo que los hablantes del español podemos realizar en cada uno de los niveles de desempeño lingüístico y en las cuatro formas de lenguaje: leer, escuchar, hablar y escribir.

Released April 2017

This WIDA Focus Bulletin explores ways to strengthen reasoning and language in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education.

Published January 2017 
Author: Rita MacDonald

Released April 2017

Based on a U.S. Department of Education guide, these model analyses illustrate procedures a state could use to compare and contrast school-level overall and English learner accountability determinations for proficiency in reading/language arts. These examples are provided only to illustrate how a state could undertake them as part of its efforts to develop and explore a theory of action for assessment of recently arrived English learners.

Released March 2017

The 2012 Amplification of the WIDA English Language Development Standards, Kindergarten-Grade 12, represented the social, instructional, and academic language students might need to engage with peers, educators, and the curriculum in schools. The 2012 Amplification included examples of how language could be processed or produced within a particular context through Model Performance Indicators (MPIs). MPIs were meant to be examples and not fixed guidelines of the language with which students may have engaged during instruction and assessment.

WIDA intends to fully retire the 2012 Amplification of the WIDA English Language Development Standards, Kindergarten-Grade 12. However, we recognize that all member SEAs have different timelines for implementation of the WIDA ELD Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. With that in mind, the 2012 Amplification will remain in the Resource Library so that educators whose SEAs are still using it may access it as needed.

Released March 2017

This WIDA Focus Bulletin outlines ways in which educators can provide English Language Learners with disabilities access to complex language via classroom activities and engagement opportunities.

Published March 2017 
Authors: Lynn Shafer Willner, Cynthia Lundgren, Mira Monroe, Julia Cortada

Released February 2017

This chapter shares the findings and materials from a pilot of a professional development approach that offered science teachers a set of resources to help facilitate students’ collaborative and discourse-rich reasoning in science. Educators will find resources and insights to help enact the 3-D vision of science in ways that include the number of English learners in United States classrooms. 

Released January 2017

This research examines the educational practices and perceptions of two working-class Mexican transnational families currently living in a midwestern city in the United States. Findings indicate that for transnational families and their children, educational inclusion is about successfully developing the languages and language repertoires that children will need in their translocal educational institutions “here” and “there.”

Released January 2017

This report provides research- and evidence-based guidelines for developing a recently-arrived (RA) English learner (EL) accountability model that is grounded in a state’s theory of action. A state can use these guidelines to engage in a systematic process of developing a RA EL accountability model or to formatively evaluate its currently proposed or established approaches to RA EL assessment and accountability.

Released January 2017

General advice to teachers who want to help prepare their students to take ACCESS for ELLs Paper.

Released November 2016

This document contains the performance definitions for the expressive domains of speaking and writing.

Released November 2016

This document contains the performance definitions for the receptive domains of listening and reading.

Released November 2016