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ACCESS for ELLs™ »ELLs Home

WHAT IS ACCESS for ELLs™?

The ACCESS for ELLs™ English language proficiency test has six main purposes:

  • to identify the English language proficiency level of students with respect to state-wide performance standards
  • to identify students who may be candidates for English as a second language (ESL) and/or bilingual education services
  • to assess annual English language proficiency gains using a standards-based assessment instrument
  • to provide districts with information that will help them evaluate the effectiveness of their ESL/Bilingual programs and determine staffing requirements
  • to provide data for meeting federal and state statutory requirements with respect to student assessment        
  • to provide information that enhances instruction and learning in programs for English language learners.

Like statewide assessments, ACCESS for ELLs™ is a secure test.  Only the teacher-administered speaking part (and the entire kindergarten form) of the test will be scored on site. The Spring, 2009 test will be administered during the following testing window:

  • March 16, 2009 to April 30, 2009

It will then be sent back to the consortium’s vendor, MetriTech, Inc., WIDA’s vendor for scoring and reporting, based in Champaign, Illinois.
ACCESS for ELLs™ consists of a battery of tests spanning six grade level clusters and five proficiency levels. The grade level clusters include:

  • PreK - Kindergarten
  • Grades 1-2
  • Grades 3-5
  • Grades 6-8
  • Grades 9-12

Placing Students in the ACCESS for ELLs™

Because the ACCESS for ELLs™ is a tiered test, students will need to be placed in a tier prior to ordering test booklets and administering the test.  Student English proficiency levels determined from prior testing (Language Assessment Scales, Maculitis II, or IDEA Proficiency Test) may be used to help determine the appropriate tier placement. This protocol will, of course, work best for teachers who have known their ELL students for the past several months.   The names of the five proficiency levels are: Entering (Level 1), Beginning (Level 2), Developing (Level 3), Expanding (Level 4), and Bridging (Level 5).

The test will include the following domains (with estimated administration time)

  • Speaking (individually teacher-administered; approximately 15 minutes)
  • Listening (group administered; approximately 25 minutes)
  • Reading (group administered; approximately 35 minutes)
  • Writing (group administered; approximately 60 minutes)

In order to offer a test that is comprehensive and will accurately assess English language proficiency levels, yet is sensitive to the limited availability of time for testing, there are three language proficiency tiers for each grade level cluster except kindergarten, for which there is only one individually administered test covering all proficiency levels.

  • Tier A = proficiency levels 1-3
  • Tier B = proficiency levels 2-4
  • Tier C = proficiency levels 3-5 and beyond

The teacher may use the attached criteria to select the tier that most closely will match the extent of difficulty of ACCESS for ELLs™  to be administered.