WIDA Standards, Assessments, and Professional Learning

Washington is part of the 41-state agency WIDA Consortium that promotes educational equity for multilingual learners through language development standards, assessments, and high-quality professional learning for P-12 educators.

WIDA Standards

Washington State adopted the WIDA English Language Development (ELD) Standards Framework in 2021. WIDA also offers new Spanish Language Development (SLD) Standards that will be released in October 2023.

• WIDA ELD Standards Roll-out Plan – This OSPI developed plan includes objectives, professional learning resources and links, and suggested activities for the first three years of implementation of these new standards.
• Collaborative Planning Template (Spanish version)– This template can be used for teachers to plan instruction that uses the WIDA ELD or SLD Standards Framework to integrate content, language, and literacy.
• View and download the WIDA ELD Standards Framework, 2020 Edition
• Watch this video for an Overview of the WIDA ELD Standards Framework

WIDA Assessments

Multilingual learners in Washington state are screened and tested annually using WIDA assessments. The following links provide more information on screening and testing in Washington state:

• English Language Proficiency Screeners
• English Language Proficiency Annual Assessments
• Alternate English Language Proficiency Assessment

WIDA Professional Learning

As members of the WIDA Consortium, all educators in Washington State public schools have access to high-quality professional learning through WIDA. These opportunities include self-paced workshops and live or virtual facilitated workshops led by WIDA professional development specialists. To access these workshops as well as all required WIDA assessment trainings, educators must log in through the WIDA Secure Portal.

Get a WIDA Secure Portal Account

All WIDA assessment materials, required trainings for screeners and assessments, and professional learning courses are in the WIDA Secure Portal, which can be accessed by all K-12 educators in Washington public schools. To get a Secure Portal account:

1. Email WIDA Help and ask to set up a WIDA Secure Portal account for assessments and eLearning. You must use your district email address.
2. You will receive an email from WIDA Client Services Center informing you that an account has been set up.
3. Go to: WIDA Login webpage.
4. Select: WIDA Secure Portal
5. Login to the WIDA Secure Portal with your district email address and password.

WIDA Self-Paced Workshops

The following self-paced WIDA Workshops are available from September 1, 2023, to August 31, 2024, to support effective instruction and language development for multilingual learners. All learning opportunities have free clock hours and are available to all K-12 public school educators. Private schools who opt into federal Title III services are eligible for these courses as well. Contact your school administrator for more information.

To earn free clock hours, use the following links to register through pdEnroller. Once you have finished the workshop, complete the pdEnroller survey for that course. OSPI will download course completion reports from the WIDA Secure Portal monthly to verify course completion. Clock hours will be processed by the 15th day of the month following course completion.

• 23/24 WIDA Self-Paced Workshop: The WIDA Standards Framework: A Collaborative Approach
• 23/24 WIDA Self-Paced Workshop: Making Language Visible in the Classroom
• 23/24 WIDA Self-Paced Workshop: Engaging Multilingual Learners in Science: Making Sense of Phenomena
• 23/24 WIDA Self-Paced Workshop: Developing Language for Learning in Mathematics
• 23/24 WIDA Self-Paced Workshop: Social Studies: Engaging Multilingual Learners through Inquiry
• 23/24 WIDA Self-Paced Workshop: Home Languages in the Classroom
• 23/24 WIDA Self-Paced Workshop: Reframing Education for Long-Term English Learners
• 23/24 WIDA Self-Paced Workshop: NEW! Newcomers: Promoting Success through Strengthening Practice
• 23/24 WIDA Self-Paced Workshop: NEW! Exploring the WIDA PreK-3 Essential Actions

WIDA Facilitated Workshops

Washington state is offering the following WIDA facilitated workshops in the 2023-24 school year led by WIDA professional development specialists. Space is limited for these sessions and free clock hours are provided.

• Bringing Language into Focus: Expectations, Functions & Features (Dates & Times TBD)
• Expanding Reading Instruction with Multilingual Learners (Dates & Times TBD)

Facilitation Materials for WIDA Professional Learning

School and district leaders can use these facilitation materials to engage educators in using the WIDA self-paced workshops in interactive professional learning. Videos or slides can be used to introduce each module with educators completing the module after each session.

The WIDA Standards Framework: A Collaborative Approach:

• Module 1: Educator Perspectives video | Presentation Slides
• Module 2: Student Assets video | Presentation Slides
• Module 3: Key Language Uses video | Presentation Slides
• Module 4 & 5: Language Expectations, Functions, & Features video | Presentation Slides
• Module 6: Proficiency Level Descriptors video | Presentation Slides

WIDA Resources

WIDA offers many additional resources to facilitate sharing information on standards, assessments, and professional learning including:

• ACCESS for ELLs – Parent letters, handouts, and guides to explain what ACCESS is, who takes ACCESS, and how to understand the score report.
• Focus Bulletins – WIDA publications that explore issues in the field of ELL education.
• Family Resources – Material that can help families understand the range of WIDA assessments, as well as what it means to be an English learner.
• Research and Technical Reports – Scholarly reports and briefs written by WIDA researchers about issues of interest in the field of ELL education.

Visit the WIDA Resource Library for a complete list of resource topics and types.

For resources in Spanish, visit WIDA's Spanish Resource Library.