Grade Two Diagnostic Assessments

With the sunset of the Standardized Testing and Reporting Program, the requirement that students in grade two participate in the summative assessment was eliminated. To ensure that teachers have information about the developing language arts and computational skills of their grade two students, California Education Code (EC) Section 60644 required the California Department of Education (CDE) to gather information regarding existing diagnostic assessments, evaluate that information to ensure that the legal requirements and other criteria are met, and to make the information available to local educational agencies (LEAs).

A set of four tables, for both English-Language arts (ELA) and mathematics, summarize the results from the review of the grade two diagnostic assessments conducted by the CDE pursuant to EC Section 60644. Tables 1 and 2 provide the list of the grade two diagnostic assessments that met the review criteria for alignment with the Common Core State Standards in ELA or mathematics, validity and reliability, and appropriateness for intended use as required by EC Section 60644 for each subject. Tables 3 and 4 provide additional information about the administration and scoring and reporting of the assessments that may be of interest to educators. The information in Tables 3 and 4 may be subject to change and may be further explored with the test publishers.

All costs associated with the use of the optional grade two diagnostic assessments will be the responsibility of the LEA. Additionally, LEAs will be required to contract for those services directly with the identified test provider, not with the CDE. Per California Code of Regulations, Title 5, Section 862(a)(8), beginning in 2014–15, LEAs will be required to report to the CDE the number of students in grade two who are administered a diagnostic assessment pursuant to EC Section 60644 for the purpose of determining apportionment funding as set by the State Board of Education annually.

For more information on how to request apportionment reimbursement for the administration of the Grade Two Diagnostic Assessments, please contact the Fiscal Support Office at 916-319-0803.