AZELLA Placement Test
Administered through May 8, 2026, to the following students:
- New-to-Arizona students with a Home Language Survey that includes a language other than English or American Sign Language (ASL) and who do not have an AZELLA test history.
- Students associated with EL Group 8 on the EL73 - EL Student Need Report.
- Students with a red font message on their EL70 - ELP Student Test History Report (please note that students eligible for alternate assessments should be administered the Alt ELPA).
Online Schools and Concurrent Enrollments
The AZELLA Placement and the Spring 2026 AZELLA Reassessment Test must be administered at a brick-and-mortar district or school building. Most of the students associated with an online learning program are administered the AZELLA at their home school by appointment. The online school may need to be added to the home school Test Administrator's PAN account so they can access the administration of those students' tests.
It is the responsibility of the home school district to administer the AZELLA tests to students who have concurrent school enrollments. For the Spring 2026 Reassessment Test, these students may not have been pre-registered for the test; therefore, the home district must add the student to PAN for AZELLA testing.
Kindergarten Students - Placement Test v. Reassessment Test
Kindergarten students who enroll with a language other than English or ASL on their Home Language Survey (HLS) must be administered the Kindergarten Placement Test (KPT). The set of criteria below is intended to help local education agencies (LEAs) meet federal and state requirements and avoid under-identification of students with a language acquisition need.
Criterion 1: Kindergarten students who are administered the Kindergarten Placement Test (KPT) during the required testing timeline and within their first 60 cumulative instructional days of school (at an Arizona school or any other school within the U.S.) and receive a Proficient result on the KPT, are Initially Fluent English Proficient (IFEP) and not eligible for further AZELLA testing without a referral form. Those students who receive a less than Proficient result must be administered the Kindergarten Spring Reassessment Test.
Criterion 2: Kindergarten students who are administered the KPT after they have been receiving instruction at schools in the United States for a cumulative 60 or more instructional days and prior to the close of the Spring AZELLA Reassessment Test window, must also be administered the Spring Reassessment Test regardless of the Overall Proficiency Level obtained with the KPT.
Criterion 3: New Kindergarten students who have not had 60 cumulative days of instruction in the U.S. and have a language other than English on their HLS are enrolled during the Spring Reassessment test window must be administered the KPT within 2 calendar weeks of their school enrollment date. These students may come from another AZ school, from another state within the U.S., or from another country. Administering a Kindergarten Reassessment Test to those students who receive a score of less than Proficient in the KPT is optional.
Spring AZELLA Reassessment Test Administration Window
- January 26 - March 13, 2026 (7 weeks)
Spring 2026 AZELLA Reassessment Test Results
- Electronic: April 30, 2026
- Paper: May 14, 2026
Spring AZELLA Reassessment Test Training
AZELLA District Test Coordinators (DTCs) and AZELLA staff must have completed the required Spring 2026 AZELLA Reassessment Test training modules from the Arizona Learning Management System (AzLMS) by January 26, 2026, and prior to testing. You may refer to the Matrix document listed below. ADE highly recommends that users download the accompanying PowerPoints and Transcripts associated with each training module for easy informational reference throughout the test administration.
- AZELLA Annual catalog
- AZELLA Reassessment catalog
In addition to the training courses in the AzLMS, AZELLA DTCs are expected to create an in-person training or a live virtual presentation for AZELLA staff that addresses test security, testing schedules, and test materials, as well as the district's policies and procedures for the AZELLA Reassessment Test Administration. The DTC-created Reassessment training presentation is NOT intended to be in a "train-the-trainer" (DTC-to-School Test Coordinator (STC)) format. Rather, DTCs are required to deliver their presentation to all AZELLA staff. This presentation and the sign-in sheets must be made available to ADE upon request. AZELLA DTCs must also ensure that all their School Test Coordinators and Test Administrators have completed the required AzLMS Annual and Reassessment courses for their role and grade levels and read the Test Administration Directions (TAD) for the grade levels assigned to them.
Spring 2026 Reassessment Resources
There are several ADE and Pearson resources available for the Spring Reassessment Test administration:
AZELLA DTCs should be utilizing the Reassessment DTC Important Tasks document throughout the test administration window and during the summer months.
Students Participating in the Spring 2026 AZELLA Testing
For School Year 2025-2026, all Grades K-12 students who have an EL need must be administered the Spring 2026 AZELLA Reassessment Test. These are students listed on the EL73 Report associated with EL Groups 1, 2, and 4. Please NOTE: Grade 1-12 students that are administered the AZELLA Placement Test after January 1, 2026, are not required to participate in the Spring Reassessment Test.
Parent Withdrawn EL students must continue to participate in the annual AZELLA Reassessment until they demonstrate an Overall Proficiency Level of Proficient. Parents may decline EL Services for their students, but students may not opt out of AZELLA testing.
Be mindful of dual label students who are eligible to participate in Alternate Assessments. If a student received an Overall Proficiency Level (OPL) of Proficient during the Spring 2025 Alt ELPA, this student no longer has an EL need and should not be administered an English Language Proficiency Assessment. When a student took Alt ELPA in Spring 2025 and received an OPL of less than Proficient, and they are eligible for FY 2026 Alternate Assessment, they must be administered the Spring 2026 Alt ELPA Summative test, not the Spring AZELLA Reassessment test. AZELLA DTCs should get a list of students eligible for alternate assessments who are ELs from the Alternate Assessment DTC. Students who will complete the 2026 Alt ELPA Summative test must be removed from the AZELLA Reassessment test sessions in PAN, so they are not accidentally tested with AZELLA.
In preparation for the Fall 2026 LEA Reason for Lack of ELP Testing application (reason why students were not administered the Spring 2026 Reassessment Test), ADE suggests that the districts and schools create a mechanism and procedures to keep a record of the students who should have been tested but were not, and the reason the student(s) were not tested.
Student Test Registrations in PearsonAccess Next (PAN)
Students must be registered, assigned the correct tests, and added to test Sessions (for online tests) in PearsonAccess Next (PAN) for the Reassessment administration. ADE and Pearson have pre-registered most Arizona EL students; however, additional students must be added to PAN or will need to have their registrations transferred in PAN to their new school. These tasks are completed by the AZELLA DTC and STCs.
Students that will complete the Alt ELPA Summative and Braille test and are currently registered in PAN for the Spring AZELLA Reassessment, must be removed from PAN so that they are not accidentally administered the Spring AZELLA Reassessment. AZELLA DTCs should send an email to ADE if directions are needed to complete this task.
Spring 2026 AZELLA Reassessment Test Administration
- The AZELLA Kindergarten and Grade 1 Reassessment tests are paper-and-pencil tests. Units 1-4 may be administered 1-on-1, small group, or large group. Unit 5 (the Speaking Test) must be individually administered in a quiet environment using TestNav to play the questions and capture the student responses. Test Administrators must use a testing device for the administration of the Unit 5 (Speaking) test with an external wired microphone to record the student's responses. External speakers may also be needed to ensure that the volume and sound quality is sufficient when playing the questions. The students will NOT be utilizing the electronic testing device. The electronic testing device is strictly for the Test Administrator to use to navigate the unit test and capture the student's responses. The Unit 5 Speaking Test demonstration video must be played for Kindergarten and Grade 1 students prior to administering the Unit 5 test.
- The AZELLA Grades 2-3 Reassessment test is a hybrid administration. Test Units 1, 2, 3, and 5 are administered online through the Pearson's TestNav application. Unit 4 of the test is a paper-pencil administration. The Spring 2026 AZELLA Reassessment Grades 2-3 Extended Writing Student Test Books are scorable documents and must be shipped back to Pearson for scoring. There are four separate Student Test Tickets, one for each of the online test units. A required Speaking Practice Protocol using the Sample Test must be conducted before the administration of Unit 5 (Speaking) takes place. Details on the Speaking Practice Protocol are included in the Spring 2026 AZELLA Reassessment Grades 2-3 Test Administration Directions.
- The AZELLA Grades 4-12 Reassessment tests are administered online through Pearson's TestNav application. There are no paper test materials for the Grades 4-12 students; however, the Test Administrator must use the Grades 4-12 Test Administration Directions (TAD) that are downloaded from PAN and printed. These TADs must be returned to their STC and DTC at the end of the Reassessment test window.
Please refer to the AZELLA Annual and AZELLA Reassessment Training courses for additional information about online testing and the TestNav application.
AZELLA Student Readiness Tool (SRT)
The AZELLA SRT includes a series of mini lessons that teach students how to get around their tests, how to use helpful tools for testing, and much more!
- Available in the web browser version of TestNav
- Organized by grade band options that provide test navigation practice
- Includes student-friendly videos and an opportunity to practice using all the tools and features available in TestNav such as Zoom, Magnification, Answer Masking, Line Reader, Highlighting, Text-to-Speech (for grades 4-12 extended writing only), and ASL Video Player (for ASL test forms)
- Students can use the AZELLA SRT as many times as necessary
