February 26, 2008
Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:
APPORTIONMENT INFORMATION FOR THE 2008
STANDARDIZED TESTING AND REPORTING PROGRAM
This letter provides information regarding the reporting requirements for the 2008 Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) apportionment process for the California Standards Tests (CSTs); California Modified Assessment (CMA); California Achievement Test, Sixth Edition Survey (CAT/6 Survey); California Alternate Performance Assessment (CAPA); Standards-based Tests in Spanish (STS); and Aprenda 3. Information for determining each district’s or charter’s STAR apportionment amount will be based on the multiple-choice answer documents submitted for scoring for the spring 2008 administration. Districts/charter schools that are testing independent of the district are reminded that accurate reporting is possible only if a CST-CAT/6 Survey, CMA-CAT/6 Survey, or CAPA multiple-choice answer document is submitted in each school’s scorable materials for every student enrolled on the first day of testing, including all students who are not tested for any reason.
District Review of Summary Reports: After receiving the 2008 test results from the contractor, it is imperative that the district STAR coordinator immediately review the summary reports for completeness and accuracy (per California Code of Regulations, Title 5, Education, Division 1, Chapter 2, Subchapter 3.75, Section 857[b][11]) and notify the contractor and the CDE of any errors, discrepancies, or incomplete information.
Apportionment Amounts: The State Board of Education (SBE) has approved the 2008 STAR apportionment amounts as follows:
- $2.52 per student for completing demographic information and administering the CST-CAT/6 Survey, the CMA-CAT/6 Survey, or a combination thereof
- $5.00 per student for completing demographic information and administering the CAPA
- $2.52 per student for completing demographic information and administering the STS
- $2.44 per student for completing demographic information and administering the designated primary language test, Aprenda 3
- $0.38 for completing demographic information for each student not tested with the CST-CAT/6 Survey, the CMA-CAT/6 Survey, the STS, or the CAPA
The STAR apportionment funds are unrestricted funds to reimburse districts for costs associated with the STAR Program that are above and beyond the California Department of Education (CDE) statewide contract with test contractors. The CDE contract with the test contractors covers the costs of all required STAR Program testing materials, scoring, and report production. Costs associated with optional materials or services (such as purchasing additional score reports, or testing English-only or fluent-English proficient students in Spanish-immersion programs with the Aprenda 3) are the responsibility of the district.
Demographic Edit Alerts: If any of the following data are missing (not provided during Pre-ID or entered during Extended Data Collection or hand-marked at time of testing) for more than three percent of the CST–CAT/6 Survey, the STS, or the CAPA student answer documents submitted per school when answer documents are processed for scoring, $1.32 per student will be withheld from the district’s/charter school’s STAR apportionment.
- Gender
- Statewide Student Identifier (SSID)
- Primary Ethnicity
- Student’s English Proficiency
- National School Lunch Program (NSLP)
- Primary Disability Code
- California Basic Educational Data System (CBEDS) Enrollment—district
- CBEDS Enrollment—school
The funds withheld will be paid to the contractor to process the corrected data a second time in order to produce and report test results for the district/charter school. Please note that optional demographic data corrections that may be requested by the district/charter school at their expense for use for Academic Performance Index (API) or Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) purposes is a separate process from the demographic edit alerts process detailed above.
School/Test Site Data Collection Form: Enclosed is a form entitled “Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program School/Test Site Data Collection Form.” At the district’s/charter school’s option, this form may be used to assist districts/charters in collecting the grade two through eleven test site information listed below as specified in state regulations (California Code of Regulations, Title 5, Division 1, Chapter 2, Subchapter 3.75, Article 2, section 862).
- Enrollment on the first day of STAR Program multiple-choice testing
- Number of students tested with one or more of the CSTs-CAT/6 Survey or CMA-CAT/6 Survey tests
- Number of students with significant disabilities assessed with the CAPA
- Number of students exempt from all tests by parent/guardian request (CST-CAT/6 Survey, CMA-CAT/6 Survey, or CAPA answer document)
- Number of students with demographic information only who were not tested for any reason other than parent exemption request (CST-CAT/6 Survey, CMA-CAT/6 Survey, or CAPA answer document)
- Number of Spanish-speaking English learners receiving instruction in Spanish or enrolled in a school in the United States fewer than 12 months at the time of testing:
- tested with the STS or the Aprenda 3 (mandated testing)
- with STS demographic information only (parent exemption, etc.)
- Number of Spanish-speaking English learners not receiving instruction in their primary language and enrolled in a school in the United States for more than 12 months tested with the STS or the Aprenda 3 at the option of the district
If used by the district or charter school, the form may be submitted to the district STAR coordinator and kept on file for district staff to use, along with copies of the 2008 School and Grade Identification Sheets and Master File Sheets, to verify that summary test reports and data files received from the testing contractor are complete and to verify the accuracy of the apportionment information report that the CDE will mail to districts/charter schools during late October 2008. The school data collection form itself is not to be returned to the CDE.
Apportionment Information Report: The CDE will compile an Apportionment Information Report for each district/charter school from the electronic student data files produced by the testing contractor. Superintendents or charter school administrators will receive the apportionment information reports in a separate mailing during late October 2008. The superintendent or charter school administrator will be required to certify the data and return the apportionment information report to the CDE postmarked by December 31, 2008.
If you have questions regarding the apportionment information, you may contact Mei Tan, Staff Services Analyst, STAR Office, at 916-319-0346 or by e-mail at mtan@cde.ca.gov. For general questions regarding the STAR Program, you may contact the STAR Office at 916-445-8765 or e-mail questions to star@cde.ca.gov.
Sincerely,
/s/
Deb Sigman, Director
Standards and Assessment Division
DS:mt
Enclosures
cc: District STAR Coordinators via e-mail
1430 N Street
Sacramento, CA 95814