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The Dynamic Language Learning Progression Project is part of a larger effort to improve the assessment of the English language proficiency of preK-12 English language learners. The project is funded through a subcontract to GSE&IS at UCLA from the ASSETS Consortium at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. The project draws on the expertise of project staff in the areas of academic language development and assessment, as well as formative assessment and data use by education professionals.

Dynamic Language Learning Progressions (DLLPs) represent the development of the predominant functions or purposes that language serves in instructional settings (e.g., to explain, describe, define, compare). DLLPs are dynamic because 1) the progressions are designed to capture multiple pathways to the development of English language proficiency, and 2) the progressions are designed to take account of multiple facets that influence the pathways of development, for example, contexts of language use and students' backgrounds.

The DLLP Project aims to:

• Develop research conjectured and empirically validated dynamic language learning progressions encompassing the language development of students pre-k through grade 12, both English Proficient and English Language Learners, for a range of academic language functions, for example, explanation, description and definition, needed for success in school

• Inform, in conjunction with the WIDA standards, the ASSETS Consortium's development of interim and summative assessments

• Develop materials to support the use of the DLLPs by teachers for instruction and formative assessment

Research on the project was conducted in three phases over a period of five years (September 2011 – October 2016). Additional pilot study and field study implementation of the DLLP approach began January 2016 in schools in CA. This work is ongoing in CO, and is supported in NY and CT by the National Professional Development Grant ExcEL-2 at UCLA.


You may download additional information about the DLLP project:

• Description of DLLP research and approach

• Key language development findings

• Key professional development findings

For more information about DLLPs, please contact:
Alison Bailey at abailey@gseis.ucla.edu or Margaret Heritage at mheritag@ucla.edu