Policy 6162.5 - Student Assessment

Student Assessment

The Board of Education believes that the primary purpose of student assessments should be to help students, parents/guardians and teachers identify individual students’ academic strengths and areas needing improvement, in order to enhance teaching and learning. The effectiveness of the schools and district shall be evaluated in part on the basis of these student assessments.

Assessments also shall be conducted for purposes of determining student eligibility for and appropriate placement in district programs.

The Board of Education desires to use a variety of evaluation measures to reach the above goals. To have validity, tests must correspond to the material that is being taught and measure the extent to which students meet specified standards of achievement. A single test or testing method cannot be expected to always take ethnic, cultural or gender differences into account, nor to provide an accurate assessment of each student’s skills.

When district-wide and school-level results of student assessments are published, the superintendent or designee may provide supplementary information to assist parents/guardians and the local community in interpreting test results and evaluating school performance.

Standardized Testing and Reporting Program

The Superintendent or designee shall administer mandatory student assessments in the state Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program as required by law.

Education Code 60640-60649 establish the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program, which includes (1) standards-based achievement tests in grades 2-11 pursuant to Education Code 60642.5 (the California Standards Tests (CSTs)); (2) a designated primary language assessment in Spanish in grades 2-11 (the Standards-Based Tests in Spanish (STS)) to assess basic skills of first-year English learners and students who receive instruction in their primary language; and (3) the California Alternate Performance Assessment (CAPA) and the California Modified Assessment (CMA) for students with disabilities when indicated in their individualized education program (IEP).

The Board of Education desires to use the results of the achievement tests to evaluate the performance of its students to succeed in key academic courses. Accordingly, the Board of Education strongly encourages all students at the applicable grade levels to participate in the STAR assessments in order to maximize the usefulness of the data and enable the district to meet participation levels required for state and federal accountability systems. The Superintendent or designee shall notify students and parents/guardians about the importance of these assessments and shall develop strategies to encourage student participation. Students shall be exempted from participation only in accordance with law and administrative regulation.

Rule 6162.5

Last Revised 06/19/2015 (technical revision)

Standardized Testing and Reporting Program

The Superintendent or designee shall administer the following assessments in the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program:

1. The California Standards Tests (CSTs) in English language arts, mathematics, science, and history-social science to students in grades 2-11. In addition, students in grade 11 may voluntarily take an augmented CST as part of the Early Assessment Program to determine their readiness for college-level work in English and/or mathematics.
2. The Standards-Based Test in Spanish (STS) to Spanish-speaking English language learners in grades 2-11 who either:
   1. Receive instruction in Spanish, regardless of how long they have been in the United States
   2. Have been enrolled in a California public school for less than 12 months This test shall be required in addition to the CST administered in English.
3. The California Alternate Performance Assessment (CAPA) for students with severe cognitive disabilities who are unable to take the CSTs even with accommodations or modifications, or the California Modified Assessment (CMA) for students who are not severely cognitively disabled, when determined appropriate by the student's individualized education program (IEP) team. Any special education student who is an English learner may be tested with the STS in accordance with item #2 above, unless the IEP specifically exempts him/her from such testing.

Students in special education programs with individualized education plans or students with current Section 504 plans delineating testing variations, including accommodations and modifications, that may be used when taking the STAR assessments shall offered the use of said variations. The CDE has prepared a matrix displaying the allowable test variations for all statewide assessments.

Testing Period

The STAR tests, with the exception of the writing assessment, shall be administered to students during a testing window of 21 instructional days that includes 10 instructional days before and after completion of 85 percent of the instructional days of the school, track, or program.

The STAR writing assessment shall be administered only on the day(s) specified annually by the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The Superintendent or designee shall arrange for at least two make-up days for the testing of students who were absent during the testing period All make-up testing shall occur within five instructional days of the last date that the district administered the tests, but not later than the 21 instructional day window established above.

Exemptions

A parent/guardian may submit to the school a written request to excuse his/her child from any or all parts of any test. District employees may discuss the STAR program with parents/guardians and may inform them of the availability of exemptions under Education Code 60615. However, the district and its employees shall not solicit or encourage any written exemption request on behalf of any student or group of students.

Testing Variations

The designated achievement test, standards-based achievement tests, and DPLT shall be administered in accordance with the manuals or other instructions provided by the test contractor, unless a testing variation, accommodation, or modification is specifically allowed pursuant to 5 CCR 853.5. The CDE has prepared a matrix displaying the allowable test variations for all statewide assessments. Students with disabilities shall be permitted to take the assessments with any of the testing variations listed in 5 CCR 853.5, provided the variations are specified in their IEP or Section 504 plan. These variations may include, but are not limited to, accommodations in the presentation or setting of the test administration or in how a student is allowed to respond, and/or modifications in accordance with 5 CCR 853.5.

All students may be provided with the following variations:

1. Simplified or clarified test directions
2. Write-in test booklets (e.g., underlining, working math problems), provided that in grades 2-3 any marks other than those in response circles must be erased to ensure that the tests can be scored
3. As much time as needed within a single sitting to complete a test or test part

In addition, all students shall be provided with the following testing variations if such variations are regularly used in the classroom:

1. Special adaptive furniture
2. Special lighting, special acoustics, or visual magnifying or audio amplification equipment
3. An individual carrel or study enclosure
4. Individual testing in a separate testing room provided that a district employee who has signed the STAR Test Security Affidavit directly supervises the student
5. Colored overlay, masks, or other means to maintain visual attention to the test or test questions
6. Manually Coded English or American Sign Language to communicate directions for test administration

Identified English learners shall be provided with the following testing variations if such variations are regularly used in the classroom or for assessment:

1. Flexible setting: testing in a separate room with other English learners provided that a district employee who has signed the Test Security Affidavit directly supervises the student.
2. Flexible schedule: additional supervised breaks following each section within a test part provided that the test section is completed within a testing day. A test section is identified by a "STOP" at the end of it.
3. Translated directions: hearing the test directions printed in the test administration manual translated into their primary language. English learners shall have the opportunity to ask clarifying questions about any test directions presented orally in their primary language.
4. Glossaries: access to translation glossaries/word lists for the standards-based achievement tests in mathematics, science, and history/social science (English to primary language). The translation glossaries/word lists are to include only the English words or phrases with the corresponding primary language words or phrases. The glossaries/word lists shall not include definitions or formulas.

District and Test Site Coordinators

Each year the Superintendent or designee shall designate a district coordinator who shall serve as the district representative and liaison with the California Department of Education for all matters relating to the STAR program. The Superintendent or designee also shall designate a coordinator at each test site. The district coordinator shall establish guidelines to help ensure that the test contractor is provided complete student information, as specified in 5 CCR 861 and 870, for purposes of the Academic Performance Index.

After receiving summary reports and files from the test contractor, the district STAR coordinator shall review the files and reports for completeness and accuracy, and shall notify the test contractor and the CDE of any errors, discrepancies, or incomplete information.

Report of Test Results

The Superintendent or designee shall report the results of each student’s test in writing to the student’s parents/guardians within 20 working days of receiving results from the test publisher. If the test results are received from the publisher after the last day of instruction in the school year, each student’s results shall be mailed to his/her parents/guardians. The report shall include a clear explanation of the purpose of the test, the student’s score and its intended use by the district.

Individual test results shall not be released without the written consent of the adult student or the minor student's parents/guardians to any person other than a parent/guardian; a teacher, counselor or administrator directly involved with the student; or to a postsecondary educational institution for the purposes of credit, placement, or admission.

Districtwide, school-level and grade-level results shall be reported to the Board of Education at a regularly scheduled meeting. The Board shall not receive individual students’ scores or the relative position of any individual student. Apportionment Information Report Annually, the Superintendent or designee shall complete an apportionment information report with the following information for the designated achievement test and the standards-based achievement tests by grade level for each of grades 2 to 11, inclusive:

1. The number of pupils enrolled in each school and in the school district on the first day of testing as indicated by the number of answer documents submitted to the test contractor for scoring.
2. The number of pupils in each school and in the school district tested with the alternate assessment.
3. The number of pupils in each school and in the school district exempted from testing at the request of their parents or guardians pursuant to Education Code section 60615.
4. The number of pupils who were administered any portion of the designated achievement test and standards-based achievement tests.
5. The number of pupils with demographic information only who were not tested for any reason other than a parent/guardian exemption.

Annually, the Superintendent or designee shall complete an apportionment information report for the designated primary language test with the following information by grade level for each of grades 2 to 11, inclusive:

1. The number of English language learners who were administered each designated primary language test pursuant to Education Code section 60640(f).
2. The number of English language learners who were administered each designated primary language test pursuant to Education Code section 60640(g).

Individual Record of Accomplishment

The Superintendent or designee shall ensure that each student, by the end of grade 12, has an individual record of accomplishment that includes the following:

1. The results of the achievement test administered under the Standardized Testing and Reporting program pursuant to Education Code 60640-60647.
2. The results of any end-of-course examinations taken.
3. The results of any vocational education certification examinations taken.