Assessment Spotlight, Issue 207

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 .

CSA Item Writer Workshop Next Month!

Are you interested in learning how to write test items for state assessments? You still have time to apply for the California Spanish Assessment (CSA) Item Writer Workshop, taking place November 15 through 17. Participants will receive training on how to write quality test items and learn about opportunities to write items for future versions of the CSA. This workshop will take place during the instructional day. Local educational agencies (LEAs) will be reimbursed for the cost of a substitute teacher (if needed) or participants will be paid an honorarium (if on noncontract days).

Apply at the Educator Opportunities Portal by October 21. If you do not have an Educator Opportunities Portal account, you will need to create an account in the Educator Opportunities Database. If you have forgotten your password or have any questions about getting involved in this opportunity, contact Sue Vue, CAASPP and ELPAC Project Team, by phone at 916-228-2682 or by email at edopportunities@scoe.net.

1.0 Percent Threshold Survey—Deadline Extended to October 28

The deadline for LEAs to submit the annual survey for the 1.0 percent threshold on CAASPP alternate assessments has been extended to October 28. LEAs that have not already submitted their survey response should do so by this date. The California Department of Education (CDE) 1.0 Percent Threshold on Alternate Assessments web page contains the link to the 2022–23 survey.

All LEAs are required to complete the survey whether or not they expect to exceed the 1.0 percent threshold. The survey is conducted in response to the requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). While the CDE is required to both notify the U.S. Secretary of Education and post this information publicly, there are no formal repercussions to LEAs for exceeding the threshold. The overall intent of the ESSA regulations is to help address concerns about disproportionality related to potentially overidentifying students for alternate assessments.

Students who are eligible to take the ELPAC are not part of the 1.0 percent calculation. Only students eligible to take the CAASPP alternate assessments for English language arts/literacy, mathematics, and Science should be included.

October’s Featured Resource in Tools for Teachers—Hatching a Plan

This month’s featured Tools for Teachers resource, Hatching a Plan (account required), is a lesson for grade three that focuses on research and inquiry. In this fun lesson, the teacher guides the students in evaluating whether keeping chickens at school to provide eggs for the cafeteria is worth the time, cost, and effort.

Throughout the lesson, the students practice the skills of locating and analyzing descriptions of sources to determine whether those sources will provide useful information for this topic. In small groups, they read each source description, discuss their determinations, and give a written explanation of their reasoning. They use the lesson’s “Source Organizer,” which provides them with the titles and descriptions of each source, for this activity.

In addition to how to use the Source Organizer, step-by-step directions are included for embedded Think-Pair-Share, Strategic Questioning, and Think Aloud formative assessment strategies and the Highlighter accessibility strategy to use while implementing the formative assessment process during instruction. This instructional resource includes an adaptation for struggling learners as well as a recommendation for extending the learning by having students locate their own sources.

Hatching a Plan is included in three Interim Assessment Connections Playlists for grade three—Research, Performance Task, and Research: Analyze Information. Each playlist consists of instructional resources that can be used to teach the content assessed on the corresponding Interim Assessment Block. To view this and other instructional resources, LEA staff need a Tools for Teachers account, which they can obtain either through self-registration, which is described in the flyer How to Self-Register for Tools for Teachers (PDF), or through their LEA CAASPP coordinator.

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 CDE Assessment Spotlight web page to find previous issues.