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Portland Public Schools updates multilingual‑learners plan after WIDA ACCESS baseline year; dual‑language immersion pilot proposed
Summary
District staff told the Curriculum & Student Success Committee that 2026 ACCESS/WIDA testing is being treated as a new baseline, described initial results (reading/listening strengths and slightly higher exit rates), and recommended piloting a dual‑language immersion program and new data dashboards to track multilingual learners' progress.
District staff on June 8 updated the Portland Board of Public Education’s Curriculum & Student Success Committee on the district’s plan for multilingual learners, new 2026 WIDA ACCESS scoring guidance, and next steps including a proposed dual‑language immersion pilot and a custom PowerSchool dashboard to improve monitoring.
Carlos Gomez, director of elementary ESOL programs, told the committee that the vendor’s changes to the ACCESS assessment mean 2026 should be treated as a new baseline year and not compared with prior years. "This year is a new baseline year," Gomez said, explaining that the state identifies a 4.5 composite score as the threshold for English proficiency on the ACCESS 1–6 scale.
The update included early indicators staff said they will watch: district reading and listening scores were relatively high, and Portland’s exit rate for multilingual learners this year was presented as about 10.3% compared with a state average of roughly 9.2% (figures given by staff as approximate). Gomez said students who have been in the district three or more years often approach a language‑learning plateau and that progress monitoring beyond the annual ACCESS retreat is a priority.
Haley Drickson, senior director of data and technology, described work to customize PowerSchool so leaders can disaggregate multilingual students into currently served, exited and never‑served groups. "We added an additional filter to our PowerSchool dashboard so that we can look at multilingual students — those who are currently receiving ESOL programming versus those who have exited — and make it easier for people to query the myriad of data that we already have," Drickson said.
The Center for Applied Linguistics’ program review — shared with the committee — compared Portland to districts with similar student populations and recommended exploring a dual‑language immersion model in which roughly half the seats are for speakers of the target language and half for English‑dominant students, a structure the center said produces stronger biliteracy outcomes. Gomez said staff plan a community engagement and design process this summer and a pilot next school year.
Committee members also pressed staff on students who are dually identified for ESOL and special education. Abdul Ahmed, assistant superintendent for secondary schools, said the Individual Language Plan is developed collaboratively so language goals can serve IEP objectives, and staff reiterated that ACCESS‑based exit is a state determination. "The individual language plan would serve the goals identified in the student's individual education plan," Ahmed said; staff added that exit from ESOL programming requires a 4.5 composite on ACCESS and is not a unilateral classroom teacher decision, though guidance counselors and teams can arrange supports for students who struggle academically after exit.
Staff listed next steps: finalize a community engagement plan for a dual‑language immersion pilot, continue building the PowerSchool dashboard, expand ESOL scaffolding into middle‑school math with co‑delivered professional development, and work with instructional coaches and special education teams on co‑planning.
The committee is scheduled to receive a fuller report to the full board in coming weeks.
