ACCESS for ELLs® Overview: Student Data Used on the Field Test
The impetus for forming the WIDA consortium and developing the ACCESS for ELLs® test has been the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation. This law requires districts to assess annually the English language proficiency gains of all English language learners (ELLs). To this end, that state educational agencies (SEAs) must establish annual measurable achievement objectives (AMAOs) for English language proficiency and report gains in a consistent manner to demonstrate that students are meeting the AMAOs. The AMAOs represent annual goals for student growth in English language proficiency. The ACCESS for ELLs® will be the instrument used to measure and report growth in a consistent manner, and districts and schools will be held accountable for the English language development gains of their English language learners.
In addition to English language proficiency testing, ELLs are required to participate in annual academic testing for all students, the results of which must be reported on a state, district, and school basis. The data reporting has the intent of demonstrating that a school or district is making adequate yearly progress (AYP) in educating its students to meet state educational standards. In the case of ELL students, the attainment of English language proficiency to successfully take and pass the state's mandated academic achievement tests in English is essential. ACCESS for ELLs® will be a tool to measure ELLs readiness to take part in large-scale state assessments in English with and/or without accommodations.
The NCLB law also stipulates that AYP must be made not just in the aggregate, but also within designated subgroups of the ELL population defined by such demographic factors as race, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability status, and language proficiency. For this reason, the analysis of the field test results needs to look at each of these factors and determine that items behave equivalently on each of them. Therefore, it is necessary to gather background data on each of the students participating in the field test. To protect the identity of the students, however, the field test developers are not collecting or using any student's last name. Only the first name and initial of the last name are used to match a test booklet with a student. The student's unique student ID will be used to track and record student test results.
Background