English Language Development Assessment (ELDA)

What is ELDA?

Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires states to administer an assessment designed to measure students’ progress in “…attaining proficiency, including a child’s level of comprehension, speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills in English”. The English Language Development Assessment (ELDA) was developed to meet these requirements. The ELDA consists of four tests designed to measure academic and social language proficiency in the domains of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. From the listening and reading tests, a comprehension score is calculated. The overall ELDA proficiency level (1-5) for each student is based upon a composite score that is derived from all four tests: speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

Development of the ELDA was a collaborative effort of member states in the LEP State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards (SCASS), the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and was partially funded by a grant from the US Department of Education. The first statewide administration of ELDA in South Carolina took place in the spring of 2005 and involved all LEP students in grades 3-12. ELDA for grades K-2 was subsequently developed and was administered statewide for the first time in spring 2006.

Who takes the ELDA?

All students in grades K-12 who are determined to have limited English proficiency—based upon the completion of a Home Language Survey and the initial assessment of their English proficiency—must take the ELDA each spring. Students must continue to take the ELDA until they have scored at Level 5, Fully English Proficient, on two consecutive administrations.

When is the ELDA administered?

An eight-week window has been established, during which districts choose six weeks (not necessarily consecutive) for ELDA administration in grades K-12.

The 2009 state ELDA K-12 testing window is February 23 – April 17