Assessment Spotlight, Issue 214
California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) email update, December 9, 2022.Focusing on the CAASPP System and English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC)—and including, when timely, updates on California’s other statewide assessments. For questions related to test administration, coordination, and trainings, visit the CAASPP website and the ELPAC website .
December’s Featured Resource in Tools for Teachers—Interim Assessment Connections Playlist for Mathematics Performance Task
The nearing of the end of fall semester gives us a good time to look at this month’s featured resource, Interim Assessment Connections Playlist: Performance Task (account required), for the grade eight mathematics performance task. This playlist of lesson plans in Tools for Teachers allows educators to gauge students’ learning in a deeper way. It focuses on the Problem Solving, Communicating Reasoning, and Modeling and Data Analysis academic claims and provides activities that help teachers guide students as they assimilate skills from various mathematics domains and state standards for solving real-world problems.
Teachers can use this resource to guide students through an experience in which they see others’ perspectives and analyze their reasoning, helping them to understand that many problems can be resolved in a number of ways. For example, one lesson poses the challenge of choosing a cell phone plan; this task allows students to explore multiple strategies for problem solving as they investigate a real-world problem and apply the skills they have learned to solve it.
Complete with academic vocabulary, the lesson plans include activities that provide students with opportunities to explain their mathematics reasoning, create arguments they can support with that reasoning, and demonstrate their understanding and knowledge of college and career readiness standards. Also provided are suggestions for intervention, helpful hints to keep in mind when leading lesson activities for student groups with varied proficiency levels, and performance progressions to aid in understanding how students perform at various levels as well as how to use this information to choose instructional next steps.
To access this playlist and other instructional resources, local educational agency (LEA) staff will need a free Tools for Teachers account, which can be obtained either through self-registration (PDF) or through their LEA CAASPP coordinator.
Upcoming Downtime for CAASPP and ELPAC Systems
To prepare for the opening of the 2022–23 summative assessment window, various CAASPP and ELPAC systems are scheduled for downtime next month.
From Thursday, January 5, at 5 p.m. through Tuesday, January 10, at 8 a.m., the following systems will not be available:
- Test Administrator Interface
- Completion Status System
- Data Entry Interface
In addition, the Test Operations Management System will not be available from Friday, January 6, at 5 p.m. through Tuesday, January 10, at 8 a.m.
More information about these and other scheduled downtimes is available on the CAASPP Planned System Downtime and ELPAC Planned System Downtime web pages.
Please share this email with any educators in your LEA 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 California Department of Education Assessment Spotlight web page to find previous issues.