Working with the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), WIDA staff are developing and implementing Spanish language development standards for students in Pre-K through twelfth grade. They're also developing a practicable, reliable, and valid Spanish language proficiency assessment system for Kindergarten and Grades 1-2 based on those standards for first language (L1) Spanish English language learners (ELLs) and for students receiving content area instruction in Spanish regardless of their L1.

The project has four goals:
1) to create academic Spanish Language Development Standards (SLD Standards) for grades preK-12;
2) to develop a technology-mediated assessment to ensure that Spanish language development, as defined by the SLD Standards, is assessed validly and reliably in grades K-2;
3) to disseminate information on the project at local, state and national levels; and
4) to collaborate with state educational agencies (SEAs), institutions of higher education (IHEs), local educational agencies (LEAs), and other research institutions in the development, research, and administration of a standards-referenced assessment system.

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