WIDA's Mission Statement

To promote educational equity and
academic achievement for linguistically
and culturally diverse students through
the development and dissemination of curricular, instructional, and assessment products and resources.

A Brief History of the WIDA project

The WIDA Consortium has completed or is pursuing the following activities:

• developed English language proficiency standards anchored in Consortium states' academic content standards [completed February, 2004, revised 2007]
  
  
• developed test specifications based upon the English language proficiency standards [completed January, 2004]
  
  
• developed, piloted and field tested items/tasks for English language proficiency test (ACCESS for ELLs^®) [completed in April-May, 2004]
  
  
• developed items/tasks for a screener test (WIDA ACCESS Placement Test) which is based upon the ACCESS for ELLs^® [completed summer 2005, updated 2006]
  
  
• moved operations of the Consortium from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to the Wisconsin Center for Educational Research at the University of Wisconsin [winter, 2006]
  
  
• working with Consortium educators and nationally recognized experts to develop, coordinate and conduct professional development opportunities for the purpose of providing information about the WIDA assessment system, including its administration and relations to best practices with ELLs [ongoing]
  
  
• developing a research agenda, conducting psychometric studies and longitudinal studies of student performance, assisting Consortium states in ongoing validation studies, and report results [ongoing]
  
  
• developing a framework for the academic assessment of beginning ELLs [beginning spring, 2007]