Policy 6162.51 - State Academic Achievement Tests

State Academic Achievement Tests

The Board of Education recognizes that state achievement test results provide an indication of student progress in achieving state academic standards and may be used to promote high-quality teaching and learning. The superintendent or designee shall administer mandatory student assessments within the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) as required by law and in accordance with Board policy and administrative regulation.

The Board of Education strongly encourages all students at the applicable grade levels to participate in the state 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.

The Board of Education shall annually examine state assessment results by school, grade level, and student subgroup as one measure of the district’s progress in attaining its student achievement goals and shall revise the local control and accountability plan and other district or school plans as necessary to improve student achievement for underperforming student groups.

Rule 6162.51

The Superintendent or designee shall administer the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) to all district students at applicable grade levels, except those students exempted by law.

The district shall permit any locally funded charter school to administer the CAASPP to its students in coordination with the testing of district students. In addition, the Superintendent or designee shall arrange for the testing of students in any alternative education program or program conducted off campus, including, but not limited to, non-classroom based programs, continuation schools, independent study, community day schools, county community schools, juvenile court schools, or nonpublic, nonsectarian schools. No test shall be administered in a home or hospital except by a test examiner.

On or before September 30 of each year, the Superintendent or designee shall designate a district coordinator who shall oversee all matters related to the testing program and serve as the district representative and liaison with the test contractor and the California Department of Education (CDE). The Superintendent or designee shall also designate a coordinator for each test site. The duties of the district and site test coordinators shall include those specified in 5 CRR 857-858.

The Superintendent or designee also shall appoint test examiner(s) to administer the state assessments. A test examiner shall be a specially trained certificated or licensed employee of the school, district, or county office of education.

As appropriate, the Superintendent or designee shall assign a specially trained district employee to serve as a test proctor to assist the test examiner; a specially trained district employee, or other trained person supervised by a district employee, to serve as a translator to translate the test directions into a student's primary language; and a district employee to serve as a scribe to transcribe a student's responses to the format required by the test. A student's parent, guardian, or sibling shall not be eligible to be that student's translator or scribe.

Test coordinators, examiners, proctors, translators, and scribes shall sign a test security agreement or affidavit

Tests Included in the State Assessment System

The district shall administer the following CAASPP assessments:

1. The Smarter Balanced Assessments (SBA) for English language arts and mathematics in grades 3-8 and 11, except that:
   1. Recently arrived English learners, defined pursuant to Education Code 60603 as English learners who are in their first 12 months of attending a school in the United States, shall be exempted from taking the English language arts assessment to the extent allowed by federal law
   2. Students with disabilities who are unable to participate in these assessments, even with the resources described in the section "Testing Variations" below, may be provided an alternate test in accordance with their individualized education program (IEP), as provided in item #3 below.
2. California Science Test (CAST) assessments at grades 5, 8, and high school
3. For students with disabilities who are unable to take the tests specified in items #1-2 above even with appropriate accommodations or other testing resources:
   1. California Alternate Assessment (CAA) in English language arts, mathematics, and science, in accordance with the student's IEP

In addition, the Superintendent or designee may administer a primary language assessment to English learners in grades 2-11. Administration of this test shall not replace the administration of the above tests, administered in English, to English learners.

The primary language assessment also may be used to assess students in a dual language immersion program who are not limited English proficient or who are re-designated fluent English proficient, subject to the approval of the California Department of Education (CDE) of an agreement between the district and the state testing contractor.

Exemptions

Each year the Superintendent or designee shall notify parents/guardians of their Rule 6162.51 Page 3 child's participation in the CAASPP and of the provisions of Education Code 60615 related to exemptions from testing.

A parent/guardian may annually submit to the school a written request to excuse his/her child from any or all parts of the CAASPP assessments for the school year, and such a request shall be granted by the Superintendent or designee. However, district employees shall not solicit or encourage any exemption request on behalf of any student or group of students.

If a parent/guardian submits an exemption request after testing has begun, any test(s) completed before the request is submitted will be scored and the results reported to the parent/guardian and included in the student's records. Testing Period

1. Assessments in English language arts, mathematics, and science shall not be administered until at least 66 percent of the school's annual instructional days have been completed and may continue up to and including the last day of instruction for the regular school calendar.
2. The primary language assessment shall be administered to English learners within the testing window specified in item #1.

Students who are absent during testing shall be provided an opportunity to take the tests within the testing window.

Testing Variations

Assessments shall be administered in accordance with the manuals or other instructions provided by the test contractor and CDE, except that, as appropriate, students may be provided universal tools, designated supports, and/or accommodations during testing that are specifically allowed pursuant to 5 CCR 853.5 or 853.7.

Designated supports or accommodations provided to students with disabilities shall be those specified in their IEP or Section 504 plan.

If a resource has not been specifically identified in 5 CCR 853.5 or 853.7 but is regularly used by a student in the classroom for instruction and/or assessment, the district or school site test coordinator may submit a written request to the CDE for approval to use that individualized aid. He/she shall submit the request at least 10 business days prior to the student's first day of CAASPP testing.

Report of Test Results

For any state assessments that produce valid individual student results, the Superintendent or designee shall forward or transmit the student's test results to his/her parents/guardians within 20 working days from receipt of the results from the test contractor or, if the district receives the results from the contractor after the last day of instruction for the school year, then within the first 20 working days of the next school year. The report shall include a clear explanation of the purpose of the test, the student's score, and its intended use by the district. An individual student's scores shall also be reported to his/her school and teacher(s) and shall be included in his/her student record.

With parent/guardian consent, the Superintendent or designee may release a student's test results to a postsecondary educational institution for the purposes of credit, placement, determination of readiness for college-level coursework, or admission.

The Superintendent or designee shall present districtwide, school-level, and gradelevel results to the Governing Board at a regularly scheduled meeting. The Board shall not receive individual students' scores or the relative position of any individual student.