1. ACCESS for ELLs® Test Facilitator Training Workshop Overview
The purpose of this training module is to inform participants of the tier placement, booklet ordering, and security procedures that must be adhered to before, during, and after administration of the ACCESS for ELLs®. The roles and responsibilities of those involved in testing, particularly as they relate to test security, will be defined. Participants will become familiar with general and state specific test security guidelines; the types of materials they will receive at the district and school level; and the timeline for receipt and return of these materials vis-à-vis the testing window. This training module also provides a sample security checklist for districts and schools to follow to ensure test security.
Emily Evans, Center for Applied Linguistics January 2007 New Jersey Department of Education
Developed by the Center for Applied Linguistics

2. Overview of the Day Morning:
Introduction to WIDA – Test Background, Participant Roles
Administering ACCESS Group Tests - Listening, Reading, and Writing
Administering and Scoring ACCESS Speaking Test
Administering and Scoring ACCESS Kindergarten Test
Afternoon:
Administering and Scoring the Kindergarten ACCESS for ELLs
Enrollment and Use of D2L:  Online ACCESS for ELLs® Training
Brief Review of Tier Placement of Students for ACCESS Testing
Maintaining Test Security and Understanding ACCESS Score Reports
Our goal is that by the end of the day, you are proficient in each of these topics as they pertain to your role in ACCESS testing.

3. New Jersey’s Testing Window
Task
Start Date
End Date
Duration (Days)
Test Ordering
02/01/07
02/28/07 28
Pre-ID Ordering
03/07/07 35
State Receives Test Materials
03/26/07 1
Test Window
04/16/07
06/01/07 47
Additional Materials Deadline
05/18/07
Districts Ship Completed Material to MT
06/11/07
Reports Shipped to State
08/10/07
Note that the test ordering window closes two weeks prior to the state’s testing window. <Modify the date information as required to reflect your state’s testing window.>

4. Background on the WIDA Consortium and the Consortium Assessments
This training module provides background on the organization and activities of the WIDA Consortium. At the end of this module, participants will be familiar with the structure of the WIDA Consortium, as well as the products and services it offers to its member states. Participants will also become acquainted with the WIDA English language proficiency standards, and their centrality to the creation of the ACCESS for ELLs®. In addition, this training module provides a brief overview of the ACCESS for ELLs® test battery and administration process.
Emily Evans, Center for Applied Linguistics January 2007 New Jersey Department of Education
Developed by the Center for Applied Linguistics

5. Training Objectives
To understand how the WIDA consortium is organized and what it offers member states
To understand how the WIDA English Language Proficiency Standards are translated into ACCESS for ELLs® test items
To understand how the ACCESS for ELLs® test is structured
This module is intended only as an introduction to WIDA and its assessment products. For comprehensive details on how to administer each component of ACCESS for ELLs® and how to score the Speaking Test, please refer to the training modules designed for those purposes: Administering Group Components of ACCESS for ELLs®, Administering the Speaking Component of ACCESS for ELLs®, and Administering Kindergarten ACCESS for ELLs®.

6. Workshop Table of Contents
Background on the WIDA Consortium
WIDA English Language Proficiency Standards
WIDA Products and Services
By the end of this training module, you should have a basic idea of how the WIDA consortium is structured, and as well as what products and services they offer to member states.

7. Why “WIDA”?
The WIDA Consortium was originally made up of three states: Wisconsin, Delaware, and Arkansas.
As the Consortium grew, the name was changed to reflect that growth. WIDA now stands for World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment, and as of 2006 includes 15 states:
Alabama
Delaware
District of Columbia
Georgia
Illinois
Kentucky
Maine
New Hampshire
New Jersey
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Vermont
Wisconsin
The Consortium is managed out of the Wisconsin Center for Educational Research (WCER) at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
[Arkansas is no longer a member of the WIDA consortium.]

8. Organization of Consortium Activities
CAL is contracted by WIDA to develop testing and training products. CAL is also a participating member of WIDA at steering committee and executive committee meetings.
CAL is located in Washington, DC.
MetriTech is located in Champaign, Illinois.
Margo Gottlieb is affiliated with the Illinois Resource Center in DesPlaines, Illinois.

9. Who Does What for ACCESS Testing?
Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) – coordination of item writing course; development of test items; layout of test booklets and scripts; maintenance of training products and professional development opportunities; test item data analysis
MetriTech – PDSR – Production, Distribution, Scoring, & Reporting functions
Test Facilitators – enroll test administrators in online course and issue certification; oversee test security; typically at district level
Test Coordinators –testing window scheduling and ordering of booklets; typically at school level
Test Administrators – administer one or all components of the ACCESS for ELLs® (Speaking, Kindergarten, Group); typically a teacher
Assessment
Title III and State Organizations
Not all districts will have separately designated test coordinators, and in some smaller districts, one person may fulfill all three roles; the coordinator position was developed for school districts that are so large that the testing responsibilities need to be distributed among three hierarchical levels. In most cases, a test facilitator will train test administrators, enroll them in the online training course, and oversee handling of test materials, and scheduling of test windows. Test Administrators may or may not be tasked with materials handling in all districts. This is left up to local entities to decide and monitor. All facilitators, administrators and coordinators share equal responsibility in maintaining the security of ACCESS for ELLs® test forms.

10. Office of Specialized Populations (609) 292-8777
State Contact Information
Office of Specialized Populations (609)
Acting Director, James F. Curry
Bilingual Education Coordinator, Ms. Raquel Sinai
Bilingual/ESL Educational Specialist, Ms. Lori Ramella
Bilingual/ESL Educational Specialist Ms. Ericka Reed
DOE Website:
If this slide is not required, it may be deleted.

11. WIDA Products and Services
Language Proficiency Standards
English Language Proficiency Standards
Spanish Language Arts Standards
English Language and Content Assessments
ACCESS for ELLs® (Large-Scale Assessment )
WIDA–ACCESS Placement Test (W-APT)™ — The Screener
Alternate ACCESS for ELLs® for cognitively disabled children (in development)
ONPAR™ content assessment for low proficient ELLs (in development)
Supplemental Activities
CLIMBS professional development workshops
ACCESS Item Writing Course, annually in the winter
Test administration training
Validation and Research
Bridge study of ACCESS data with LAS, IPT, MAC II, LPTS data
Annual technical reports
Speaking test inter-rater reliability study
Today’s Focus
CLIMBS workshops are aimed at preparing teachers to incorporate and use the WIDA ELP standards in classroom instruction and assessment.
ONPAR will be an alternate content (Title I) assessment designed for students with very low English proficiency. It will be computer-delivered test.
Alternate ACCESS is aimed at cognitively disabled ELLs and other students. It will be a portfolio-based, language proficiency assessment.

12. Associations between WIDA Products
This slide shows the logical connections between the most central of the WIDA assessment products.

13. WIDA CLIMBS Course
Content and Language Integration as a Means of Bridging Success
Hybrid course (part face-to-face, part online)
Course Objectives:
To build understanding of the integration of content and WIDA English language proficiency (ELP) standards in classroom instruction.
To apply a research-based, comprehensive approach to sheltering academic content for ELLs.
To use summative (ACCESS for ELLs®, state achievement test) and formative (classroom assessment) data to inform instruction.
To share best practices among ESL, bilingual, and general educators through on-line interaction.

14. Item Writing Course Offered annually in the Spring Delivered online
Participants may be eligible for continuing education or graduate credits through UW Oshkosh
ESOL teachers from all grade level clusters in all Consortium states invited to participate
States nominate one or more class participants
Participants design items based on test specifications
Output used on future ACCESS for ELLs® tests

15. WIDA ACCESS Placement Test (W-APT™)
Tests all four language domains
Tests up to Level 6 on WIDA ELP Scale (for Grades 1-12)
Used as aid in determining ELL services
Kindergarten W-APT™ includes Oral Proficiency component and optional Diagnostic Reading and Writing components
Adaptive at all grade levels, so administration time depends on student’s proficiency
Semi-secure, free and downloadable with district password from

16. ONPAR™ ONPAR™ — Obtaining Necessary Parity through Academic Rigor
Content assessment for low proficient ELLs in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 11
Math component
Science component
Language Arts component
Written to address state content standards and to be comparable to state content tests in coverage and rigor
Computer delivered & scored
Intended for academic year

17. ACCESS Training Test Administration Manuals
In addition to seasonal face-to-face workshops, WIDA supports a Train-the-Trainer approach to preparing teachers and administrators to administer ACCESS for ELLs® assessments. The available materials include:
Test Administration Manuals
District and School Test Administration Manual
ACCESS for ELLs® Kindergarten Test Administration Manual
D2L Online Course and CD version of D2L course
Training Toolkit CD
Coaching Guide
PowerPoint presentations
Sample test items
Speaking and Writing Rubrics

18. The WIDA ELP Standards Standard 1 – SI Standard 2 – LA Standard 3 – MA
English language learners communicate in English for social and instructional purposes in the school setting.
Standard 2 – LA
English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Language Arts.
Standard 3 – MA
English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Math.
Standard 4 – SC
English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Science.
Standard 5 – SS
English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of Social Studies.
Within each standard, there are PIs for Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing for each grade-level cluster (K, 1-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12). These represent the language of the content areas from which test items are drawn. These are four content areas addressed: Social Studies (SS), Language Arts (LA), Math (MA) and Science (SC). Social Instructional language is the language of the classroom, the language that cuts across all the disciplines.

19. Overall Organization of Standards
Frameworks for Classroom & Large-Scale Assessment (2)
English Language Proficiency Standards (5)
Grade Level Clusters (4)
Language Proficiency Levels (5)
Model PIs are the lowest level of expression of the standards
Model Performance Indicators
Language Domains (4)
The WIDA ELP standards show several levels of organization.
The organization of the standards is hierarchical. At the highest level, the standards are general statements about a broad range of communicative proficiency in a particular content area. As the standards drill down to the Model Performance Indicators they become much more specific about the particular kind of language proficiency being addressed.
Across the 2 frameworks, formative and summative, there are over 800 model performance indicators.

20. Centrality of the ELP Standards
ACCESS for ELLs®
and W-APT™
Classroom Assessment Framework
Large-Scale Assessment Framework
English Language
Proficiency Standards & Performance Definitions
The complete set of standards is available at
Standards address language proficiency, not content knowledge; the language of math, for example.
A model performance indicator is a very specific skill for which ELLs are held accountable, such as “identify the resources necessary to create an art project.. The model performance indicators reflect what we know from research about how language develops. The formative model performance indicators were previously called “classroom” and the summative ones were previously called “large-scale.”
Model Performance Indicators: Formative
Model Performance Indicators: Summative

21. Levels of English Language Proficiency6
ENTERING
BEGINNING
DEVELOPING
EXPANDING 1 2 3 4 5
BRIDGING
REACHING
The labels used for the six proficiency levels were created by the WIDA development team. ELL status is restricted to levels 1 through 5. A student reaching level 6 shows no language characteristics that would distinguish him or her as needing special English language services. Such a student would be capable enough in all language domains: Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing, to be able to benefit fully from mainstream classroom instruction. Note that a student at a lower level in the policy set by states or school districts may be designated as functionally able to participate in and benefit from regular classroom instruction and may, in fact, be pulled from special English language services.

22. Criteria for Proficiency Level Definitions
Linguistic Complexity: Extent of functional language (written or oral discourse)
Vocabulary Usage: Comprehension and use of the technical vocabulary of the content areas
Language Control: Comprehension and use of phonological, syntactic, and semantic structure & rules
ENTERING
BEGINNING
DEVELOPING
EXPANDING 1 2 3 4 5
BRIDGING 6
REACHING
The criteria used to determine the proficiency level definitions are couched in terms of the language used in schools to impart content area information. Issues of grammar in its broad sense as well as semantic & pragmatic knowledge are brought to bear in formulating the definitions. At the two lower proficiency levels, it is assumed that ELLs would need substantial extralinguistic support via graphic and visual aids in order to carry out language functions. This requirement also motivates the use of graphics for test items at these levels.
It is upon these three criteria that the rubrics for Writing and Speaking are based.

23. ACCESS for ELLs® Overview
Secure, large-scale test
Anchored in WIDA’s ELP Standards
Assesses academic language
Three tiers for each grade level cluster
Tier A: Proficiency levels 1-3
Tier B: Proficiency levels 2-4
Tier C: Proficiency levels 3-5
One third of test items replaced annually
Administered once per year as required by No Child Left Behind
Indicator of student’s ability to perform on state content test

24. Tier Structure of ACCESS for ELLs®1 2 3 4 5
ENTERING
BEGINNING
DEVELOPING
EXPANDING
BRIDGING
Tier A
Tier B
Tier C
The three overlapping tiers of the ACCESS for ELLs® test are designed to create tests whose items span a range of difficulty within the range of proficiency of an individual student taking the test. The intention is to present items to the student that are neither too easy nor too difficult and that collectively pinpoint his or her true proficiency level. It is expected that the majority of students will receive the Tier B form of the test. Tier A is intended for very low proficiency students and Tier C for students close to exiting from ELL status.

25. ACCESS Administration Times and Composite Score Weights
Listening (15%): minutes, machine scored
Reading (35%): minutes, machine scored
Writing (35%): Up to 1 hour, rater scored
Speaking (15%): Up to 15 minutes, administrator scored
Administration times do not reflect logistics time, that is, the time needed to assemble students in the test room and to distribute, collect and secure test booklets.

26. Structure of ACCESS for ELLs®
Grade Levels
and Tiers K
1-2
3-5
6-8
9-12
Adaptive (no tiers)
A B C
Domains
Listening — group administered, machine scored
Reading — group administered, machine scored
Speaking — individual administered, TA scored
Writing — group administered, rater scored
There are 13 tests total in the ACCESS for ELLs® battery: one Kindergarten test (adaptive) plus three tiered forms at each of the grade-level clusters. Each test assesses all four language domains, and in each domain, all five standards are assessed.
Descriptions of individual tests in the ACCESS for ELLs® test battery are included in the training PowerPoint presentations for Administering the Group Components of ACCESS for ELLs® and Administering the ACCESS for ELLs® Speaking Test.
Series
101 (roll-out Winter 2006)
102 (roll-out Winter 2007)
103 (roll-out Winter 2008)

27. Test Administration Overview
Listening and Reading are administered together in one group session (approximately 75 minutes)
Writing is administered in a separate group session (approximately 75 minutes)
15-20 students per group session
Speaking is administered individually
All test sessions must occur within state’s testing window
The Test Administration Manual contains additional guidance for scheduling test sessions, including sample test session rosters and guidelines from MetriTech on how to manage test materials and operations.

28. Listening Test Multiple choice 20-25 minutes Thematically organized
Scripted
Group administered
Machine scored

29. Reading Test Multiple choice 35-40 minutes Thematically organized
Group administered
Machine scored

30. Writing Test Up to 1 hour 4 tasks per tiered form:SI MA SC
Integrated Task on Tiers B and C (combines LA/SS/SI)
Writing task is modeled for child
Rater scored (by MetriTech)

31. Speaking Test Up to 15 minutes per student No tiers – adaptive format
Individually administered
3 parts per form: SI
LA/SS
MA/SC
Scored by test administrator
Qualitative ratings assigned according to Speaking Rubric
Numeric score calculated by MetriTech

32. ACCESS for ELLs® Kindergarten Test
All components individually administered
All components adaptive—stop a test component when child reaches his/her ceiling
All responses, except for Writing section, recorded by TA
TA scores all components, including Writing, during administration
Averages 30 minutes per student for all components

33. Where to Go for WIDA Resources
To access and download the sample ACCESS for ELLs® test items
To read current FAQ sheet providing general information on WIDA and ACCESS for ELLs®
To access and download the WIDA standards
To request user support via
To request CDs contact your state’s Title III coordinator

34. Questions or
Comments?
For more information, please contact the WIDA Hotline: or
World Class Instructional Design and Assessment,
Center for Applied Linguistics,
Metritech, Inc.,

35. Questions or
Comments?
For more information, please contact the WIDA Hotline: or
World Class Instructional Design and Assessment,
Center for Applied Linguistics,
Metritech, Inc.,