The California Teachers Association (CTA) is calling on the State Board of Education and the California Department of Education to apply for a federal waiver for the English, Math and Science portions of California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) in spring 2021. They've issued a petition: cta.org/takeaction. This year has been extraordinarily challenging for our students. CTA's position is that annual standardized tests – never meant to be administered remotely – would be detrimental to students and of little use to schools. "CTA recommends that to truly meet California's diverse needs, the state must pursue a waiver from standardized testing," said CTA Pres...

 The Data Entry Interface (DEI) is used to enter student responses and scores for the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) and the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC). This video will demonstrate how to enter student responses and scores into the DEI.

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...

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...

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...

English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) Monthly Communication Upcoming Dates and Deadlines for February 2020 January 15–May 15, 2020 Summative Supplemental Test Materials Ordering Window The supplemental test materials ordering window is open from January 15 through May 15, 2020. Materials will arrive 10–14 business days after the order is placed. Materials ordered through the supplemental window will be for grades at the local educational agency (LEA) level, not for individual sites. For instructions on how to place a kindergarten–grade two (K–2) Writing test materials order, view the page instructions on the [Place Primary Order] tab under the [Orders] navigation ta...

​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. Release of New Smarter Balanced Sample Items and Annotated Anchors Next Week On Thursday, February 6, Smarter Balanced will release more than 100 new items on the Smarter Balanced Sample Items website as well as new annotated anchors for the English language arts/literacy (ELA) assessment. This will be the first release of operational test questions from the summative assessments and will highlight the critical role educators serve in i...

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...

ELPAC: 2020 Summative Forms Assignment Now Posted Dear LEA ELPAC Coordinator: Form assignments for the 2019–20 Summative English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) administration are now available on the ELPAC Forms Assignments web page. Use the lookup tool to search for a local educational agency (LEA) to see which form number the LEA has been assigned. In some cases, large LEAs will be assigned to multiple forms; these will be displayed accordingly. Secure Directions for Administration (DFAs) that correspond to these form assignments will be available for download from the Test Operations Management System (TOMS) on Thursday, January 16, 2020. LEAs must download and us...

Dear LEA CAASPP or LEA ELPAC Coordinator: Welcome to the 2019–20 school year! CAASPP and ELPAC systems have resumed operation after they were updated to support 2019–20 CAASPP and ELPAC testing. New Test Operations Management System (TOMS) Interface Both the CAASPP and ELPAC TOMS have transitioned to a new combined TOMS interface. Enhancements and new functionality can be previewed on the System Enhancements web page. Share this information with your site staff to introduce them to the new interface. One notable change is with the credentialing functionality for electronic Student Score Reports (SSRs). It has been updated so that credentials only need to be generated once for the 2019–20 yea...

General ELPAC Information Upcoming TOMS Systems Downtime As part of the transition to the 2019–20 school year, the Test Operations Management System (TOMS) will experience downtime from Tuesday, August 27 at 5 p.m. through Tuesday, September 3, 2019 at 8 a.m. The new Test Operations Management System (TOMS) interface will be available on September 3, 2019. During the downtime, LEAs may administer all domains of the Initial ELPAC except Listening in grades three through twelve. LEAs can administer Speaking—Summarize an Academic Presentation by reading aloud the recorded audio script provided in the Examiner's Manual. The Local Scoring Tool and all audio recorded files will be available in MyT...

Dear LEA ELPAC Coordinator: As you administer the 2019–20 Initial and Summative English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC), Educational Testing Service (ETS) is helping to support you and your local educational agency (LEA) by providing key information. General ELPAC Information Upcoming TOMS Systems Downtime As part of the transition to the 2019–20 school year, ELPAC Test Operations Management System (TOMS) will experience downtime from 6 a.m. Monday, July 1 through 8 a.m. Monday, July 8, 2019. The new Test Operations Management System (TOMS) interface, MyTOMS, will be available on July 8, 2019 for the 2019–20 ELPAC administration. During that time, LEAs may administer ...

Dear LEA CAASPP Coordinator or LEA ELPAC Coordinator: Based on feedback from coordinators, the ELPAC Test Operations Management System (TOMS) and CAASPP TOMS have been integrated into a new and improved system, called MyTOMS. The new MyTOMS will be available for the 2019–20 administrations of both CAASPP and ELPAC according to the following schedule: July 8, 2019—ELPAC functions available within MyTOMS September 3, 2019—CAASPP functions available within MyTOMS During this time between July 8 and September 3, 2019, ELPAC TOMS can be accessed by selecting the [TOMS] button on the ELPAC website at https://www.elpac.org/. CAASPP users will continue to access CAASPP TOMS in the current interface,...

​The cut scores in the manual are incorrect.  These are the updated ELPAC Summative Scale Scores as of 5/31/2019.  

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. ELPAC Administrations Winding Down As both the Summative and Initial ELPAC administration windows come to a close—on May 31 for the Summative, and on June 30 for the Initial—we offer these tips to help local educational agencies (LEAs) with the details of closing the 2018–19 administrations: To ensure that Summative ELPAC materials arrive at testing contractor Educational Testing Service (ETS) in time for scoring, all Answer Books must b...

Dear LEA ELPAC Coordinator: As you administer the 2018–19 and 2019–20 Initial and Summative ELPAC, Educational Testing Service (ETS) is helping to support you and your local educational agency (LEA) by providing key information. URGENT: Actions Required 2018–19 Post-Test—Summative ELPAC Test Materials Return Instructions In order to ensure that your test materials arrive in time for scoring, all Answer Books must be picked up by United Parcel Service (UPS) from your location by June 14, 2019; therefore, requests for pick up must be made prior to that day. Consider this date when planning to return your test materials, and allow enough time to account for shipping so that test materials arriv...

 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 for Families: Starting Smarter Websites On April 25, the California Department of Education (CDE), in collaboration with the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and Educational Testing Service, launched two new websites to help empower parents/guardians and families to become partners in their children's academic success: Starting Smarter for the CAASPP Starting Smarter for the ELPAC These family-focused websites provide resources to facilitate ...

 August 2018 "Data for the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) in CALPADS presentation.