Assessment Spotlight - February 27, 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.

Summative ELPAC Administration Under Way!

Local educational agencies (LEAs) should be administering the computer-based Summative ELPAC, which contains audio files for the Listening and Speaking domains. These audio files are played through the test delivery system and are accessed by students on the testing device. LEA ELPAC coordinators are asked to direct site coordinators and test examiners to use the instructions included in the Directions for Administration and the audio in the test delivery system.

Note that the audio files found in the Test Operations Management System (TOMS) are for use only with the paper‒pencil Summative ELPAC and only if the LEA has received approval to administer paper‒pencil assessments.

ELPAC Question of the Week

This week, we share with you a frequently asked question from the field:

Q: Our LEA accidentally administered the Summative ELPAC to a student who should have been reclassified. What should we do?

A: Submit a Security and Test Administration Incident Reporting System (STAIRS) report and select "Administered Incorrect Assessment" to request a reset. This will remove student responses from all domains that were administered. The LEA must then update the student's English Language Acquisition Status in the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System with the student's new classification before May 31, 2020.

California Spanish Assessment: Materials Available in TOMS

LEAs are reminded that the optional constructed-response materials for the California Spanish Test (CSA) are available in TOMS, under the Resources tab! After "CSA Constructed Response Materials" is selected, the user can access student materials, introduction and calibration materials, and training and scoring materials and can check set materials for each grade level and high school. Through the administration of CSA constructed-response items, educators can gather more information about students' writing skills in Spanish. We hope LEAs will access these items during the spring 2020 administration. We look forward to receiving feedback from the field through a survey in late spring this year.

New Resource for the CSA

The CSA Score Reporting Ranges document for all grades has been posted on the CDE website. This document offers assistance in determining the score reporting range into which a student's overall score falls. There are three score reporting ranges for the CSA.

California Science Test Release Resources Posted!

The California Department of Education (CDE) has posted two California Science Test (CAST) release resources on the CDE CAST web page:

• CAST Reporting Achievement Level Descriptors, providing descriptions of the four levels possible for a student's overall performance on the CAST and the three levels possible for a student's performance, by science domain
  
• CAST Scale Score Ranges, providing scale score ranges, by grade and achievement level

Register Your Eligible Students for the Alternate Assessments

Note that students are automatically registered for the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for English language arts/literacy (ELA) and mathematics in grades three through eight and grade eleven and the CAST in grades five, eight, and grade twelve if the student has not met the science testing requirement for high school. Students who are eligible to take the California Alternate Assessments for ELA, mathematics, and science must be registered in TOMS through the test assignment process.

For English learners who have been determined by their IEP team to take a locally determined alternate assessment for the ELPAC, please select the appropriate domain(s) in the Test Assignment tab in TOMS.

All About Accessibility

A non-embedded designated support that is available for both CAASPP and ELPAC testing is "amplification." This accessibility resource allows the student to adjust the volume control beyond the computer's built-in settings, using headphones or other non-embedded devices. Students may use amplification assistive technology (e.g., headphones, FM system, noise buffers, white noise machines) to increase the volume provided in the assessment platform. More information on this designated support can be found in Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium: Usability, Accessibility, and Accommodations Guidelines, available on the Smarter Balanced website.