Examining the relationship between English language proficiency and academic achievement on RISE/UA+ assessments for grades 7–10 EL students in Ogden School District (2022–2025)
EL students at WIDA level 5/6 (Bridging) are proficient on state ELA assessments at 34.3% — compared to 0.0% at level 1 (Entering). This pattern holds across all subjects, all grades, and all four school years. The correlations are statistically significant (p < .001), underscoring that growth in English proficiency is a prerequisite to academic proficiency on state assessments.
Percentage of EL students scoring proficient or above on RISE/UA+ at each WIDA ACCESS proficiency band
Point-biserial correlation between WIDA ACCESS proficiency level (continuous) and state assessment proficiency (binary). All correlations are positive and statistically significant.
The WIDA–proficiency relationship holds within every grade level, ruling out grade-level confounds. Bars show point-biserial r values.
Number of unique EL students at each WIDA proficiency band. Most students cluster at levels 2–3, with smaller samples at the extremes.
Average state assessment proficiency rate and sample size at each WIDA proficiency band, broken out by subject area
| WIDA Band | Subject | n | Avg WIDA Scale | % Proficient on RISE/UA+ |
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