Resources/Recursos

District Frequency Reports show the number and percentage of tested students who scored at each proficiency level. There are separate reports for each grade.

Released January 2025

This publication highlights collaborative partnerships between WIDA and Indigenous communities, focusing on efforts to revitalize and sustain Indigenous languages and cultures. Indigenous experts and WIDA staff share their insights on community-driven initiatives that enhance language development, assessment, and educational opportunities for Indigenous learners.

Released January 2025

The Alternate Can Do Descriptors (Alt Can Dos) are the first-ever Can Do Descriptors for multilingual learners with the most significant cognitive disabilities. The Alt Can Dos exemplify what students can do with communication and language at various stages of English language development.

The Alt Can Dos are arranged into the same grade-level clusters (K–2, 3–5, 6–8 and 9–12) as WIDA Alternate ACCESS. Within each grade-level cluster, the Alt Can Dos are organized by interpretive (listening and reading) and expressive (speaking and writing) communication modes for each WIDA ELD Standard and the five levels of English language development.

Released October 2024

Released October 2024

This WIDA Screener for Kindergarten eSummit session recording provides an in depth look at the test.

Released October 2024

This video features Carmen, an elementary teacher in Minnesota. Even though she is required to teach from a prescribed curriculum, she still engages students in building personal connections to the text by connecting to students’ home literacy experiences and their emotions. Watch Carmen work with her small group of 2nd graders prior to reading a text on the lunar landing.

Released October 2024

This reading focused observation tool supports educators to observe a student engaging in activities related to reading comprehension in any content area. Use the tool to observe the student during activities that are structured in different ways; for example during teacher-led, whole-group instruction and during small group or independent activities.

Released September 2024

In this webinar recording, WIDA experts explain the decision-making process for choosing whether a multilingual learner should take WIDA ACCESS or WIDA Alternate ACCESS. The webinar provides newfound insights and strategies.

Released August 2024

A home and community literacy mapping activity supports students to see the literacy in their daily lives and enables the teacher to learn about their students’ literacy assets. Use this resource to plan a literacy mapping activity with your students.

Released August 2024

A reader portrait is a chance to reflect on what you understand about a student’s reading and what you could learn more about. Use this activity to connect what you already know, questions you have, English language development (ELD) data in all domains, and what you know about the student’s home language(s).

Released August 2024

This reading-focused conferencing tool helps plan a one-on-one conversation with a student about how they understand a text. Use this tool alongside one or two teacher-selected text excerpts.

Released August 2024

Send this flyer home with students along with the Alternate ACCESS Individual Student Report for Families. This flyer explains each piece of score information included in the report for families. Use this guide, available in multiple languages, to help parents/guardians understand what scores mean and how they are used.

Released August 2024

This report details the development of a new scoring rubric grounded in the WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. This new rubric will be used for scoring responses to the writing tasks on WIDA ACCESS Online and WIDA ACCESS Paper in 2025-26, and the future revised WIDA Screener Online and WIDA Screener Paper.

Released August 2024

As teachers, staff and administrators in school buildings, district offices and educational agencies across the country, we play a critical role in responding to the individual needs of students in our teaching and learning settings. Trauma can be experienced by any student, but for those who are also learning English as an additional language or who are adjusting to a new culture, these experiences add another dimension of care to be addressed by educators. Through this focus bulletin, readers will be introduced to a research based guide for working with multilingual learners who may benefit from trauma informed practices, including discussions on special populations, the sharing of empowering and engaging strategies, a raising of awareness about prompting adverse behaviors, and building rapport across whole school, student and family networks.

Released May 2024

This webinar examines ways in which large-scale assessment data can be used to extract important, practical and useful insights on average patterns and high-level trends in English learners’ education and academic outcomes.

Released May 2024

This report shares findings from the Standards Implementation Study (Sep 2022-Feb 2024). The report explores the current status of the implementation of the WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition across layers of the educational system, primarily through the perceptions of teachers, administrators, and policy makers. It identifies key educator and systems-level practices that support or hinder successful implementation; and identifies potentials and needs areas for additional resource development and continued research.

Published: May 2024
Author: Hannah Park

Released May 2024

Este resumen informativo de WIDA presenta la Investigación-acción — un concepto que resalta el trabajo mutuo entre investigadores y educadores para abordar los desafíos en el salón de clases — lo que alienta a los maestros a utilizar sus voces para hacer contribuciones significativas al campo, ya sea a través de esfuerzos colaborativos o independientes.

Released May 2024

This Technical Report describes a validation study of the newly developed WIDA ACCESS writing scoring scale by examining its feasibility in differentiating student ability and practical scoring use. TR-2024-1.

Published: April 2024
Author: Ping-Lin Chuang
Additional authors: Mark Chapman, Kyoungwon Bishop, Ahyoung Alicia Kim

Released April 2024

The aim of this interpretive guide is to help educators and families better understand the scores reported for WIDA Screener Online, WIDA Screener Paper, WIDA Screener for Kindergarten and WIDA Alternate Screener.

Released April 2024

This report examines English learners’ testing, proficiency, and growth during the six most recent academic years (2018-2023) to shed light on the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on English learners’ educational outcomes. It provides descriptive evidence on disparities in outcomes within WIDA's English learner population, with substantial average differences in outcomes between English learners identified as Hispanic compared to non-Hispanic ELs. Findings show that these disparities are persistent and have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Published April 2024
Authors: Glenn Poole, Narek Sahakyan

Released April 2024