Focusing on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) System, including the Smarter Balanced assessments—a major component of CAASPP—and the California Alternate Assessments and science assessments.
 
Accessibility
 
Last month, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium passed eight motions to update the Usability, Accessibility, and Accommodations Guidelines (UAAG). The changes, which apply only to specific CAASPP assessments, are as follows:
 
New universal tools
- Embedded thesaurus
- Embedded line reader

New designated supports
- Non-embedded amplification
- Embedded mouse pointer size and color
 
New accommodations
- Embedded braille transcript for English language arts listening passages
- Non-embedded word prediction
- Non-embedded braille paper and pencil assessments
 
In addition, 10 existing policies have been updated for clarification or editorial changes. The updated UAAG, published on June 30, 2017, is available on the Smarter Balanced Accessibility and Accommodations Web page in the "What Are Accessibility Resources?" section.
 
On another accessibility note, Matrix One is in the process of being updated for the coming administration. The matrix updates will reflect the UAAG changes.
 
Student Score Reports in Spanish
 
We are pleased to announce that the 2017 Spanish versions of the Student Score Reports for both Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments and the California Alternate Assessments are now available on the CDE CAASPP Student Score Report Information Web page.
 
Available—Guide to Understanding Student Score Reports
 
The 2017 version of the Guide to Understanding the Student Score Report is now available for both Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments and the California Alternate Assessments. These guides come in both English and Spanish, with other translations coming soon. These documents are organized by grade level and provide information about the assessments specific to each grade level.