ELPAC Update - May 31st, 2017

The English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) Update, from the California Department of Education (CDE), is an e-mail for K–12 educators, including testing coordinators, which focuses on the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California. When the ELPAC is operational, it will replace the California English Language Development Test (CELDT). The ELPAC Update will be sent once per month beginning March 2017. Please forward this e-mail to any educators in your local educational agency (LEA) who would be interested in or benefit from this information.

Superintendent's Designation of LEA ELPAC Coordinator Form Due August 1

Just a brief reminder: The Superintendent's Designation of an LEA ELPAC Coordinator Form is due by August 1. Be sure to take care of this detail to ensure that the appropriate staff in your LEA will receive the important ELPAC-related communications from the contractor, Educational Testing Service (ETS), in a timely manner as the coming school year begins.

After ETS has received this designation form, a confirmation e-mail will be sent to the newly designated LEA ELPAC Coordinator. The confirmation e-mail will prompt the new coordinator to fill out and submit the Test Security Agreement for LEA ELPAC Coordinators and ELPAC Site Coordinators Form, which will grant the coordinator access to the Test Operations Management System (TOMS). TOMS is the online system that coordinators will use to manage all aspects of ELPAC testing, including assigning user roles.After August 1, important communications from ETS will be sent directly to the LEA ELPAC Coordinators.

TOMS and ELPAC Listening Domain Unite!

Have you heard the news? The ELPAC Listening domain is set to be streamed through the ELPAC TOMS for grades three through twelve! The current system allows both California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress and ELPAC users to have a single username and password. Stay tuned—more information about TOMS and the technology requirements for accessing the Listening audio files will be available in the fall!

CELDT Retest in 2017–18

Last month, the CDE sent a letter to LEAs regarding reclassification guidance for 2017–18. One option discussed in the letter was that an LEA may enter into an agreement with the CELDT contractor, Educational Data Systems (EDS), to order additional materials to retest students for reclassification purposes in 2017–18.

In early June, LEAs will receive a detailed e-mail from EDS. This e-mail will contain a link to a brief online survey regarding the RETEST options. The survey will ask you to fill in the approximate number of students your LEA plans to test. To assist us with planning for the 2017–18 RETEST, please complete the survey whether or not your LEA plans to participate. Thank you in advance for completing this brief survey.

Summative Assessment Trainings Slated for This Fall

ETS sent CELDT District Coordinators an e-mail in mid-May regarding the fall ELPAC Summative Assessment (SA) trainings. The e-mail provided each LEA's number of allocated seats for these trainings. If you did not receive the e-mail or have questions about your seat allocation, please contact the ELPAC Customer Support Center by phone at 844-782-2714 or by e-mail at .

You may wonder, who needs to attend ELPAC SA training? This training is designed specifically for the LEA staff who will be responsible for training Test Examiners to administer the ELPAC. Using a scoring training of trainers model, the training will focus on overall test administration and the scoring of the Speaking domain. Note that the LEA ELPAC Coordinator is not required to attend in order to receive TOMS access. As an LEA ELPAC Coordinator, you will grant access to your Test Examiners in TOMS to stream the Listening audio.

Looking Ahead: Who May Administer the ELPAC?

As you prepare to administer the ELPAC in spring 2018, keep in mind that the ELPAC regulations state that the Test Examiner must be an employee of the LEA and a proficient speaker of English. However, your LEA may choose to have a more robust policy.

Will local scoring the operational ELPAC SA be available?

Once LEAs administer the operational ELPAC SA, LEAs will ship answer books to ETS for scoring. No local scoring of the ELPAC SA will be available. LEAs will not score the ELPAC SA nor will there be Answer Key Overlays, Scoring Conversion Tables, Writing scoring rubrics in the Examiner Manuals for the ELPAC. Score reports will be returned to LEAs within six to eight weeks after ETS receives the Answer Books. More details on this scoring schedule will be available soon.

ELPAC Basic Video Resource

We are excited to announce that the "ELPAC Overview Video" will be released to LEAs this October in both English and Spanish! It will be available for download and use at such functions as staff meetings, school board meetings, and parent meetings and will cover some of the basic information about the ELPAC. Stay tuned!