WIDA ACCESS 2026–27 Proficiency Levels

What Changes for English Learner Exit in Indiana

Damian W. Betebenner

National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment

Indiana Department of Education · November 2026

Roadmap

  1. What changed — a new scale in 2025–26, new proficiency levels in 2026–27
  2. Why grades 4 and 5 — the exit cut on WIDA’s vertical scale
  3. 2026 exit impact — old versus new standards, by grade
  4. Is it stable? — the new standards applied to 2024 and 2025
  5. Policy options — keep 5.0, grade-specific cuts, or grade bands
  6. Summary of results — and questions for IDOE

The comparison is exact: the same 102,161 2026 composite scores are classified under the current and the new proficiency-level tables. Statewide, auto-exit moves from 6.0% to 6.1%. By grade, it moves a great deal.

What changed

Two changes, one year apart

Through 2024–25 ACCESS 2.0 composite scale. Grade-specific cut scores define proficiency levels 1.0–6.0. Indiana exits on the Overall composite PL.
2025–26 WIDA introduces a new vertical composite scale (100–600, not comparable to the old one). Scores are reported with the old PLs, carried over by concordance.
2026–27 WIDA standard setting yields new PLs on the new scale. The October 2026 concordance gives both PL tables for every new-scale score, grades K–12.
Indiana policy Exit rules are written in PL numbers: 5.0 auto-exit (K–12) and 4.3–4.9 review (grades 3+). The numbers stay the same; the scores behind them move.

Nothing about a student’s 2025–26 performance changes. What changes is which scale score earns a 5.0 or a 4.3 — and that change is not the same size, or even the same direction, in every grade.

Indiana’s exit rule and what this analysis does

Current IDOE rule (Overall composite PL)

  • 5.0 or higher → exits EL status, any grade K–12
  • 4.3–4.9, grades 3+ → review-eligible; the ILP committee decides
  • Below 4.3, or below 5.0 in K–2 → remains EL

In this deck, auto-exit means PL 5.0+, and the exit region means auto-exit plus review-eligible.

The comparison

  • Take each student’s 2026 new-scale composite score.
  • Look up the PL under the current table (what was reported) and under the new 2026–27 table.
  • Apply the same Indiana rule to both.

Same students, same scores, two PL tables. The only thing that differs is the standard.

Data and method

Year Valid ACCESS records Reported PL reproduced Exit status reproduced How the new PL is obtained
2024 97,384 99.0% 99.99% Old scale; converted to the new scale with WIDA’s production transform
2025 104,602 98.9% 99.99% Old scale; converted to the new scale with WIDA’s production transform
2026 102,161 100.0% 100.00% New scale; both PLs are exact concordance lookups
Reproduction: the current-standard PL looked up from the concordance, compared with the PL on Indiana’s file. In 2024 and 2025, 99.98% or more of reported PLs are reproduced to within 0.1.
  • Concordance: WIDA ACCESS Concordance Table, updated October 2026, Overall composite, grades K–12, every new-scale score 100–600.
  • 2026: the reported PL equals the concordance’s current-standard PL for every student, so the old-versus-new comparison is exact.
  • 2024 and 2025: robustness checks. Old-scale scores are converted with widaACCESS_2026_scale_score_transformation() (SGPstateData), rounded, and looked up in the new PL table. Applied to the 2026 old-scale scores, this route reproduces the exact exit classification for 99.0–100.0% of students in each grade.
  • Only aggregates leave the analysis. Counts below 10 are suppressed.

Why grades 4 and 5?

The 5.0 exit cut on the new vertical scale

How far each cut moved

Translating the current cuts into new levels

Auto-exit (current PL 5.0) Review floor (current PL 4.3)
Grade Current cut New 5.0 cut New PL at current cut Current cut New 4.3 cut New PL at current cut
K 297 298 4.9 278 271 4.4
1 388 353 6.0 369 331 5.4
2 398 396 5.0 370 367 4.3
3 415 403 5.2 386 375 4.5
4 401 425 4.4 373 394 3.8
5 412 432 4.5 384 401 3.9
6 453 454 4.9 422 419 4.3
7 464 459 5.1 432 425 4.4
8 472 463 5.2 439 432 4.4
9 477 467 5.2 448 441 4.4
10 485 474 5.3 456 447 4.5
11 492 477 5.4 464 450 4.6
12 499 481 5.6 470 454 4.7
New-scale composite scores. “New PL at current cut” is the 2026–27 PL a student scoring exactly at today’s cut would receive. Review floors for K–2 are shown in grey (no review band below grade 3).

Where students sit relative to the cut (2026)

2026 exit impact

Statewide, almost nothing changes

6.0%→6.1%
Auto-exit (5.0+), K–12
6,144 → 6,251 students
25.4%→26.1%
Exit region (4.3+), grades 3–12
18,546 → 19,036 students
4,881
Students whose auto-exit status changes
2,379 lose · 2,502 gain
54%→15%
Share of all auto-exits
that are in grades 4–5

The new standards are neutral in total — 107 more auto-exits out of 102,161 students — but 4,881 students change auto-exit status. Grades 4–5 lose 2,379; grades 1–3 and 7–12 gain 2,502.

  • Grades 4–5 are 16% of Indiana’s ACCESS takers. Today they produce 54% of auto-exits; under the new standards, 15% — about their share of students.

Auto-exit rate by grade

The exit region: auto-exit plus review

Where exits happen: counts by grade

Who changes status

Is it stable?

Auto-exit by grade, 2024–2026

Exit region by grade, 2024–2026 (grades 3–12)

Statewide totals by year

Auto-exit, K–12 Exit region, grades 3–12
Year Students Current New Change (pts) Current New Change (pts) Single new cut that best matches current auto-exit
2024 97,384 5.2% 5.9% +0.7 23.3% 23.8% +0.4 5.1
2025 104,602 5.4% 6.4% +1.0 24.2% 25.3% +1.0 5.1
2026 102,161 6.0% 6.1% +0.1 25.4% 26.1% +0.7 5.0
The last column searches new-PL cuts in steps of 0.1 for the one whose statewide auto-exit share is closest to the current-standard share.

Applied to earlier years, the new standards raise statewide auto-exit by 0.7–1.0 points (681–1,026 students), about the size of grade 1’s gain alone (1,052–1,079). The grade pattern — grades 4–5 down by 66–72%, other grades flat or up — repeats every year.

Policy options

Option A: keep 5.0 and 4.3 on the new levels

  • No rule change. The PL numbers in Indiana’s rule stay; WIDA’s new table supplies the scores.
  • Statewide neutral: 6.0% → 6.1% auto-exit; 25.4% → 26.1% exit region in grades 3+.
  • Redistributes by grade: fewer exits in grades 4–5, more in grades 1–3 and 7–12.
  • Consistent with the vertical scale: a 5.0 requires a higher score in every successive grade.

Option A accepts WIDA’s judgment that a 5.0 should mean the same thing in every grade.

Option B: grade-specific rate-preserving cuts

Auto-exit cut Review floor
Grade Current auto-exit 2026 2024–26 2026 2024–26
K 5.1% 5.0 5.0 — —
1 0.7% 6.0 6.0 — —
2 3.1% 5.1 5.0 — —
3 5.8% 5.3 5.3 4.6 4.6
4 22.5% 4.4 4.5 3.8 3.8
5 18.1% 4.6 4.6 3.9 3.9
6 1.4% 5.0 5.0 4.4 4.4
7 2.3% 5.2 5.1 4.4 4.4
8 3.8% 5.3 5.3 4.5 4.5
9 4.8% 5.3 5.3 4.5 4.5
10 3.5% 5.4 5.4 4.5 4.5
11 3.2% 5.5 5.5 4.7 4.6
12 1.6% 5.6 5.6 4.7 4.7
New-PL cut (steps of 0.1) whose share at or above is closest to the current-standard share.

Rate preservation undoes the vertical articulation

Holding each grade’s rate takes new-PL cuts from 4.4 (grade 4) to 6.0 (grade 1), putting the exit score back on the current, non-vertical path.

Option C: grade-band cuts

Band Current auto-exit Band auto-exit cut Band review floor Auto-exit by grade under the band cut, current → Option C (%)
K–2 2.9% 5.3 — K: 5.1→3.3 · 1: 0.7→3.7 · 2: 3.1→1.4
3–5 14.8% 4.7 4.1 3: 5.8→19.5 · 4: 22.5→12.9 · 5: 18.1→12.6
6–8 2.5% 5.2 4.4 6: 1.4→0.7 · 7: 2.3→2.0 · 8: 3.8→4.3
9–12 3.3% 5.4 4.6 9: 4.8→3.6 · 10: 3.5→3.4 · 11: 3.2→3.9 · 12: 1.6→2.5
2026 ACCESS takers. Band cuts are new-PL cuts (steps of 0.1) matching each band’s current share at or above 5.0 (auto) and 4.3 (review, grades 3+).

Bands preserve each band’s total but not its grades. In the 3–5 band, a single 4.7 cut triples grade 3 auto-exit (5.8% → 19.5%) while still cutting grade 4 by 43% and grade 5 by 31%. Grade 3 behaves like the grades above it; grades 4–5 are the outliers.

A single cut for all grades

Options compared, 2026

Independent corroboration: ILEARN

  • A separate Indiana analysis asked which current WIDA PL best separates students who are and are not proficient on ILEARN ELA (Youden’s J, 2021–2025).
  • Grades 3 and 6–8: best cut about 4.0. Grades 4 and 5: 4.5 and 4.6.
  • So under the current PLs, a grade 4–5 student needs about half a level more to show the same ILEARN readiness.
  • The new standards lower grade 4–5 PLs by an average of 0.4–0.5 of a level — about the same correction.

Two independent sources — WIDA’s vertical scale and Indiana’s own ILEARN outcomes — point to the same conclusion: current grade 4–5 PLs run high.

Summary of results

Do the new standards dramatically change exit rates?

Not statewide. Yes, by grade.

6.0%→6.1%
Statewide auto-exit, 2026
22.5%→6.3%
Grade 4 auto-exit
18.1%→5.1%
Grade 5 auto-exit
0.7%→6.5%
Grade 1 auto-exit
  • 4,881 students (4.8%) change auto-exit status. Apart from fewer than 10 each in kindergarten and grade 6, every student who loses auto-exit is in grade 4 or 5 (2,379).
  • Grade 3 nearly doubles (5.8% → 11.2%) and grades 8–12 roughly double from low bases.
  • The pattern is the same when the new standards are applied to 2024 and 2025.
  • The cause is cut articulation: on WIDA’s vertical scale the current grade 4–5 cuts sit below grade 3’s, and the current grade 1 cut sits almost at grade 2’s. Standard setting removed both.

What cuts would preserve today’s exit rates?

Grade Auto-exit cut (new PL) Review floor (new PL)
K 5.0 —
1 6.0 —
2 5.1 —
3 5.3 4.6
4 4.4 3.8
5 4.6 3.9
6 5.0 4.4
7 5.2 4.4
8 5.3 4.5
9 5.3 4.5
10 5.4 4.5
11 5.5 4.7
12 5.6 4.7
Statewide single cut: 5.0 auto-exit · 4.3 review floor (grades 3–12)
  • Grade by grade, keeping each grade’s rate needs auto-exit cuts from 4.4 to 6.0 and review floors from 3.8 to 4.7. They are stable across 2024–2026 to within 0.1.
  • Those cuts rebuild the current score path, including the grade 4 drop. They preserve rates by preserving the anomaly.
  • Statewide, the rate-preserving single cut is 5.0 for auto-exit and 4.3 for the review floor — Indiana’s current numbers. Pooled over 2024–2026 the auto-exit match is 5.1.

To keep today’s total, Indiana need not change anything. To keep today’s grade profile, Indiana would need 13 grade-specific cuts that contradict the new vertical scale.

Is a single cut for all grades tenable?

Yes — and the new scale is built for one.

For a single cut (5.0 / 4.3)

  • The new cuts rise in every grade: a single PL now requires more English in every successive grade.
  • It matches the statewide exit share in every year examined.
  • ILEARN outcomes independently say current grade 4–5 PLs run about half a level high.
  • It is the rule Indiana already has; nothing changes in policy text.

What it costs

  • Grade 4–5 auto-exits fall by 72–72% in the first year.
  • Grade 1 exits rise substantially; IDOE may want to look at whether a K–1 exit at 5.0 reflects readiness.
  • Grade 3 has the most review-eligible students: 2,305, up from 1,833.

The real policy question is not the cut but the history: did the old grade 4–5 exit peak reflect readiness, or an articulation artifact? The vertical scale and the ILEARN evidence both say artifact.

Considerations for IDOE

Communication

  • Districts with large grade 4–5 EL populations will see far fewer exits in spring 2027. Explain in advance that the change is in the standard, not in students.
  • Families: 3,442 grade 4–5 students in the exit region today would not be under the new standards.

Review-band capacity

  • Grade 3 review-eligible students rise from 1,833 to 2,305, the most of any grade. Grade 3 ILP committees may need support.

Transition-year options

  • Adopt Option A now and monitor, or
  • A one-year hold-harmless for students who met the current cut in 2025–26 (they exited under the rule in force).
  • Revisit kindergarten and grade 1: the new standards make K–1 exit more common.

Monitoring spring 2027

  • Rerun this pipeline on the first 2026–27 scores: exit rates by grade, statewide totals, and ILEARN outcomes of the new exiters.

Discussion questions

Where IDOE’s guidance is needed

  1. Does Indiana adopt WIDA’s 2026–27 levels with the current 5.0 / 4.3 rule (Option A), knowing the grade profile of exits will change?
  2. Is the grade 4–5 drop acceptable as a correction of an articulation artifact, or does IDOE want a transition provision for those grades?
  3. Should kindergarten and grade 1 exit at 5.0 on the new levels, given the large increase in grade 1?
  4. Is the Overall composite still the only exit criterion, or will domain-level requirements be considered alongside the new levels?
  5. What should be monitored in spring 2027 — and reported to districts — to confirm the new standards behave as expected?

Thank you

Indiana Department of Education · Office of English Learners & Multilingual Education

WIDA ACCESS 2026–27 Proficiency Levels: What Changes for English Learner Exit in Indiana

Damian W. Betebenner · National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment

Appendix

Appendix: 2026 exit rates by grade

Auto-exit (5.0+) Exit region (4.3+, grades 3+) Auto-exit status
Grade N Current New Change Current New Change Lose Gain
K 9,169 5.1% 5.0% −0.1 — — — <10 0
1 9,852 0.7% 6.5% +5.8 — — — 0 571
2 10,091 3.1% 3.6% +0.5 — — — 0 50
3 10,235 5.8% 11.2% +5.4 23.7% 33.8% +10.0 0 556
4 8,629 22.5% 6.3% −16.2 54.1% 29.9% −24.2 1,401 0
5 7,534 18.1% 5.1% −13.0 46.7% 28.7% −18.0 978 0
6 6,739 1.4% 1.3% −0.1 14.0% 16.3% +2.3 <10 0
7 6,976 2.3% 3.3% +1.0 18.2% 24.0% +5.8 0 70
8 7,252 3.8% 6.7% +2.9 22.8% 29.3% +6.5 0 208
9 6,822 4.8% 8.6% +3.8 20.0% 25.6% +5.6 0 260
10 6,877 3.5% 7.1% +3.6 16.9% 22.9% +6.0 0 249
11 6,514 3.2% 8.1% +4.9 15.1% 24.5% +9.5 0 321
12 5,471 1.6% 5.6% +4.0 10.1% 18.7% +8.6 0 217
All 102,161 6.0% 6.1% +0.1 25.4% 26.1% +0.7 2,379 2,502
2026 ACCESS takers, Overall composite. Changes in percentage points. “<10”: count suppressed. The “All” exit-region figures are for grades 3–12.

Appendix: PL cut ladders on the new scale

Grade PL 2.0 PL 3.0 PL 4.0 PL 4.3 PL 4.5 PL 5.0 PL 6.0
K 213 → 162 241 → 217 269 → 259 278 → 271 283 → 279 297 → 298 — → 344
1 275 → 223 308 → 273 362 → 321 369 → 331 374 → 337 388 → 353 411 → 388
2 278 → 269 306 → 306 357 → 354 370 → 367 378 → 375 398 → 396 429 → 437
3 285 → 279 318 → 321 373 → 363 386 → 375 394 → 383 415 → 403 438 → 447
4 288 → 294 313 → 334 359 → 381 373 → 394 381 → 403 401 → 425 434 → 462
5 294 → 301 320 → 341 370 → 387 384 → 401 391 → 410 412 → 432 448 → 466
6 315 → 313 351 → 361 408 → 404 422 → 419 430 → 429 453 → 454 483 → 489
7 323 → 320 360 → 370 417 → 411 432 → 425 439 → 435 464 → 459 488 → 493
8 330 → 328 368 → 377 425 → 418 439 → 432 448 → 441 472 → 463 492 → 496
9 332 → 348 374 → 390 435 → 430 448 → 441 457 → 449 477 → 467 513 → 503
10 341 → 353 383 → 396 443 → 436 456 → 447 465 → 455 485 → 474 517 → 505
11 349 → 359 392 → 401 451 → 439 464 → 450 471 → 458 492 → 477 520 → 508
12 357 → 368 401 → 404 457 → 442 470 → 454 477 → 462 499 → 481 525 → 510
Lowest new-scale composite score at which each PL is reached: current standard → new 2026–27 standard. Source: WIDA ACCESS Concordance Table, updated October 2026, Overall. “—”: level not reachable on the 100–600 scale.

Appendix: method details

2026 (exact)

  • Each 2026 Overall composite score (new scale) is looked up in the concordance by grade. The current-standard PL reproduces the PL on Indiana’s file for 100.0% of 102,161 students.

2024 and 2025 (robustness)

  • Old-scale scores are converted with widaACCESS_2026_scale_score_transformation(direction = "OLD_to_NEW") from SGPstateData. Where several new scores share one old score, it takes their median. Results are rounded half up.
  • The new PL is looked up at the converted score. The current-standard PL is the operational PL on Indiana’s file.
  • Round trip (converted score → current-standard PL): 99.0% exact in 2024 and 98.9% in 2025; exit status agrees for 99.99%+.

Method check on 2026

  • The 2026 file also carries each student’s old-scale score. Pushing those through the 2024/2025 route and comparing with the exact lookup:
Grade PL within 0.1 Exit status agrees Auto-exit, exact Auto-exit, via transform
K 97.7% 99.9% 5.0% 5.1%
1 99.8% 100.0% 6.5% 6.5%
2 100.0% 100.0% 3.6% 3.6%
3 100.0% 99.0% 11.2% 11.2%
4 100.0% 99.7% 6.3% 6.5%
5 100.0% 100.0% 5.1% 5.1%
6 100.0% 99.1% 1.3% 1.4%
7 100.0% 100.0% 3.3% 3.3%
8 100.0% 99.6% 6.7% 7.1%
9 100.0% 100.0% 8.6% 8.6%
10 100.0% 100.0% 7.1% 7.1%
11 100.0% 99.3% 8.1% 8.1%
12 100.0% 100.0% 5.6% 5.6%

Appendix: 2024–2026 auto-exit and exit region by grade

Auto-exit (%) Exit region, grades 3+ (%)
2024 2025 2026 2024 2025 2026
Grade Cur. New Cur. New Cur. New Cur. New Cur. New Cur. New
K 1.1 1.1 0.8 0.8 5.1 5.0 — — — — — —
1 1.9 13.4 1.0 11.8 0.7 6.5 — — — — — —
2 1.8 2.0 2.3 2.6 3.1 3.6 — — — — — —
3 4.8 9.2 4.9 9.8 5.8 11.2 19.4 29.2 21.5 31.4 23.7 33.8
4 17.4 5.5 17.8 5.4 22.5 6.3 43.2 23.7 43.9 24.1 54.1 29.9
5 16.4 5.1 16.9 5.8 18.1 5.1 43.4 25.5 43.1 25.5 46.7 28.7
6 1.2 1.2 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.3 12.2 15.0 12.3 15.3 14.0 16.3
7 2.2 3.0 2.7 3.7 2.3 3.3 15.2 20.1 16.3 21.1 18.2 24.0
8 3.4 6.5 4.1 7.9 3.8 6.7 19.2 25.6 21.4 27.5 22.8 29.3
9 4.5 8.1 5.0 8.9 4.8 8.6 19.1 24.2 21.8 27.3 20.0 25.6
10 3.3 7.6 4.2 8.8 3.5 7.1 17.9 24.7 19.2 26.2 16.9 22.9
11 3.1 8.1 4.9 10.0 3.2 8.1 15.2 25.2 18.1 29.1 15.1 24.5
12 2.6 6.7 3.0 7.5 1.6 5.6 12.5 22.1 12.4 21.9 10.1 18.7
Current: the PL Indiana reported that year. New: the 2026–27 PL table applied to the same scores (2024–2025 via score transform).