Science Blueprint Preface

The following blueprints are for the California Standards Tests (CSTs) in science. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) requires states to administer science tests in grade spans 3-5, 6-9, and 10-12. Therefore, all students in grades five, eight, and ten take a science test. CSTs in Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, Physics, and Integrated/Coordinated Science 1, 2, 3, and 4 are end-of-course tests taken by students in grades nine through eleven. The CSTs in science consist of 60 multiple-choice questions with an additional 6 field-test questions. It is also important to note:

• Except for the Investigation and Experimentation standards, the “# of Items” column shows the numbers of questions testing each standard as well as the total number of questions for each strand. The “%” column shows the percentage of questions assessing each strand.
• A distinction is made between the descriptive statement that precedes each set of standards and the standards that are assessed.
• For biology, chemistry, earth science, physics, and integrated/coordinated science 1, 2, 3, and 4, standards that all students should have the opportunity to learn, identified with an asterisk (*), are not tested, though they are important to the comprehension of the strand.
• In some grades or courses there are standards that, while important, are not assessable in a multiple-choice format. These standards have been identified with the notation NA*. Though these standards are not assessed, they are important to the comprehension of the strand.