How and when do parents and guardians receive their student’s CAHSEE results?
About seven weeks after the CAHSEE is administered, school districts receive two copies of the CAHSEE Student and Parent Report for each student who took the examination. When school districts receive their student reports, they will distribute one copy to parents and guardians and place the other copy in the student’s permanent record. This notification process occurs after each test administration.
Is it important that parents and guardians keep a copy of the student report for their records?
Yes. The California Department of Education does not keep a copy of individual student reports. All individual student scores are confidential. Only group results for each school, district, county, and the state are posted on the Internet. School districts are responsible for maintaining individual student results.
How are the individual student results reported?
The CAHSEE Student and Parent Report provides two types of information about a student’s performance on the exam. The left side of the report shows the student’s scale score, the scale score required to pass, and whether or not the student passed the English-language arts and mathematics parts. The right side of the report shows the number of questions answered correctly for each strand of the content standards in English-language arts and mathematics tested with multiple-choice questions. The right side also shows the writing task score, which is scored on a scale of 1 to 4, with 4 being the highest score students can achieve.
What is a scale score?
Although all test forms of the CAHSEE assess the same California content standards, each test form contains different questions. Therefore, one test form may be slightly more difficult or slightly easier than another. Scale scores account for differences in the difficulty of test questions, thus equalizing the variations in test difficulty across different administrations. Scale scores used for the CAHSEE range from approximately 275 to 450. A scale score of 350 or higher is necessary to pass each part of the CAHSEE.
Who sees CAHSEE individual student score reports?
Only students, parents or guardians, and authorized school district personnel see individual student score reports.
What happens if students do not pass the CAHSEE?
All students are required to take the CAHSEE for the first time in grade ten. Students who do not pass one or both parts of the CAHSEE in grade ten have up to two opportunities in grade eleven and for the 2007-08 academic year up to five opportunities in grade twelve to retake the part(s) of the exam not yet passed. The CAHSEE testing schedule through the 2009–10 school year is posted on the CAHSEE Administrative Documents Web page. Districts select their testing dates from this schedule.
What instructional support is available to students who do not pass the CAHSEE?
School districts are to provide additional instruction to assist students who do not pass the exam. Instructional programs may be offered during the summer, before or after school, on Saturday, or during intersession. Additional instruction may also be offered to a student who was enrolled in grade twelve during the prior school year. Other options may include a fifth year of study, summer school, adult education, and independent study.
How can parents and guardians get their questions answered about the CAHSEE and/or their student’s results?
Additional information about the CAHSEE is available on the CAHSEE Web page. Parents and guardians should first direct their questions about the CAHSEE, including their student’s results, to their student’s teachers. They may also contact the school principal or counselor.
