ELP Assessment Update July 22, 2022
We are closing in on the start of WIDA screening season and winding up the carefree days of summer. OSPI has been busy this summer, and we do have some changes to policy to announce before we kick of screening. Thank you for the work you do.
Out-of-State Transfer Students
If a student has not been enrolled in a Washington State public school in the past 12 months and meets the identification criteria on the home language survey, the student must take the WIDA Screener to determine eligibility for ELD services. The exception to this rule is a student who enrolls in a Washington State public school with WIDA ACCESS scores. WIDA ACCESS scores from out-of-state can be used in lieu of screening under the following conditions:
- If a student met the current Washington State WIDA Exit Criteria at any point on the annual WIDA ACCESS, then the student is ineligible for ELD services.
- If a student has WIDA ACCESS scores from within the previous 12 months and did not meet the Washington State Exit Criteria, the student is eligible for services.
- If the student has not taken the WIDA ACCESS in the last 12 months and has not met the current exit criteria based on a previous ACCESS score, then the student must be screened using the WIDA Screener. Washington State does not accept WIDA Screener scores from out of state.
All WIDA scores must reflect the requirements for the grade level the student was enrolled in when the student completed the test. Regardless of how eligibility is determined, the student must be identified for services within 10 school days of attending a Washington public school. If out-of-state scores are not available within 10 days, the school will need to administer a WIDA screener assessment to determine eligibility.
If a student who previously transitioned (exited) from the TBIP program returns to Washington after having lived outside the United States in a non-English-speaking country for twelve or more months, the district can administer the WIDA Screener to determine if there has been a loss of English language proficiency. The student can re-qualify for TBIP services based on the new placement test results.
Screening Kindergarten Students
OSPI updated the policy around screening kindergarten students. Incoming kindergarten students who enroll and begin attending prior to January 1 of their kindergarten year must be screened only in the listening and speaking domain on the WIDA Screener for Kindergarten. For incoming kindergarten students who enroll or begin attending on or after January 1 of their kindergarten year, all domains must be completed on the WIDA Screener for Kindergarten.
With this shift in policy a revision to the eligibility criteria was needed. For students who are screening early in their kindergarten year (prior to January 1), they must achieve a level 5 on both speaking and listening domains as well as an oral language score of 5. Students who are screening in kindergarten on or after January 1 will continue to have the same eligibility requirements, a minimum of 4 in all four domains and an overall score of 4.5.
| Time of Year |
Domain Score Minimum |
Composite Score Minimum |
| Prior to January 1 |
5 (Speaking and Listening) |
5 (Oral Language) |
| On or after January 1 |
4 (all four domains) |
4.5 (Overall) |
Students who may be eligible for English language development (ELD) services are required to be screened and be provided with those services, including students in Transitional Kindergarten (TK) programs. However, our state-approved English language proficiency assessment, the WIDA Kindergarten Screener and WIDA Kindergarten ACCESS for ELLs assessment have not been validated for children under 5, and therefore, are not appropriate for screening TK students until they are closer to the typical age of kindergarten students.
Transitional Kindergarten Students
The following procedure should be used to screen TK students, given that the WIDA K Screener is not appropriate for TK:
1) Home Language Survey – Require completion and submission of the Home Language Survey for all TK students and use the information from questions 2 and 3 to determine possible eligibility.
2) Provisional Qualification – Based on the Home Language Survey information, record all TK students who are possibly eligible based on the Home Language Survey as provisionally-qualified English learners without a screener score, using their date of enrollment as their Initial Placement Test Date.
3) Spring ELP Screening – Beginning May 1st, all TK students must be given the WIDA Kindergarten Screener prior to the end of their time in TK, in alignment with guidance on early kindergarten screening. This screening is required for students enrolled in TK in order to fulfill the requirement for annual English language proficiency assessment. This will also determine their eligibility for ELD services the following school year upon entering kindergarten.
ELD Services for TK Students
Provisionally-qualified TK students will be eligible for ELD services and will be able to be claimed on the P223 count for Transitional Bilingual Instruction Programs (TBIP) and Title III funding. Best practice for early multilingual learners is to provide inclusive services through co-teaching or through professional development for TK educators to integrate English language development supports and strategies into the early learning environment. Pull-out services are not best practice and are discouraged. For more information on early learning strategies for multilingual learners, see the WIDA Early Years Can Do Descriptors and WIDA Focus Bulletin: Promoting Equity for Young Multilingual Children and Their Families.
WIDA offers webinars to provide information and answer questions about different components of the WIDA assessment year. Over the next few weeks WIDA is offering the following screener Webinars. All of these webinars are offered in the WIDA Secure Portal and recordings are available a few days after the live webinar is complete. Attendees will be required to have a WIDA Secure Portal account to access the webinars.
WIDA Screener for Kindergarten July 26, 2022 11:00 am
WIDA Screener Online August 2, 2022 11:00 am
WIDA Screener Paper August 4, 2022 11:00 am
OSPI is bringing back Lunch with Leslie for the 2022-23 school year. This is an opportunity on Mondays at noon for districts to hear updates from OSPI, ask questions about WIDA assessments, or find out how other districts are approaching testing processes. This is a casual opportunity for collaboration and information sharing and any district staff involved with ELP assessments is welcome to attend.
DRC Customer Service has developed articles to help answer some of the most common questions about WIDA AMS and the DRC systems and processes used in WIDA test administrations. Documents are organized by topic and located under My Applications → DRC Customer Services → WIDA AMS Knowledge Articles. There are 62 articles that address various processes and questions in the categories below.
- Reports
- Screener
- Materials
- User Management
- Test Management
- Student Management
If you have questions about any of the content in this communication or WIDA assessments more generally, please don't hesitate to reach out.
ELPAssessments@k12.wa.us: OSPI shared inbox (State-level WIDA questions)
wida@datarecognitioncorp.com: DRC Customer Service (WIDA AMS questions)
Help@wida.us: WIDA Client Services (WIDA Secure Portal questions)
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