WIDA Can Do Descriptors: What They Are and How to Use Them

Last updated: August 8, 2026

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

The WIDA Can Do Descriptors describe what English Learners can typically do with language at each proficiency level, across listening, speaking, reading, and writing. They turn the abstract WIDA levels into concrete, observable expectations teachers can plan from. They have not been retired: they remain available and widely used, though, as explained below, the 2020 Edition introduced a parallel tool. This guide explains what the Can Do Descriptors are, how they are organized, how they relate to the 2020 Edition, and how to use them.

Executive Summary

The Can Do Descriptors are WIDA’s practical companion to the proficiency levels. While the levels say a student is, for example, level 3 in speaking, the Can Do Descriptors say what that student can actually do: produce expanded sentences, describe a process with support, and so on. They are organized by grade-level cluster and domain, and they give teachers a starting point for setting realistic, level-appropriate expectations.

One currency note matters for district leaders: the published Can Do Descriptors are the Key Uses Edition and have not been updated to the WIDA ELD Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. With the 2020 Edition, WIDA introduced the Proficiency Level Descriptors (PLDs) as the framework’s native tool. The Can Do Descriptors were not retired; they supplement, rather than replace, the standards.

Key Takeaways

• Can Do Descriptors translate levels into observable abilities by domain.
• They are organized by grade-level cluster and the four language domains.
• They guide differentiation: teachers set expectations matched to each student’s level.
• They describe a floor, not a ceiling. They are a starting point, not a limit on what a student can attempt.
• Still available, now supplemented: the 2020 Edition added Proficiency Level Descriptors; the Can Do Descriptors (Key Uses Edition) were not retired.

What Are the WIDA Can Do Descriptors?

The Can Do Descriptors are statements that describe what English Learners can do with language at each WIDA proficiency level. They exist for each language domain and are grouped by grade-level cluster. For example, a descriptor for speaking at a developing level might describe a student giving short oral presentations using sentence frames and visuals.

Quick answer: the Can Do Descriptors tell teachers what a student at a given WIDA level can realistically do with language, so instruction and expectations can be matched to the student.

How the Can Do Descriptors Are Organized

Can Do Descriptors and the 2020 Edition

This is the point most likely to confuse district leaders. The WIDA ELD Standards Framework, 2020 Edition introduced the Proficiency Level Descriptors (PLDs), which align directly to the 2020 Language Expectations and to the four Key Language Uses (Narrate, Inform, Explain, Argue). The Can Do Descriptors predate that edition and have not been revised to match it.

Quick answer: use the Proficiency Level Descriptors when you need a tool aligned to the 2020 standards; the Can Do Descriptors remain a useful supplement for setting observable, level-based expectations. They were not retired, but they are not the 2020 Edition’s native tool.

How to Use the Can Do Descriptors

1. Locate the student. Use the descriptor for the student’s grade cluster, domain, and level.
2. Set the expectation. Plan tasks the student can do with appropriate support, then stretch one step.
3. Choose the scaffold. Match sentence frames, visuals, and grouping to the descriptor.
4. Pair with the PLDs. Use the 2020 Edition Proficiency Level Descriptors for alignment to current Language Expectations.

District Benchmark: How Many Targets Are in One Room

The Can Do Descriptors are best understood by counting, not by describing. Take a fifth-grade classroom of 26 students, nine of whom are identified English Learners. Suppose those nine sit at levels 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, and 5. Because WIDA reports a level for each of four domains, and students are rarely at the same level across all four, the descriptors generate up to 36 distinct targets for those nine students inside a single lesson.

That number is the whole argument for the tool and the whole argument for why it is hard to use. Thirty-six targets is far more differentiation than a lesson plan can carry, so in practice teachers cluster: they group the level 3s, they group the level 4s, and they plan two or three tiers instead of nine profiles. That is a reasonable compromise for receptive work, where students can read a tiered text simultaneously. It is a much weaker compromise for productive work, where the descriptor for a level-2 speaker and a level-4 speaker call for entirely different kinds of turns, and only one student can take a turn at a time.

Scaled to a district, the count is the real finding. A building with 140 English Learners is holding something on the order of 500 live descriptor targets on any given day. The framework is not the constraint. Delivering against that many targets is.

Where the Descriptors Meet the Practice Ceiling

Every descriptor in the speaking column describes something a student produces, and production is where the Speaking Time Gap bites: the shortfall between the responsive spoken practice an English Learner needs and what one teacher can supply across a full class.

The math, counted in attempts rather than minutes. Moving from one descriptor to the next is a matter of repetition with feedback. Suppose a teacher can genuinely attend to six individual spoken attempts per lesson, listening to a student and responding to what they said, which is generous once the rest of the class is also being taught. With nine English Learners in the room, each student gets roughly two attended attempts every three lessons. Across a school year that is somewhere around 120 attended attempts per student, spread across four domains and the several descriptors within each. Divided that thinly, no single descriptor gets enough repetitions to move.

Receptive descriptors escape this arithmetic because listening and reading can be practiced by everyone at once. Productive ones cannot. That is why a teacher using the descriptors well will still watch reading targets clear and speaking targets stall, and why the honest response is to add attempts rather than to refine the planning.

Common Mistakes District Leaders Make

1. Assuming they were retired. The Can Do Descriptors remain available; they were supplemented, not replaced, by the 2020 Edition.
2. Using descriptors as a ceiling. Treating them as the limit of what a student may attempt rather than a starting point.
3. Ignoring grade-level clusters. Applying an elementary descriptor to a secondary newcomer, or vice versa.
4. Overlooking the practice gap. Setting good targets without the capacity to practice them, especially in speaking.

Recommended Actions

Immediate (this month): Confirm teachers know the Can Do Descriptors are the Key Uses Edition and pair them with the 2020 Edition Proficiency Level Descriptors.

Medium-term (this year): Build level-matched speaking and writing tasks from the descriptors into EL instruction, with the next level as the target.

Long-term (strategy): Resource individualized practice so every student gets enough matched practice to move to the next descriptor, especially in speaking.

Questions District Leaders Should Ask

• Are teachers using the Can Do Descriptors to plan, or only to label students?
• Do we pair the Can Do Descriptors with the 2020 Edition Proficiency Level Descriptors?
• Do tasks match each student’s grade cluster, domain, and level?
• Do students get enough matched practice, especially in speaking, to reach the next level?

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the WIDA Can Do Descriptors?

The WIDA Can Do Descriptors are statements describing what English Learners can do with language at each proficiency level, across listening, speaking, reading, and writing. They translate the WIDA levels into concrete, observable abilities teachers can plan from.

Were the WIDA Can Do Descriptors retired?

No. The Can Do Descriptors remain available and widely used. The WIDA ELD Standards Framework, 2020 Edition introduced the Proficiency Level Descriptors as the framework’s native tool, but the Can Do Descriptors were supplemented, not replaced. They have not been updated to the 2020 Edition.

How are the Can Do Descriptors organized?

They are organized by grade-level cluster, language domain (listening, speaking, reading, writing), and proficiency level. The published version is the Key Uses Edition; the 2020 Edition’s parallel tool, the Proficiency Level Descriptors, aligns to the four Key Language Uses (Narrate, Inform, Explain, Argue).

Are the Can Do Descriptors a limit on what students can do?

No. They describe what students can typically do at a level as a starting point, not a ceiling. Students should be supported to attempt tasks at the next level, not held to the current one.

Related Resources

• WIDA Speaking Rubric Explained
• Complete Guide to WIDA
• WIDA Levels Explained
• WIDA Key Uses Explained
• Oral Language Development for English Learners
• Small Group Instruction for English Learners

Conclusion

The WIDA Can Do Descriptors are the bridge between proficiency levels and daily instruction: they turn a number into a clear picture of what a student can do and what comes next. They were not retired, but district leaders should know they are the Key Uses Edition and pair them with the 2020 Edition Proficiency Level Descriptors for current alignment. Their value still depends on using them as a floor to build from and on having the capacity to give every student enough matched practice to reach the next level, especially in speaking.

Sources: WIDA Can Do Descriptors; WIDA Proficiency Level Descriptors; WIDA Consortium, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

From Clear Targets to Enough Matched Practice

The Can Do Descriptors do something genuinely useful: they tell a teacher what each student should be able to do next, by domain and by level. In a classroom where English Learners are spread across several proficiency levels, that produces many different targets in the same room at the same time.

Setting the target is the quick part. The harder part is giving every student enough matched practice to actually reach the next descriptor. A single teacher can plan level-appropriate tasks for every descriptor in the room, but cannot sit with each student individually every day, especially when the target is producing language rather than recognizing it. The constraint is capacity, not the quality of the planning.

This is why a growing number of schools are looking for ways to extend that practice beyond what one teacher can personally deliver, using adaptive tools that meet each learner at their own descriptor. Telo AI is one example, adapting practice to each student’s level in English plus Spanish and French for bilingual programs.

See how districts give each English Learner practice matched to their next Can Do target: https://mytelo.ai/how-telo-works/

Directed this way, practice aims at each student’s next step rather than the middle of the class, and teachers keep a clearer view of who is ready to move up. The descriptors map the path; they are only as useful as the practice a district can put behind them.