PERFORMANCE LEVEL DEFINITION

LEVEL

PERFORMANCE LEVEL DEFINITION

6 - Reaching

Specialized or technical language reflective of the content area at grade level

A variety of sentence lengths of varying linguistic complexity in extended oral or written discourse as required by the specified grade level

Oral or written communication in English comparable to proficient English peers

5 - Bridging

The technical language of the content areas

A variety of sentence lengths of varying linguistic complexity in extended oral or written discourse, including stories, essays, or reports

Oral or written language approaching comparability to that of English proficient peers when presented with grade level material

4 - Expanding

Specific and some technical language of the content areas

A variety of sentence lengths of varying linguistic complexity in oral discourse or multiple, related paragraphs

Oral or written language with minimal phonological, syntactic, or semantic errors that do not impede the overall meaning of the communication when presented with oral or written connected discourse with occasional visual and graphic support

3 - Developing

General and some specific language of the content areas Expanded sentences in oral interaction or written paragraphs Oral or written language with phonological, syntactic, or semantic

errors that may impede the communication but retain much of its meaning when presented with oral or written, narrative, or

expository descriptions with occasional visual and graphic support

2 - Beginning

General language related to the content areas Phrases or short sentences

Oral or written language with phonological, syntactic, or semantic errors that often impede the meaning of the communication when presented with one to multiple-step commands, directions,

questions, or a series of statements with visual and graphic support

1 - Entering

Pictorial or graphic representation of the language of the content areas

Words phrases, or chunks of language when presented with one-step commands, directions, WH-questions, or statements with visual and graphic support

The five language performance levels outline the progression of language development implied in the acquisition of English as an additional language, from one (1) Entering the process to six (6) Reaching the attainment of English language proficiency. The language proficiency levels delineate expected performance and describe what ELLs can do within each domain of the standards. The Performance Definitions define the expectations of students at each proficiency level. The definitions encompass three criteria: linguistic complexity – the amount and quality of speech or writing for a given situation; vocabulary usage – the specificity of words or phrases for a given context; and language control – the comprehensibility of the communication based on the amount and types of errors.

The Performance Definitions are a key component of the standards documents, and the use of the standards and corresponding MPIs must be in conjunction with the Performance Definitions.

The MPIs, delineated by language proficiency level, give expectations for what students should be able to process and produce at a given proficiency level. The Performance Definitions describe how well the student can or should be expected to do so. At the given level of English language proficiency, English language learners will process, understand, produce, or use linguistic complexity and vocabulary.

Overview of Test Tiers

The ACCESS for ELLs is made appropriate for each individual student by presenting the test items in three tiers for each grade level: A, B, and C. The following chart shows how the different tiers map to the English language proficiency levels.

This chart illustrates that the tiers overlap, a necessity for making sure each tier is measuring to a common proficiency scale.

Tier A is most appropriate for English language learners who

have arrived in the United States or entered school in the United States in the current academic year without previous instruction in English or

currently receive literacy instruction ONLY in their native language or test at the lowest level of language proficiency.

Tier B is most appropriate for English language learners who

have social language proficiency and some, but not extensive, academic language proficiency in English or

have acquired some literacy in English, though have not yet reached grade-level literacy.

Tier C is most appropriate for English language learners who

are approaching grade level in literacy and academic language proficiency in the core content areas or

will likely meet the state’s exit criteria for support services by the end of the academic year.

Each tier, of course, is only able to discriminate performance on its portion of the proficiency scale, so to make sure the whole ACCESS for ELLs^® test works as intended, it is necessary to place each student into the tier that best matches his or her English language proficiency level.

The decision as to where the student currently falls on the scale is best made by the student's teachers, based on the information they have about the student's language proficiency, including performance on other language tests. The W-APT™ screener test yields a composite score that indicates which tier a child should be placed in for the ACCESS test, however, that score should be supported by additional criteria for tier selection.

Each test form takes particular aim at a certain grade level cluster and range of proficiencies, but each also has to align with all the other instruments in the battery. That is, they each measure a certain segment of a common academic English proficiency measurement scale. In this way, we can better assure that as a child progresses through the grades and in English proficiency, we get an accurate picture of his or her real advances from year to year.

Model Performance Indicators

Information regarding the Model Performance Indicators may be found in the WIDA English Language proficiency Standards Resource Guide at

http://www.wida.us/standards/Resource_Guide_web.pdf, beginning on page RG14.

Can Do Descriptors

Information regarding the Can Do Descriptors may be found in the WIDA English Language proficiency Standards Resource Guide beginning on page RG57 at

http://www.wida.us/standards/RG_CAN%20DO%20Descriptors.pdf.

These descriptors provide teachers with excellent examples of what a student at each proficiency level can be expected to be able to do and allow teachers to differentiate instructional tasks to fit the needs of individual students.