Please review the following information carefully.
ACCESS for ELLs and Alternate ACCESS electronic test results will be available in WIDA AMS on Thursday, May 19. DRC sent an email to District and School ACCESS Test Coordinators on May 12 outlining the steps to retrieve individual reports from WIDA AMS, as well as school and district frequency reports and school student roster reports.
On May 24, printed Individual Student Reports (ISRs) will arrive in schools. The paper reports mailed to schools will be printed in English only. If schools wish to mail a report to a parent in another language, reports in other languages can be downloaded from WIDA AMS Report Delivery>On-Demand Reports.
As schools prepare to send an ISR to the student's home, we also encourage downloading the ACCESS for ELLs Parent Letter in the language of the home (if available) to accompany the report. Parent letters should be copied onto school or district letterhead, signed by the appropriate school or district official, and sent to the home of the parents with the actual ISR. Parent letters are available in the same languages as the on-demand ISRs.
In addition to the Individual Student Reports and ACCESS for ELLs Parent Letters, the ACCESS for ELLs: Understanding your Child's Score and Alternate ACCESS for ELLs: Understanding your Child's Score is a two-page flier which provides answers to basic questions about the ISR. This resource is available for download in 16 languages in the WIDA Secure Portal and may be sent home with the child's ISR and ACCESS for ELLs Parent Letter or used during meetings with parents, at the school's discretion.
Resources that may be useful for educators and administrators include the ACCESS for ELLs Interpretive Guide for Score Reports and in the Alternate ACCESS for ELLs Interpretive Guide for Score Reports . These resources provide detailed information about interpreting the reports.
Two Zoom presentations on reporting ACCESS results will be offered to District ACCESS for ELLs Test Coordinators to provide information on accessing and interpreting student, school, and district-level results in WIDA AMS. Presentations will be held on May 16 from 9:30–11:00 AM and May 19 from 9:30–11:00 AM.
Registration will be limited to one participant log-in per district, unless your District ACCESS for ELLs Test Coordinator receives a DESE email indicating otherwise. Participants will receive instructions to log in upon registration. Presentation slides will be posted to the MA state page of the WIDA website under the Manuals, Guides, and Workshops tab prior to the presentation date. Registered participants are encouraged to share the slides and presentation information with others in their district as necessary. Please register here.
WIDA has developed a pre-recorded webinar titled "Post-Reporting: Interpreting Score Reports" that provides information on the student reports, frequency reports, and student roster reports and how to access them in WIDA AMS. To view the webinar, log in to the WIDA Secure Portal and click on "webinars".
As of January 1, 2023, the WIDA Screener for Kindergarten must be used as the only screener for identifying kindergarten and first-semester first grade students for English language services.
Schools may use either the WIDA Screener for Kindergarten, K MODEL, or K W-APT until January 1, 2023. However, WIDA will phase out the K W-APT and will remove all K W-APT materials from the WIDA Secure Portal on June 30, 2022. Therefore, districts that wish to use the K W-APT to screen kindergarten and first-semester first grade students between June 30 and December 31, 2022 will need to download the needed materials prior to June 30.
Thank you for your attention to this information.
This and previous EL Assessment Updates are available online. Please contact Student Assessment Services with any questions about ACCESS for ELLs testing at ACCESS@mass.gov or by phone at 781-338-3625.
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 135 Santilli Highway, Everett, MA 02149
Voice: (781) 338-3000 TTY: (800) 439-2370
Disclaimer: A reference in this website to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm, or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the public and does not constitute endorsement or recommendation by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.