English Language Proficiency Standards

A woman watches a young boy read aloud from a paper

What is a student at a beginning level of learning a new language able to do?  How about a student who is more advanced?  Language proficiency standards set guidelines for students' language development and are chosen at the state level. For example, states who are members of the WIDA Consortium use WIDA's English language development standards.  Other states, such as California and New York, have their own language proficiency standards.  To learn more about your state, see our State Resources section.

Note on terminology: Some common terms for these standards are English language proficiency (ELP) standards and English language development (ELD) standards.

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