Assessment Spotlight, Issue 85
California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) email update, March 18, 2020.Coronavirus (COVID-19) Main Web Page
Focusing on the CAASPP System and English Language Proficiency Assessments of California (ELPAC)—and including, when timely, updates on California’s other statewide assessments.
Update on COVID-19 and the Suspension of Statewide Testing
If your school is closed due to the
unprecedented circumstances surrounding coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), you
should not worry about any statewide testing this school year. The California
Department of Education (CDE) is doing the following:
- Suspending all CAASPP testing
- Suspending Summative ELPAC
testing
- Placing the Physical Fitness Test on
hold until students return to school
- Canceling the California High School
Proficiency Examination test administration for the weekend of March
21st. All March test takers have been reregistered for June or
provided information on how to request a refund. Additional locations and space
within current locations will be increased to accommodate this
change.
- Placing high school equivalency testing
on hold until testing centers are
reopened
In addition, if a school is back in
session, the expectation is that the Initial ELPAC will be administered to
students for initial identification, as required by California Education
Code Section 313(a). However, Senate Bill 117 extended the timeline to
conduct the Initial ELPAC by 45 days. Local educational agencies should continue
to assess newly enrolled students whose primary language is not English when
they return to school. This will ensure that new students who are English
learners can receive the appropriate instruction and services. The CDE will
continue to make available the following resources to support teaching and
learning:
- Practice tests, training tests, interim
assessments, and Digital Library formative assessment tools and resources for
CAASPP
- Practice tests and training tests for
ELPAC
The CDE is working with the California
State Board of Education to seek waiver authority afforded by the US Department
of Education to waive federal testing requirements. We will keep you updated as we have more
information.
High School Equivalency Summer Convenings in
August
Registration
is now open for the August 2020 High
School Equivalency Summer Convenings. These meetings, presented by the CDE, are
designed for high school equivalency chief examiners and test site
administrators and will be held at six locations throughout the state. Updated
information will be presented by the GED® Testing Service, High
School Equivalency Test—Educational Testing Service, California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation, and the CDE. Be sure to register today to
reserve your spot!
All About
Accessibility
Expandable items and
expandable passages are on-screen presentation universal tools for both CAASPP
and ELPAC:
- Expandable
items. For this universal
tool, each stimulus in the left pane and the question(s) in the right pane can
be expanded to take up a larger portion of the screen when the student selects
one of the two horizontal arrows between the passage and the
question(s).
- Expandable
passages. For this universal
tool, each passage or stimulus can be expanded to take up a larger portion of
the screen when the student selects one of the two arrows in the passage
pane.
More information on
these universal tools can be found in Smarter Balanced Assessment
Consortium: Usability, Accessibility, and Accommodations
Guidelines, available on the Smarter Balanced
website .
In addition, short
video tutorials are available on the CAASPP website, Embedded Universal Tools, Designated Supports, and Accommodations Video Tutorial web page
.
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.