Jenny Rankin, whose research revealed that teachers drew the wrong conclusion from test data most of the time when using conventional reports.

In ten years, will historians look back at the 30-year effort to get teachers to interpret test data as a failure? I'm impatient. I don't want to wait ten years. Although I'm no historian, here's my verdict. Yes, it was a failure. This long push to make teachers do "data-driven decision-making" has flopped. But of all those who share responsibility for this flop, teachers are the least culpable. Evidence of its failure is everywhere. The tests most teachers favor are the ones they create. Those teacher-created tests often reveal the least about the degree to which students have mastered the subject matter they've studied. State tests are disliked, disrespected and misunderstood. Proof of how...

The California Department of Education has partnered with the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) to hold the annual California Assessment Conference on October 6 and 7, 2020, through a virtual conference platform. Details about this professional learning opportunity and registration are available on the conference website at https://www.cdecac.org.

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. New Resource! Guidance on Diagnostic and Formative Assessments Today, State Superintendent Tony Thurmond announced the availability of a new resource, "Guidance on Diagnostic and Formative Assessments." This informative document describes how educators can use California's approved assessments to evaluate where students are academically at the start of and throughout the school year. CALPADS and the ELPAC: Changes Beginning July 1, 2020, the California Longi...

Editor's note:  Still not sure if they understand schools or not.  Keeping students 6 feet apart from each other is clearly not a viable option in schools where 40 students are crammed into a single classroom.  Unclear what resources, if any, will actually flow to schools to enable these recommendations to lead to actual implementation.  But here they are . . . . California Releases Guidance on Re-Opening of Schools Stronger Together -  Published June 8, 2020. https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/hn/documents/strongertogether.pdf

Assessment Spotlight 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. Newly Updated Smarter Content Explorer! The Smarter Content Explorer has recently been updated! Offering new features based on educator feedback, this user-friendly web tool combines the information provided in the Smarter Balanced Content and Item Specifications—key resources used in test and item development—into an easy-to-use search interface. Users can access customized content generated by a quick search by subject, grade, and targ...

It's interesting how so many news reporters, bloggers, and just average citizens can interpret the same data so wildly differently.  This short and extremely informative video explains why this is true when looking at the COVID-19 Country Data.  Interesting to project this same thinking onto K-12 school data.  Even when we collect it accurately, are we also interpreting it accurately? 

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. Smarter Balanced Interim Assessments for Distance Learning With the widespread closure of schools in California and the suspension of CAASPP testing due to COVID-19, many local educational agencies (LEAs) are serving their students through distance learning. To aid teachers and other LEA staff during this challenging time, the California Department of Education (CDE) will make available, as an optional resource, the Smarter Balanced Interim Assessments for u...

​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. WebEx for All CAASPP and ELPAC Coordinators—Are You Registered? Calling all local educational agency (LEA) CAASPP or ELPAC coordinators: You asked for more frequent updates from California Department of Education (CDE) staff about assessment-related activities; in response, we are pleased to announce the first CDE-hosted All Coordinators WebEx! This will take place on March 18 at 2 p.m. and will cover updates provided by the CDE as well as a question and an...

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 Administra...

Charter School Management Corporation, Total Education Solutions, and Megan Moore Law are teaming up to put together a free educational workshop geared towards charter school executive directors and special education directors and coordinators. This interactive session will engage participants in understanding efforts to increase compliance. WHEN: Tuesday, April 28, 20209:00 AM - 1:30 PM (including 30 min lunch break) WHERE: CSMC Glendale Training Center201 N. Brand Blvd., B100Glendale, CA 91203 WHO SHOULD ATTEND: CEO'sExecutive DirectorsPrincipalsSpecial Education DirectorsSpecial Education TeachersHealth Staff HOW TO SIGN UP:​ https://www.eventbrite.com/e/serving-students-with-disabilities...

Disabling of the Student Discipline File on February 25, 2020 In preparation for implementing the new student incident files for the 2019–20 End-of-Year (EOY) 3 submission, the current Student Discipline (SDIS) file and User Interface will be disabled on February 25, 2020. Therefore, beginning February 25, 2020, LEAs will not be able to: Update historical SDIS information through batch or online.View Student Detail Discipline and historical Incident Discipline data in the CALPADS User Interface.Access Operational Data Store (ODS) versions of the discipline reports (reports 7.xx). Therefore, any updates to student discipline data in prior years in the CALPADS Operational Data Store must be ma...

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 Californi...

Understanding Participation and Scoring Rules for the Online 2019–2020 Summative ELPAC Dear LEA ELPAC Coordinator: Local educational agencies (LEAs) may be wondering how the transition to the computer-based ELPAC affects how English learners (ELs) count as participated and which students will be scored. English Language Acquisition Status (ELAS) has a whole new importance with a computer-based assessment. ELs will be eligible to test only if their ELAS is "EL." Please work with the LEA's California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System coordinator to ensure all ELAS data is up to date before students begin testing. To count as participated, students must log on to at least one domain in...

Meet Marilyn Lapkass, the 800th member of our growing community.  Marilyn is a PARENT of a student attending the Roseville City School District who was interested in learning more about online testing and assessments.  (Psst. We have brand new assessment FAQ section that will be up soon on the website!).  Ms. Lapkass is sporting a highly sought after item - the complimentary mug!    Thanks for joining or community Marilyn! -Chris

Say Hi to Aida Wong Gamba, an employee of Brisbane School District.  Aida just happened to be our 700th member, so we sent her a complimentary mug.  Hi Aida!  Welcome aboard! (You gotta have a little fun with this stuff . . . . :) -Chris

Assessment Spotlight 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. Now Available: CAASPP and ELPAC TOMS User Guide The CAASPP and ELPAC Test Operations Management System (TOMS) User Guide provides detailed instructions for local educational agency (LEA) staff using TOMS. It is now available on the following web pages: CAASPP Manuals and Instructions web page and TOMS Resources web page of the CAASPP websiteELPAC Manuals and Instructions web page of the ELPAC website The guide explains this year's n...

Assessment SpotlightFocusing 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.Calendar Reminder: CAASPP and ELPAC System Downtime Fast ApproachingVarious CAASPP and ELPAC systems will be unavailable from Wednesday, January 8, at 5 p.m. through Tuesday, January 14, at 8 a.m. for a scheduled downtime. During the downtime, the following CAASPP and ELPAC systems will not be available:Test Operations Management System (TOMS)Test Administrator InterfaceCompletion Status and Roster Management SystemData Entry InterfaceInte...

December 19, 2019 Updated Joint Guidance on Privacy and Student Education and Health Records The U.S. Department of Education and the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released updated joint guidance today addressing the application of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule to records maintained on students. The guidance, which was first issued in November 2008, clarifies for school administrators, health care professionals, families, and others how FERPA and HIPAA apply to education and health records maintained about students. The revised guidanc...

Important Reminder to update the Student English Language Acquisition Status in CALPADS Prior to Summative Testing for the English Language Proficiency Assessment for California All English learners must be assessed annually with the Summative English Language Proficiency Assessment for California (ELPAC). In order to be tested, students must have an English Language Acquisition Status (ELAS) of English Learner (EL) in CALPADS. Therefore, it is critical that students' ELAS are up-to-date in CALPADS before the Summative ELPAC testing opens on February 3, 2020, in order that students may be tested. In addition, any students' initial ELAS statuses that have been corrected through one of the all...

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 Assessment Results in the California Educator Reporting System The California Educator Reporting System (CERS) now includes Summative ELPAC results from the 2017–18 and 2018–19 school years. Local educational agency (LEA) staff who have Test Operations Management System (TOMS) logon credentials can enter CERS through the CAASPP Portal or ELPAC Portal to access student assessment results. Over the next two years, CERS will become the single so...