By Ellen Pelzel on Wednesday, 12 February 2020
Category: What's New

Assessment Spotlight - February 12, 2020

Focusing on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) System and English Language Proficiency Assessments of California (ELPAC)—and including, when timely, updates on California's other statewide assessments.

California Science Test and California Spanish Assessment: 2018–19 Summary Results

The 2018–19 summary results for the first operational administration of the California Science Test (CAST) and the California Spanish Assessment (CSA) were made available to the public on February 4, 2020. The summary results are reported at the state, county, district, and school levels by grade and student groups.

The CAST and CSA summary results are located on the California Department of Education (CDE) Public Reporting website. When accessing this website for both the CAST and CSA, users will find:

Regarding research files, the 2018–19 California Alternate Assessment (CAA) for Science field test research files also were made available to the public on February 4 and are located on the CDE CAA for Science Administration Research Files web page.

Any questions regarding the 2018–19 summary results can be directed to the CAASPP Office by phone at 916-445-8765 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Seeking Educators for CAA Item Writer Workshop

The Item Writer Workshop for the CAAs will be held February 25–27, 2020. We continue to seek qualified teachers to develop items for all alternate assessments, and specifically K–5 teachers for the upcoming Alternate ELPAC. Please visit the "Get Involved" tab on the ELPAC website and the CAASPP website to learn more about this exciting professional development opportunity and register for the workshop.

ELPAC––New Resource!

In addition to "How to Use the Technology Resource Checker for Students," the "Technology Readiness Checker for Student Support Guidelines" document is now available on the ELPAC website, under the Resources tab! These guidelines are provided to assist test administrators, teachers, parents, and educators in making decisions on a student's technology readiness. Both documents are designed to help with the interpretation and use of the information provided through the optional Technology Readiness Checker for Students.

Please also note that the Initial ELPAC Testing Parent/Guide Notification Letter templates in English and Spanish have been updated to include information about the voice capture feature of the ELPAC Speaking domain. The templates are located on the CDE ELPAC web page.

Plan Now to Attend the 2020 California Assessment Conference

Save the date for the 2020 California Assessment Conference (CAC), being held October 6–8 in Riverside:

Collaboration and strategic partnering are fundamental to supporting educators statewide, so don't miss out! View the excitement on our CAC video and, for detailed information on this year's conference and to learn what last year's attendees had to say, visit the CDE CAC 2020 website.

All About Accessibility

Word prediction is a non-embedded accessibility resource for CAASPP that allows students to begin writing a word, and then choose from a list of words that have been predicted from word frequency and syntax rules. Word prediction may be set for students who have documented motor or orthopedic impairments or students with moderate to severe learning disabilities that prevent them from recalling, processing, or expressing written language. Students will need to be familiar with the software and have had many opportunities to use it in daily instruction. More information on this accommodation can be found in Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium: Usability, Accessibility, and Accommodations Guidelines, available on the Smarter Balanced website. 

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