Assessment Spotlight, Issue 337

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 and ELPAC website .

Smarter Balanced Interim Assessment Item Portal

The Smarter Balanced Interim Assessment Item Portal provides educators with the ability to search for, view, and print individual items, including the answer key, for English language arts/literacy and mathematics interim assessments. Educators can search for interim assessment items using filters including those for grade level, subject, test name, claims, targets, and content standards. Key resources to support use of the Interim Assessment Item Portal include:

• Using the Interim Assessment Item Portal video
• Creating an Answer Key Document Using the Interim Assessment Item Portal

The Interim Assessment Item Portal is updated with all the newly-added Smarter Balanced Interim Assessments for the 2025–26 school year. Educators with a Test Operations Management System role that provides access to the interim assessments will also have access to the Interim Assessment Item Portal.

September’s Featured Resource in Tools for Teachers

This month’s featured Tools for Teachers instructional resource is a kindergarten science lesson plan titled Made in the Shade (account required). During the lesson activities students observe how the sun affects the temperature of things on Earth and design a shade structure that will reduce the warming effect of the sun’s rays.

The lesson starts with students comparing sunny and shaded sidewalks using multiple formative assessment strategies like Notice/Wonder , Think-Pair-Share , and Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down . Then, using paper tents and soil-filled plates, pairs of students experiment with shade structures and collect data to see how well the tents block the sun's heat. Last, students are asked to complete a Visualizing/Pictorial Sketches formative assessment activity where each student draws their own shade structure that will protect ice cream from melting in the sunlight.

To view this and other instructional resources, local educational agency (LEA) staff need a Tools for Teachers account which can be obtained either through self-registration or through their LEA CAASPP or ELPAC coordinator.

To receive future CAASPP and ELPAC updates and notifications, subscribe to the CAASPP mailing list by sending a blank email message to subscribe-caaspp@mlist.cde.ca.gov. Are you a new subscriber? For previous Assessment Spotlight issues, visit the California Department of Education Assessment Spotlight web page.