Assessment Spotlight, Issue 15

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.

Updated Digital Library Playlists

To further support teachers’ use of formative assessment practices in the classroom, Smarter Balanced has added 65 new resources to the Digital Library Connections Playlist series! The playlists that have been expanded and updated are listed in a useful “At-a-Glance” flyer (PDF). The newly added resources are available in the Digital Library (login required).

A Connections playlist is available for every Interim Assessment Block (IAB) to support teachers in quickly finding Digital Library resources on the basis of their students’ performance on the IABs. Log in and check them out!

Accessibility

The “Smarter Balanced Resources and Practices Comparison Crosswalk” (PDF) for 2018–19 is now available. The Crosswalk lists the accessibility resources that currently are included in the Smarter Balanced Usability, Accessibility, and Accommodations Guidelines (PDF) and assists educators and decision makers by providing a description of both the resource and its classroom equivalent. This document is particularly helpful because many assessment accessibility resources are similar to those commonly used during classroom instruction; the Crosswalk provides a comparison in table format.

ELPAC Search Function Now Available!

The California Department of Education (CDE) is pleased to announce that a search function is now available on the ELPAC website ! Simply select “Search,” at the top right-hand corner of any page of the website, to begin a search.

ELPAC: Use of Preliminary Scoring Rubrics in TOMS During CALPADS Downtime

The California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) currently remains unavailable for local educational agencies (LEAs) to update their enrollment information for new students. In the interim, LEAs should use the Initial ELPAC Preliminary Scoring Rubrics, located in the Test Operations Management System (TOMS), to provide parents and guardians with preliminary results. Once the availability of CALPADS is restored, LEAs can enter the students’ scores into the Local Scoring Tool (LST) and produce official results.

In addition, LEAs that plan to order materials in Round 1 of the Summative ELPAC ordering window should wait until CALPADS is again fully functional to ensure that the most up-to-date counts of English learners (ELs) are in the system.

ELPAC Development—Opportunity for Educators!

Are you interested in participating in the continued development of the ELPAC? If so, become a part of the Initial ELPAC threshold score review process. This is a study that collects teachers’ judgments of the validity of the status designation of their EL and initial fluent English proficient students. The study will produce information about the extent to which teachers agree that students were correctly identified.

To participate, ask your LEA ELPAC coordinator to contact the ELPAC training team by phone at 916-228-3301 or by email at elpac@scoe.net.

More Resources for the ELPAC

New for the ELPAC, the following resources are announced:

• The updated “2018–19 California Student Assessment Accessibility for the ELPAC” will be posted on the ELPAC website by Friday, October 12. This resource provides information about the universal tools, designated supports, and accommodations that are available to students during the administration of the ELPAC.
  
  
• The webinar “Data for the ELPAC in CALPADS” will be posted on the CDE ELPAC web page by Friday, October 12. This webinar includes information about eligible student identification and required data submission, testing eligible students, entering scores into the LST, downloading and using the Initial ELPAC Student Score Report, the correction process, and preparing for summative testing.

Please share this email with any educators in your local educational agency who would be interested in or benefit from this information. To join the email list, send a blank email message to subscribe-caaspp@mlist.cde.ca.gov. Are you a new subscriber? Visit the CDE Assessment Spotlight web page to find previous issues.