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...

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 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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

California Department of EducationNews Release Release: #19-73November 4, 2019 Contact: Cynthia ButlerE-mail: communications@cde.ca.govPhone: 916-319-0818 SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced today that the California Department of Education (CDE) was awarded a $37.5 million federal Comprehensive Literacy State Development grant. The grant will provide the necessary funds to allow for the expansion of current literacy efforts statewide over the next five years. “Many of the students who are struggling with reading comprehension or are not reading at grade level are our most vulnerable students—economically disadvantaged students, English language learners, students with disabilities, and students in rural communities,” said Thurmond. “This grant will allow us to promote and support equitable access to high-quality literacy instruction that will benefit not only our high-need students but all of our students from pre-K to high school.” The CDE is partnering with WestEd, the Region 15 Comprehensive Center, the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association, First 5, and the California Subject Matter Projects to carry out the grant’s three objectives: Build state capacity to support literacy instruction.Develop and implement a comprehensive state literacy plan.Build local capacity to establish, align, and implement literacy initiatives. In addition to the grant partners, the CDE will establish new sustainable partnerships with local educational agencies, institutions of higher education, and early childhood agencies to coordinate statewide professional learning and will disseminate a comprehensive statewide literacy needs assessment to local educational agencies by December 2019, which will provide vital information to assist in the development of the state literacy plan. For questions, email CLSDP@cde.ca.gov. # # # #

​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. Science Assessment Implementation Modules! A new resource, the California NGSS 3D Assessment Implementation Modules website, has been developed through a joint effort by the California Science Project, Galt Joint Union Elementary School District, Stanislaus County Office of Education, and Ventura County Office of Education with support from the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association, California Department of Education (CDE), Cali...

File Name: 2019-20-PFT-Welcome-Back-to-School File Size: 148 kb Download File California Department of Education message about the California Physical Fitness Test (PFT). Of special note is the change from submitting PFT results every year to once every two years, in accordance with California Education Code Section 60800. This means the CDE will not be collecting PFT results for the 2019–20 PFT administration. Please note, however, LEAs are still responsible for reporting aggregate results of the PFT in their annual school accountability report card. 2 page PDF file.

California Department of EducationNews Release Release: #19-68October 9, 2019 Contact: Scott RoarkE-mail: communications@cde.ca.govPhone: 916-319-0818 SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced today the statewide results of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) summative assessments for English language arts/literacy (ELA) and mathematics. School districts have had access to their own results since May. For CAASPP, performance continues to improve slightly overall within grades as measured by the Smarter Balanced ELA and mathematics assessments. Statewide results in all tested grades showed that 50.87 percent of students met or exceeded standards in ELA, a .99 percentage point increase from 2018 and a 6.87 percentage point increase from 2015. In mathematics, 39.73 percent of students met or exceeded standards, a 1.08 percentage point increase from 2018 and a 6.73 percentage point increase from 2015. Thurmond acknowledged the slight score increases but expressed deep concern that improvement is less consistent across the score range in the later grades of 7, 8, and 11, with a persistent percentage of students of color not meeting standards and, in several grades, showing declining scores from last year. “Disparities between students of color and their white and Asian peers continue from year to year and demonstrate the importance of our priority initiative of closing the achievement gap. Education equity should mean equity for all students and right now, we are not there,” said Thurmond. “All students should have an equal opportunity to succeed academically and enter the workforce prepared with the needed skills to compete in the industries that drive our state forward.” One plan to address disparities that Thurmond supports is working with data experts to interpret the declining scores and evaluate what is causing the results. Strategies can then be identified for how local educational agencies (LEAs) and educators can improve test scores. “The CDE can work with all educational stakeholders to identify strategies and then explore legislative efforts to support the needs of local districts and provide resources to improve test scores,” Thurmond said. Performance gaps have narrowed (based on tracking the same cohort over time and different cohorts over time) in ELA in most grades between Hispanic or Latino students and white students, Ever-English Learner students and English Only students, and Reclassified Fluent English Proficient students and English Only students. The CAASPP Smarter Balanced ELA and mathematics results are the basis for the academic indicator, and the Summative ELPAC contributes to the English Learner Progress indicator of the California School Dashboard. Thurmond reinforced that test results are only one measurement out of many that the state uses to evaluate schools on the California School Dashboard, which allows educators and parents to identify strengths and weaknesses. Schools and districts that are struggling across Dashboard indicators are flagged for state assistance. This is the fifth year of the computer-based tests, which use California’s challenging academic standards and ask students to write clearly, think critically, and solve complex problems, as they will need to do in college and future careers. During this time period, less...