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Home » Student Success » Access & Opportunity in Education » Migrant and Bilingual Education » English Language Proficiency Descriptors and Standards

English Language Proficiency Descriptors and Standards

The Washington English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards focus on critical language, knowledge about language, and language skills present in the Washington State K-12 Learning Standards. These skills are essential for English language learners (ELLs) as they work towards academic success. Look for correspondences to the practices and standards identified in the Washington State K-12 Learning Standards.

  • Developed by CCSSO and WestEd, the ELP standards support teachers as they prepare student for college and career. Find out more about the ELP standards.
  • Provide the foundation for the ELPA21 Consortium English language proficiency assessments used in Washington to determine program eligibility. Find out more about the ELPA21 Consortium.

Complete ELP Standards

English Language Proficiency Standards with Correspondences |

Standards by Grade Span

  • Practices Linked to Each Standard by Grade Level
  • We have divided the ELP standards into teacher-friendly sections that make it easy to navigate by grade span and content-area correspondences. Newly added to these sections, each grade level is introduced by a hyperlinked Practices Matrix that identifies correspondences to ELA, Mathematics, and Science practices.
  • Introduction and Overview

Grades K-5

Grades 6-8

Grades 9-12

Achievement Level Descriptors (ALDs)

Achievement Level Descriptors (ALDs) that correspond to each of the performance levels have been developed for each domain at each programmatic grade level. These ALDs describe what a student can do in relation to skills measured by and demonstrated on ELPA21. The ALDs are intended to be used by educators in personalizing instruction and interventions to meet the individual needs of the learner.