Assessment Spotlight Issue #62

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.

Survey for LEA Coordinators!

On September 17, the California Department of Education (CDE) opened its annual local educational agency (LEA) coordinator survey with a link to the survey emailed to a sampling of LEA coordinators. If you received the email, we hope you will take a few minutes to tell us about the resources and training you need to be successful in your role as an LEA coordinator. This short survey asks about your awareness and use of several existing resources as well as for your suggestions for additional resources. The survey is a part of the CDE's ongoing effort to support the important work you do!

Assessment Information Meeting Materials Now Posted

The materials from the 2019 Assessment Information Meeting are now posted. These materials include the PowerPoint presentations along with a corresponding notes page to assist LEAs in using the information to train their staff. Please note that because of accessibility guidelines, the video will not be posted.

CAASPP and ELPAC Results and Permanent Student Records

With the advent of electronic Student Score Reports (SSRs), many LEAs have inquired about the requirement regarding retention of student scores. In particular, many LEAs are wondering whether they must place a printed copy of the SSR in the student's cumulative file.

LEAs are not required to retain a copy of the actual SSR as long as they maintain a record of the student's results. The requirement is that LEAs keep a record of the score, but they are not specifically required to retain the official score report. For CAASPP, the California Code of Regulations, Title 5 (5 CCR), Section 863 states, Schools are responsible for maintaining pupil's scores with the pupil's permanent school records or for entering the scores into electronic pupil records, and for forwarding or transmitting the results to schools to which pupils matriculate or transfer. For ELPAC, the California Code of Regulations, 5 CCR, Section 11518.80(a) states, An LEA shall maintain a record of each eligible pupil's most recent participation in an administration of the ELPAC.”

Access to score reports for students in parent and student portals will automatically transfer to the LEA where the student currently is enrolled in CALPADS. In addition, the LEA where a student is currently enrolled has access to the student's results in the Online Reporting System. The LEA where the student was at the end of the previous testing year is still responsible for maintaining a permanent record of the results.

CAASPP and ELPAC results are considered Mandatory Permanent Pupil Records. Per 5 CCR Section 430, Mandatory Permanent Pupil Records are records that are maintained in perpetuity and that schools have been directed to compile by California statute, regulation, or authorized administrative directive.

Check Them Out! Interim Assessment Resources for Educators

As the 2019/20 school year begins, LEAs can look to several resources that are available to support their educators understanding and use of the 2019/20 Smarter Balanced Interim Assessments:

• The Interim Assessment Overview provides information about the interim assessments available and includes the addition of 42 focused Interim Assessment Blocks as well as the Interim Comprehensive Assessments for grades nine and ten.
  
• The three-page Smarter Balanced Interim Assessments: At-a-Glance presents the interim assessments available for the 2019/20 school year, by content area and grade level.
  
• The 14-page Interim Assessments Available by Grade for 2019-20 lists all available interim assessments, by grade, claim, and target(s). It includes the total number of test items and items that require local hand scoring. This information is for LEAs to assist them in their planning for the administration and local hand scoring of the interim assessments.
  
• The Sandbox training tool is available to help educators become familiar with the features and functions of the Interim Assessment Reporting System (IARS). This tool features virtually the same functions as the IARS, but uses practice test items and fictitious student data in a nonsecure environment with no log-on credentials required. The Sandbox can be accessed on the CAASPP Portal Interim Assessment Administration Resources web page by selecting the button labeled Reporting System Sandbox.”
  
• The Interim Assessment Viewing System is a secure-access preview tool that can be used to view the interim assessments for professional development and training as well as to prepare for general assessment administration. The viewing system is located on the CAASPP Portal Interim Assessment Administration Resources web page. Log-on credentials are required for access.

Additional resources related to the Smarter Balanced Interim Assessments are available on the CDE Smarter Balanced Interim Assessments web page.

Remedies for Missing Addresses on Initial ELPAC SSRs

It has come to our attention that many of the Initial ELPAC Student Score Reports (SSRs) in the Local Scoring Tool (LST) do not have the address information populated. Note that when LEAs request Statewide Student Identifiers from the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS), they should submit the following three files for each student:

1. Student Enrollment file to submit an enrollment record for the student in CALPADS
   
2. Student English Language Acquisition file to submit an English Language Acquisition Status of TBD”
   
3. Student Information (SINF) file to submit the address for the SSR.

LEAs that did not submit SINF files with addresses for students who were tested with the Initial ELPAC may choose to remedy missing addresses in one of two ways:

1. Resubmit the SINF files to CALPADS for all of their students to ensure that addresses are in the feed to Test Operations Management System (TOMS). Once completed, LEAs can contact the California Technical Assistance Center (CalTAC) by phone at 800-955-2954 to request that their Initial ELPAC scores be reset (must provide list of SSIDs). Once approved by CalTAC, LEAs can then re-enter the raw scores into the LST for each individual SSID to generate a new SSR with address.
2. Using their local student information system, LEAs can generate address labels to put on their SSRs or merge the address information into their the Parent/Guardian Letter Data file that is produced from the LST in TOMS prior to producing letters and attach the SSR without an address.
   
   

Note: LEAs are not required to update their SSRs in the local scoring tool once generated.