WIDA

Massachusetts Transition to WIDA
The Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MA DESE) is proposing that Massachusetts become a member of the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) Consortium.

What is WIDA?
Under Title III regulations, states must align English language proficiency standards with current standards for all content areas, not just English language arts. WIDA is a consortium of 27 states that provides cohesive research-based standards and assessment systems supporting the academic language development of English learners in English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies.

According to WIDA, “it provides a curriculum and assessment resource that is anchored in academic language standards;…establishes a common means to define and measure how English learners acquire language across all four domains of listening, speaking, reading, and writing; and includes standards in 1) social and instructional language, 2) language of language arts, 3) language of mathematics, 4) language of science, and 5) language of social studies. The WIDA standards are also organized by grade, content area, domain, and proficiency levels.

What does the transition to WIDA mean for Massachusetts?
If the Massachusetts proposal is accepted:

• The Massachusetts English Proficiency Assessment-Reading/Writing (MEPA-R/W) and the Massachusetts English Language Assessment-Oral (MELA-O), will be replaced by ACCESS for ELLs (Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State for English Language Learners), the WIDA assessment test.
• English Language Performance Benchmarks and Outcomes (ELPBO) will be replaced by the WIDA English Language Development Standards.

When will this occur?
Under the schedule proposed by the MA DESE Commissioner:

1. The Massachusetts English Proficiency Assessment, including the MEPA-R/W and MELA-O, will be administered for the final time in Spring 2012 and will be replaced by ACCESS for ELLs.
2. ELPBO will also be replaced by WIDA English Language Development Standards in the 2012 – 2013 academic year.
3. The projected window for the first administration of  ACCESS will be January – February 2013, with results reported in late April – early May 2013.

Will training be provided?
Yes! MA DESE states that a number of training opportunities will provided, including online seminars that will begin in January 2012. Professional development for WIDA will occur in the Spring and Summer of 2012. In the Fall of 2012, test administrators will be trained, and in Winter 2013 there will be WIDA professional development sessions.

Current Timeline:

Anticipated Timeline:

Winter 2012

• MEPA Administration
• Online Webinars for WIDA begin

Spring – Summer 2012

• WIDA PD sessions

Fall 2012

• Test administrator training
• Order testing materials
• Optional administration of W-APT screener assessment
• WIDA PD sessions

Winter 2013

• First administration of ACCESS to all K-12 ELs
• WIDA PD sessions

May 2013

• Department reports baseline ACCESS test results

Current Professional Development – Category Trainings
The Massachusetts transition to WIDA will affect the training commonly referred to as Category 3 – Assessing English Learners for Qualifying MELA-O Administrators. In planning for this transition, the Department suggests that districts with staff who are qualified to administer the MELA-O not train additional staff for this purpose, and that training be provided for the new WIDA assessments.

There are currently no plans to change professional development for Category 1 – Principles of Second Language Acquisition, Category 2 – Principles for Sheltering Instruction, or Category 4 – Principles of Teaching Reading and Writing to English Learners,  other than to support the transition from ELPBO to the WIDA English Language Development Standards and WIDA CAN DO descriptors, which illustrate what students can do in the four language domains by proficiency levels.

While this is a big transition for our state, WIDA is being used widely in over twenty states and will hopefully provide Massachusetts with a more comprehensive understanding about its students’ academic language learning across the content areas. Information about WIDA, its standards, and CAN DO descriptors can be found at: www.wida.us/standards.