Education Week articles share ‘what teachers should know’ about WIDA’s test for English learners


A pair of recent articles in Education Week provide information for teachers on the WIDA ACCESS test, which measures the progress of English learners in kindergarten through grade 12.

WIDA logoSchools are required to test the progress of English learners every year to determine if students still need language instruction. The WIDA test is used for this purpose in close to 40 states.

The first article, headlined “What All Teachers Should Know About WIDA’s Test for English Learners,” explains what the test is used for, how it covers language in an academic context, what it’s like for students to take the test, and what the results tell teachers about students.

A companion article, “WIDA’s Test for English Learners: Try Sample Questions,” offers teachers an opportunity to try sample questions and get a better feel for how the assessment works.

UW–Madison’s WIDA, an educational services organization housed in the School of Education’s Wisconsin Center for Education Research, provides language development resources to support the academic success of multilingual learners. The organization’s comprehensive, research-based system of language standards, assessments, professional learning, and educator support is used by members of the WIDA Consortium, a U.S.-based collaborative group of 42 member states, territories, and federal agencies.

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