Washington JH/HS is 1 of 9 Schools Nationwide to Host WIDA Cognitive Lab for English Language Learners

All English learner students have to take the WIDA (World-class Instructional Design and Assessment) ACCESS test each year. The WIDA ACCESS Test assesses student reading comprehension, listening comprehension, speaking ability, and writing ability in the English language.

Each year the students who are close to testing out of the program tend to struggle with the speaking component. WIDA has had enough feedback over the years that they have redeveloped the speaking portion of the test. Washington High School is 1 of 9 schools nationwide to host a Cognitive Lab, a dedicated space for assessing the effectiveness of the possible enhancements to the WIDA ACCESS Test.

“The main thing we are looking at is if students had a 2nd opportunity to answer a question and add more to their previous answer, would that help teachers get a truer sense of what level a student is actually at,” said ELL teacher Lisa Mittleider. “Sometimes students get nervous or they forget, or they will stop recording too early and get frustrated.”

Kristin Erin Graw, Assessment Content Specialist at WIDA, is happy to come to Washington High School to work with students: “Luis and I are very excited to be here as a part of this speaking enhancement project with WIDA and we can’t wait to meet the students and see their reaction to these changes.”

“This is important for us to observe students' reactions to the test and to understand their perspective of the test. With their help and with the teachers, we hope to gather useful data that we can use to enhance and make the speaking functionality better,” said Luis Perea, Assessment Content Manager at WIDA.

The test will not be rolled out this year, but hopefully, we will see these changes taking place in the next few years, depending on the success and results coming from these Speaking Enhancement Cognitive Labs. We are hoping to get positive results from all participants and we look forward to having great news materialize from these changes!