DATE:
Thursday, May 7, 2026
TO:
All School Administrators
FROM:
Carolyn Gough, Administrator of Teaching and Learning
Ben Jameson, Director of Assessment, Research and Accountability
Michelle Love-Day, Director of Language & Culture Services
SUBJECT: WIDA ACCESS Score Reports and Parent Reports
WIDA ACCESS scores were made available on April 30th. A representative from Assessment, Research, and Accountability delivered score reports to schools on May 4-5. Scores will also be available in Tableau, Skyward and Panorama soon.
Here are some things to keep in mind regarding this year's scores, as shared by WIDA:
"For the last few years, WIDA has been revising Kindergarten ACCESS for ELLs (now WIDA ACCESS for Kindergarten) and ACCESS for ELLs (now WIDA ACCESS) to incorporate the WIDA English Language Development (ELD) Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. This school year, you tested students with these revised assessments! Now that you’re done with testing, WIDA needs to ensure that student scores still provide an accurate picture of a student’s English language development. This process happens during a standard setting event after the first annual administration of the revised assessments. The ACCESS standard setting event is scheduled for July 2026.
Because of standard setting, you’ll need to approach your ACCESS score reports in 2026 with additional attention. As you prepare to receive ACCESS score reports in 2026, know that
- You will receive score reports on your regular reporting timeline.
- You can use 2025–2026 ACCESS scores to make decisions about students for the 2026–2027 school year, either to exit students or decide on classroom placement.
- Students that receive a composite score of at least 4.2 and a speaking score of at least 3.5 will still be considered proficient and will "pass" WIDA.
- You should treat 2025–2026 ACCESS scale scores as a new baseline to measure future growth against (don't compare scale scores from previous years).
- You should use 2025–2026 ACCESS proficiency level scores with caution prior to the ACCESS Standard Setting 2026 event as they will reflect the old proficiency level cut scores.
Learn more about ACCESS in the 2025–2026 school year on the WIDA ACCESS in 2025–2026 page."
Please review the the 2026 WIDA ACCESS Interpretive Guide for Score Reports to understand how to interpret WIDA ACCESS scores.
If there are any updates to be aware of after the standard setting event, we will share that during our initial Task Force meeting next Fall.
ANNUAL NOTIFICATION LETTERS
Schools are expected to send home Annual Notification Letters, along with the Student Score Report, each year by the last day of school. This year, annual notification letters will be sent home digitally via ELLevation using their new Family Communications Tool.
Language & Culture Services will set up the letter cycle and add students to the cycle for each school in Forms on the ELLevation platform. We will need your school's help in monitoring the status of these letters to ensure they are seen by parents. To learn about this process, check out this Annual Notification Letters document which explains the process. We recommend working with your ELD Lead, office staff, and Language Teacher Specialist through this process.
This information was shared with your office staff when WIDA Score Reports were dropped off on May 4th or 5th.
Please reach out to your school's Language Teacher Specialist in Language & Culture Services if you need any support with the annual notification letters. For questions about WIDA ACCESS scores or testing, please contact JoLynn Snelgrove in Assessment, Research & Accountability.
