ACCESS Assessment Preparation 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: The ACCESS test uses Proficiency Level Descriptors (PLDs) to describe what students can do at each level. How many proficiency levels does ACCESS use?
- 4 levels (1-4)
- 5 levels (1-5)
- 6 levels (1-6) (Correct answer)
- 7 levels (1-7)
Correct answer: 6 levels (1-6)
ACCESS uses 6 proficiency levels, ranging from Level 1 (Entering) to Level 6 (Reaching).
Question 2: A student receives a Composite score of 4.2 on the ACCESS test. Which proficiency level does this score fall under?
- Developing
- Expanding (Correct answer)
- Bridging
- Reaching
Correct answer: Expanding
A score of 4.2 falls in the Expanding level, which spans approximately scores 4.0–5.0.
Question 3: Which domain on the ACCESS test is typically weighted most heavily when calculating the Composite score?
- Speaking
- Listening
- Reading
- Writing (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Writing
Writing is weighted at 35% in the Composite score formula, making it the most heavily weighted domain.
Question 4: When preparing for the ACCESS Writing domain, which skill is most important for a student at the Bridging level to demonstrate?
- Copying sentences from a prompt
- Using basic subject-verb agreement only
- Organizing ideas coherently with varied sentence structures (Correct answer)
- Writing a single sentence response
Correct answer: Organizing ideas coherently with varied sentence structures
Bridging-level students are expected to produce organized, extended writing with complex and varied sentence structures.
Question 5: A teacher is reviewing ACCESS Interpretive reading tasks. What type of reading passage is most commonly used at the Grade Band 6-8 level?
- Simple picture books with one-word captions
- Short literary and informational texts with academic vocabulary (Correct answer)
- Only visual charts with no written text
- Dialogue scripts with fill-in-the-blank answers
Correct answer: Short literary and informational texts with academic vocabulary
Grade Band 6-8 ACCESS reading tasks feature literary and informational texts that include academic and domain-specific vocabulary.
Question 6: Which of the following best describes the purpose of the ACCESS Tier system (Tier A, B, C)?
- To group students by age rather than proficiency
- To match test difficulty to a student's estimated proficiency level (Correct answer)
- To assign students to different schools based on English ability
- To rank teachers by their ELL instruction quality
Correct answer: To match test difficulty to a student's estimated proficiency level
The Tier system ensures students take a form of the test appropriate to their proficiency level, preventing floor and ceiling effects.
Question 7: An ELL student is at the Entering level (Level 1) on ACCESS. Which accommodation is LEAST likely to be appropriate for this student during a content-area assessment?
- Extended time
- Use of a bilingual dictionary
- Having questions read aloud
- Answering all questions in grade-level academic English without support (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Answering all questions in grade-level academic English without support
Requiring unaided grade-level academic English production is not appropriate for a Level 1 student who is just beginning to acquire English.
ACCESS Assessment Preparation 2
The ACCESS test uses Proficiency Level Descriptors (PLDs) to describe what students can do at each level.
How many proficiency levels does ACCESS use?