News and information for staff members and the Madison community
Vol. I No. 2 - December 19, 2005
To meet the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act and corresponding state policy, schools are required to annually assess the English Language proficiency of their English Language Learners (ELLs) in Kindergarten through grade 12. Beginning this month, a new standards-based test -- ACCESS for ELLs -- will be used for this purpose.
A federally funded group known as the WIDA Consortium developed this new assessment tool for use in the following 10 states: Wisconsin (the lead state), Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.
The WIDA website (see link below) states that "these ten states account for nearly 270,000 English language learners …in approximately 1,200 school districts." In Madison, this affects over 3,500 students from 54 language backgrounds.A long testing window (Dec. to Feb.) allows ample time for the speaking section of the test, which is individually administered, as well as the listening, reading and writing sections, which will be given in small groups.
The ACCESS for ELLs language proficiency test will be used in lieu of the Woodcock-Muñoz language survey as the annual spring assessment tool. Staff in MMSD schools should be aware that ELL students will need to be excused from regular activities at the time of this important spring testing.
For questions regarding the implementation of this new test, please contact the Division of ESL and Bilingual Education at 663-8440 or visit the WIDA Consortium website.Last Updated: Tue Mar 28 12:17:36 2006
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