WIDA Shows Promise

WIDA Shows Promise
By: Elizabeth Dowling, M.S. Ed.

Here are some notes from my initial training:

World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA/ “weeduh”) is a non-profit consortium of nineteen states working together to meet the needs of English language learners and educators. WIDA is funded through at U.S. Department of Education grant and was originally developed in 2003 through the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin.

Through extensive research and educator input, WIDA has designed instructional standards for ELLs in pre-Kindergarten- Grade 12 that address both social and academic language. WIDA seeks to standardize the identification, instruction, and assessment process.

Educators in states that join the WIDA consortium have access to standards, training resources, and assessment tools that will meet the 2001 NCLB requirements. Most importantly, as of 2009, over 725,000 English learners benefit from the research and products WIDA provides.

WIDA Standards Organization
Formative Framework
Summative Framework for Assessment
The 5 English Language Proficiency Standards (to follow)
The 4 English Domains: Listening, Speaking, Reading, And Writing.
The 5 Grade Level Clusters: PreK-K, 1-2, 3-5,6-8, 9-12
The 5 Language Proficiency Levels: 1=Entering to 5=Bridging
Model Performance Indicators: Indicators of the basic expression level for students.

The five WIDA ELP Standards are as follows:
Standard 1: English language learners communicate for SOCIAL AND INSTRUCTIONAL purposes within the school setting.

Standard 2: English language learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of LANGUAGE ARTS.

Standard 3: English language learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of MATHEMATICS.

Standard 4: English language learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of SCIENCE.

Standard 5: English language learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of SOCIAL STUDIES.

As a teacher in Virginia I am excited to be part of the implementation of WIDA in our schools. The training is extensive and the 2007 Resource Guide(Margo Gottlieb, Ph.D., M. Elizabeth Cranley, Ph.D., Andrea R. Oliver) is invaluable. The “CAN DO” descriptors have already proven helpful for mainstream teachers and families. Some items are already translated into Spanish. I plan to write more as I continue my endeavor to learn about WIDA and its implemenation. In the meantime, visit the website so you can grasp the magnitude of this project!