1. ACCESS for ELLs Score Reports
Presentation for Parents and Families
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You may want to review a recorded webinar series for parents and families on the WIDA website prior to sharing this PowerPoint. You can watch them for your own learning or think about how you want to share them.
Part I: My child is an English language learner. What does that mean?
Part II: My child is an English language learner. How is my child's language development supported at school?
Part III: My child is an English language learner. How do I know if my child is making progress?
Visit the Family Engagement page on the WIDA website ( for direct links to the webinars and other family engagement resources.

2. Overview 1 2 3 What is ACCESS for ELLs? What can I do? Your questions
The purpose of this presentation is to provide an overview of scores and reports on the ACCESS for ELLs assessment. First, we will provide a little background about the ACCESS assessment. Then, we will explain what your students score report means. And finally, we will save time for your questions.

3. What is ACCESS for ELLs?
An English language proficiency assessment for students in Kindergarten through Grade 12
Given every year to students who are English language learners
Monitors the English language development of students
Presenter note: add your test dates to the slide, if desired
ACCESS for ELLs is an English language proficiency assessment for Grades K–12. The test is administered every year to help school districts monitor the English language development of students identified as English language learners.
ACCESS for ELLs measures students’ abilities to understand and produce English used within school settings. The four sections of the test are Listening, Reading, Speaking, and Writing.
Every state sets a time frame for schools to administer ACCESS for ELLs. Schools schedule when students will take the four sections of the test during the testing time frame. In this school, students take the test [tell when you take the test].
Scores from ACCESS for ELLs can be used in many ways. As parents or guardians, you can use the scores to advocate for their child. Teachers use the scores to plan instruction and assessments. Districts use the scores to evaluate their language support programs, to monitor student progress in acquiring English, and to determine if a student is eligible to exit an English language support program. Scores are also used to meet federal and state accountability requirements.
Photo Credit: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, flickr

4. Terms and Ideas English language learners are students who are eligible to receive support at school with their English language development. Language development is a process that takes time. Students move along this process at different rates.
This is an optional slide if you want to remind your audience of this definition. You may want to customize this slide if your state has a different definition.
Photo Credit: U.S. Department of Education, flickr

5. Photo Credit: breity, flickr
Terms and Ideas Language proficiency is a measurement of where students are in the process of language development. ACCESS for ELLs measures students’ language proficiency every year.
This is an optional slide if you want to include a definition of language proficiency as part of your overview.
You may want to mention that language proficiency is like a photograph, it captures an image of what students can do at one moment when they take the test, sometimes the picture looks different than how the student is performing in the classroom and the student also changes from day to day. This is just like when you take photos of your child and they look a little different each day.

6. Optional slide if you find the visual helpful.
Use to emphasize the relationship between content learning and language development.
Language and content expectations are closely related. As grade-level learning goals become more complex, each student will need support and “training” to clear the hurdles.

7. ACCESS for ELLs
Most students take the test online, but some may use a paper format.
Students are tested in Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing.
Note to presenter: if your district uses paper testing, edit first bullet.
Talk with parents about the test, tell them why it has visuals to support students, and remind them that it focuses on the English language, not what your child knows.

8. Individual Student Report
Score reports provide information on a student’s progress in the development of English language proficiency.
Proficiency level scores are reported from 1.0 (beginner) to 6.0 (advanced).
Optional slide: You may want to draw from the notes below to fit your needs:
The Individual Student Report shows the eight scores your child could receive on the test. If your child took all four sections of the test, he/she will receive all eight scores. NA, or not available, indicates no score was reported. There are four Language Domain scores and four Composite Scores.
Scale Scores are reported as numbers that range from 100 – 600, for example 356 or 220. These scores reflect your child’s grade level and difficulty level of the test items that he/she successfully completed. Scale scores are helpful to see the progress your child makes in English language development from year to year. The graph on the report shows your child’s Scale Score for each of the eight scores, and it also shows the Confidence Band for each of his/her Scale Scores.
Confidence Bands are the shaded area around each of your child’s Scale Scores. This shows the possible range for your child’s score with a 95% probability of accuracy. In other words, if your child took the same test repeatedly, there is a 95% chance that his/her scores would be within the shaded range.
We encourage families to look at all of the scores reported for their child. Here are some suggestions for how to interpret, or make sense of, your child’s scores:
• Look at the Language Domain scores. Look at his/her Proficiency Level scores for Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. Which scores are closer to 6.0? Which scores are closer to 1.0?
• Look at the Composite Scores. Look at his/her Proficiency Level scores for Oral Language, Literacy, Comprehension, and the Overall Score. Which scores are closer to 6.0? Which scores are closer to 1.0?

9. What do teachers do with test scores?
We look at what your child does best. We can use these strengths to help your child learn.
We think about how to support your child in learning English and make plans for our teaching.
This might be an opportunity for you to talk about some specific ways that teachers in your school use test scores for planning.
Photo Credit: woodleywonderworks, flickr

10. What can I do to help my child?
Ask your child’s teacher:
What language support do you provide my child?
What would you like to know about how my child uses language at home?
What score does my child need to exit the program?
Continue to support your child’s language development at home.
Read to your child in your home language or English.
Ask questions about your child’s school work.
Talk to your child about topics that are fun and interesting to your family.
At conferences, teachers may be able to use the Individual Student Score Notes template ( to guide meaningful conversations about students’ academic English language development.

11. Questions & Answers Thank you!
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Conclusion: When you go to your parent/teacher conference, you can discuss details of the impact on your child and what the scores mean for how you will plan their instruction, what they can do at home to support language development, and more.
Parent handouts are available in the Resource Library of the WIDA website ( You may want to print copies in English and the languages that your families speak.
Thank you!
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