WIDA (World Class Instructional Design and Assessment)
English Language Proficiency Assessment
In May 2012, the Colorado legislature provided the funding needed to proceed with the adoption of new English language proficiency exams. Both World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) exams, the placement W-APT and the proficiency the ACCESS, will be implemented in the 2012-2013 school year.
To better align with the Colorado State Board of Education's 2009 decision to adopt the WIDA standards as the Colorado English Language Proficiency (CELP) standards, Colorado is beginning the transition from Colorado's CELAplace and CELApro tests to WIDA's W-APT (WIDA-ACCESS Placement Test) and ACCESS for ELLs (Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State for English Language Learners).
Beginning Oct. 1 2012 the W-APT is the placement assessment that will be used and in Jan. 2013 ACCESS will be used for proficiency testing. A few year's ago we transitioned to the ACCESS for ELL's online testing, and will continue with this test going forward for this school year.
For more information about WIDA assessments, visit: https://wida.wisc.edu/