WIDA Consortium

WIDA Consortium

Established	2002
Location	Madison , Wisconsin , U.S.
Website	wida.wisc.edu

The WIDA Consortium (formerly World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment) is an educational consortium of state departments of education. Currently, 41 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, as well as Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands, participate in the WIDA Consortium. WIDA designs and implements proficiency standards and assessment for grade K-12 students who are English-language learners, as well as a set of proficiency standards and assessments for Spanish language learners. WIDA also provides professional development to educators and conducts research on instructional practices, as well as the results and use of the ACCESS and W-APT English language proficiency assessments.

WIDA was established in 2003 with a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction for the purpose of creating English language proficiency standards and assessments. The purpose of such Enhanced Assessment Grants is to support State activities designed to improve the quality, validity, and reliability of state academic assessments beyond the requirements for such assessments described in section 111(b)(3) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The consortium originally began with Wisconsin, Delaware, and Arkansas, which were the sources of the acronym WIDA, although Arkansas dropped out. The acronym definitions ("Wisconsin-Delaware-Arkansas" and the acronym developed to match the new constituent states, "World Class Instructional Design and Assessment") are no longer used.

Member State	Department of Education Website
Alabama	http://www.alsde.edu/html/home.asp
Alaska	https://education.alaska.gov/
Colorado	http://www.cde.state.co.us/
Delaware	http://www.doe.k12.de.us/
District of Columbia	http://dcps.dc.gov/portal/site/DCPS/
Florida	http://fldoe.org/
Georgia	http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/
Hawaii	http://doe.k12.hi.us/index.php
Idaho	https://www.sde.idaho.gov/
Illinois	https://www.isbe.net
Indiana	http://www.doe.in.gov/
Kentucky	https://web.archive.org/web/20091022061228/http://www.education.ky.gov/KDE/
Maine	http://www.maine.gov/education/
Maryland	http://www.mdk12.org/
Massachusetts	http://www.doe.mass.edu/
Michigan	http://www.michigan.gov/mde
Minnesota	http://education.state.mn.us/mde/index.html
Missouri	http://dese.mo.gov/
Montana	http://mt.gov/education/default.mcpx
Nevada	http://www.doe.nv.gov/
New Hampshire	http://www.education.nh.gov/
New Jersey	http://www.nj.gov/education/
New Mexico	http://www.ped.state.nm.us/
North Carolina	http://www.ncpublicschools.org/
North Dakota	http://www.dpi.state.nd.us/
Northern Mariana Islands	http://www.cnmipss.org/
Oklahoma	https://web.archive.org/web/20110528085923/http://www.sde.state.ok.us/
Pennsylvania	http://www.education.state.pa.us
Puerto Rico	http://www.de.gobierno.pr/
Rhode Island	http://www.ride.ri.gov/
South Carolina	https://ed.sc.gov/
South Dakota	http://doe.sd.gov/
Tennessee	https://www.tn.gov/education/
Utah	http://www.schools.utah.gov/main/
Vermont	http://www.education.vermont.gov/
Virginia	http://www.doe.virginia.gov/
Washington	https://www.k12.wa.us/
Wisconsin	http://dpi.wi.gov/
Wyoming	https://web.archive.org/web/20090902153639/http://www.k12.wy.us/

WIDA provides several assessments for use with English language learners. The W-APT (WIDA ACCESS Placement Test) is most often used as a screening test to determine the language level of students entering a school system. These results are used most frequently to determine if a student is eligible for ESL or ESOL services. The W-APT test has been in use since 2006. The ACCESS test is given yearly and the results are used to determine the student's growth and progress, as well as to inform instruction for the next year. This test has been administered annually in WIDA member states beginning in the 2005–06 academic year. The WIDA MODEL K-12 assessment is used in the U.S. and several other countries as a test of English language proficiency. The ACCESS test also has many accommodations to support language learners who have an IEP or a 504 plan. These accommodations are not intended to change what the test measures, but allow students with disabilities to participate in an appropriate manner. These accommodations are given on an individual basis, and should not interfere with the testing the student's knowledge. Some of these accommodations include: extended testing time, human reader for response items, and Braille.

In addition to its consortium member state partners, the WIDA project partners with the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) in Washington, D.C., and MetriTech, Inc. of Champaign, IL, and most recently, Data Recognition Corporation (DRC), Maple Grove, MN.

The WIDA Consortium administrative office is located in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

The language standards used by WIDA consortium member state department of education are referred to as the English Language Development (ELD) Standards Framework.

WIDA Test Types

Kindergarten W-Apt

Assessment given to incoming kindergarteners to determine if they are English Language Learners (ELLs). The purpose of the test is for educators to determine if students would benefit from ELL programs that schools have to offer. Scores are usually marked in Speaking and Listening in low, mid, high, or exceptional proficiency.

WIDA Access 2.0

Administered to K-12 students who have been identified as ELLs. It is given annually to monitor student's progress in learning English. The test covers the four language domains of Speaking, Writing, Listening. and Reading. the assessment is usually scored through the WIDA Language Proficiency levels 1-6.

WIDA Online Access

Computer based test given annually to students grades 1-12. Based on student performances, the online test routes students to both easier and more challenging content. Students are tested in the four language domains.

References

Additional Reading

NJTESOL/NJBE Voices (2023) - Save time! Streamline your unit and lesson planning using the WIDA Standards Digital Explorer. https://voices.njtesol-njbe.org/annual-voices-journal-2023/streamline-your-unit/

April Florida Sunshine State TESOL Journal – Unlocking Content Driven Language Learning Through Key Language Uses and Language Expectations https://pub.lucidpress.com/sstesoljournalspring2021/#zjATJplv1WsI (begins on p. 44)

NJTESOL Annual Voices Journal - Designing Assessments to Facilitate Oral Language Development https://voices.njtesol-njbe.org/annual-journal-2021/designing-assessments/

Edutopia - Supporting Multilingual Learners in Hybrid Classrooms https://www.edutopia.org/article/supporting-multilingual-learners-hybrid-classrooms

Washington State WAESOL Educator Journal - Transitioning from the ELPA21 English Language Proficiency Standards to the WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework - https://waesol.org/winter%202021-452/ (begins on p. 4)

MinneTESOL Journal - Putting Discourse First https://minnetesoljournal.org/current-issue/peer-reviewed-article/putting-discourse-first/

MinneTESOL Journal - Making Language Visible in Content-area Classrooms Using the WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework https://minnetesoljournal.org/current-issue/article/making-language-visible-in-content-area-classrooms-using-the-wida-english-language-development-standards-framework/

MinneTESOL Journal - What's the same and what's been updated in the WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition? https://minnetesoljournal.org/journal-archive/mtj-2021-2/whats-the-same-and-whats-been-updated-in-the-wida-english-language-development-standards-framework-2020-edition/

Washington State WAESOL Educator Journal - Using proficiency level descriptors to plan instruction and assess multilingual learners. https://waesol.org/Summer-2022-472/