California Alternate Assessment (CAA)

The link to your Secure California Alternate Assessment (CAA) Directions for Administration can be found in the Google Drive Folder below. These are secure documents and must be returned to your Site Coordinator when testing is completed. Once your Site Coordinator sends me your certificate, we will activate accounts and you will receive an email fromCALTAC@ets.org with your username and a temporary password. Please review these instructions before activating your account. 

Test Assignments

PMS Grade 7 and 8- Version 2

HHS Grade 11-         Version 1

PVHS Grade 11-       Version 2

PHS Grade 11-         Version 3

Link to Secure DFAs (only SH teachers and Site Coordinators have access)

Link to CAA mainpage (The link for the teacher to administer the assessment is on this page along with the practice tests)

Sent on 5/6/15

CAA Teachers:

Thank you all for your hard work administering the CAPA to your 10th graders. We are also required to assess all students in grades 5-8 and Grade 11 with the California Alternate Assessment (CAA). Below is information regarding the required training video for all (CAA) Test Examiners and additional information can be found on the CAA Web page at http://caaspp.org/about/caa/:

•  Sample Directions for Administration for the California Alternate Assessments
•   CAA Test Administration Tutorial

Once you have completed the training video you will need to submit the certificate to your CAASPP Site Coordinator and we will create your log in account and work with you on setting up for the test administration. 

You can complete the video (length 30 min) after hours and review the CAA website/Sample directions and submit a time card for 1 hour or if you prefer to do the video training during the school day, you can work with your site administrator to set aside a time to complete the training.

We look forward to working with you during the next few weeks. 

Catching Up and Gearing Up

Catching Up

• Most sites are in the low to mid 90% completion rates for the ELA Summative Adaptive (Non PT) and Performance Task (PT). We need to be at a minimum of 95% for both the PT and Non PT in each content area.

• Tomorrow (Thursday) is a quiet day for AP Testing and a good day strategically to pull in your kids for SBAC completion. Consider keeping kids testing for longer periods, especially if they have attendance issues. 

• Remember that security procedures and testing conditions need to be the same during make up testing as regular testing. Student TAs are not permitted to have access to the SBAC log in cards as these contain confidential student information (SSIDs are confidential). The cutting and distribution of log in cards must be handled by office staff and not students. 

• Appeals need to be submitted individually by the Site Coordinator for all students with expired tests. These are students who started the PT but did not finish within the 10 day window. (see expired status picture below).  The only exception to this is for students who have chronic absences or other special circumstances. If you have documentation the student won't be at school, the appeal should not be completed.  See example 1 below

Gearing Up

• Most of you will be working with a brand new set of teachers (US History) and will need to prepare as if it is your first day of SBAC. This includes printing/copying DFAs, completing checks for understanding, printing student log in cards, and most everything else on the Site Coordinator Checklist. 

• Don't forget to distribute graph paper! (This is different from ELA).

• Be sure to apply what you learned from the ELA administration. Here are a few things to note:
• Watch out for and plan for field trips and campus events (does this sound familiar???)
• Have back up SBAC trained teachers (most likely any ELA teacher that doesn't already want to ring your neck) on hand to jump in and administer tests if any of the US History teachers are out. This is a must. There aren't enough days left to "postpone" a day if a teacher is out. 
• Jot down mental notes, evernotes, notes on napkins, and just general ideas on how your master testing calendar will be set up for next year. Get feedback from your principals and be prepared to plan next year's calendar.

Example 1- Appeals

1. Go to http://californiatac.org/

2. Click on TOMS (first green box)

3. Click on the link that says "appeals"

4. Click on Create Appeal and choose Reopen Test and then Search by SSID

5. Describe the reason and then click the create button. 

Identifying Expired Tests

Expired Status

Grade Level Science Labels and Return Packing

Non Scorable Returns (Test booklets, CAPA DFAs, used scratch paper, VOIDED and extra PreID Answer docs, any left over/unused paperwork).

• Read After Testing sections of the Test Coordinator Manual starting on page 44.
• CAPA DFAs are SECURE. You need to account for them and turn them in with your Non Scorables
• Separate CAPA DFAs, CMA Test Booklets, and CST Test booklets. Count every book and write the count on the outside of the box. Boxes can have a mix of test booklets (ie CST and CMA) however the books must flow in sequence. For example:

OK	Not Ok
Box 1- CAPA DFAs, CMA Test booklets Box 2- CMA Test booklets, CST Test booklets Box 3- CST Test booklets Box 4- CST Test booklets	Box 1- CAPA DFAs, CST Test booklets Box 2- CMA Test booklets, CST Test booklets Box 3- CMA test booklets Box 4- CST Test booklets, CMA test booklets

• Report the number of booklets you are returning on the Return Inventory Form      
• Place the white UPS shipping stickers on the upper left hand side of the box. Fold your box lids so that the old shipping labels are on the inside (we don't want these boxes being shipped back to us!!!). Do not mix up your stickers! Green is for Non Scorables (ie materials that aren't being scored) and Orange is for scorables (the completed answer docs).     

Step 1- Write the counts of your Non Scorable shipment boxes. Do not combine the Non Scorable and scorable counts. If you are returning 5 boxes of Non Scorables and 1 box of scorables you would write (1 of 5, 2 of 5, 3 of 5, 4 of 5, 5 of 5). On your scorable return shipment you would write 1 of 1.

Scorable Returns

• Read pages 44 to 48
• Separate CAPA, CMA, and CST answer docs and alphabetize by last name in each group. (CAPA alpha by last, CMA alpha by last name, CST alpha by last). 
• Code the accommodations that were used by students during testing in box A3. Code definitions are on page 59 of the Site Coordinator Manual. Case carriers should help with this. 
• Read the Instructions for Placing Pre-Identified Labels (included with your labels)
• Note that answer documents are sorted in 3 separate stacks (CST, CMA, and CAPA). This sort is based on the data that was in SEIS in December. This information may not be completely accurate. 
• Place the label in the label box (see picture on 2nd side of directions) for each student. Ensure that your staff are being careful and matching names on the answer doc with the label.
• Suggested steps for applying labels
• Pull non PreID answer documents and put them in a separate stack
• Start with your CMA answer documents
• Match answer documents with labels starting with CMA label stack
• If you have documents without labels, look in the CST/CAPA stack

• Now work with your CST answer documents
• Match answer documents with labels starting with the CST label group
• If you have documents without labels, look in the CMA or CAPA stack
• Organize your leftover labels, you will return them in your boxes so that Ed Services staff can use them if needed. 

• Now work with your CAPA answer documents
• Match answer documents with labels starting with the CAPA label group
• If you have documents without labels, look in the CMA or CST stack

• You will have anywhere from 30 to 40 students with no label. ETS has changed their processing procedures for late/supplemental PreID. A 2nd shipment of labels for late enrollments will show up in a week or so. This will cover students who enrolled after December. You will need to pull non PreID docs and put them on the top of each answer doc stack:
• CAPA documents
• CAPA SGID sheet* (see sample below)
• Non PreID CAPA docs
• Rest of CAPA docs
• CMA documents
• CMA SGID sheet
• Non PreID CMA docs
• Rest of CMA docs
• CST documents
• CST SGID Sheet
• Non PreID CST docs
• Rest of CST docs

If you have any questions whatsoever, please call me. There is a lot of information to process and multiple procedures involved in this and I prefer that you ask me questions and not goof and/or struggle to find the answers. 

Sample SGID Sheet

Smarter Balanced Summative Test Prep

Good evening,

It's beginning to look a lot like testing....

Make a copy and review these two documents:

Site Coordinator Checklist. I am sharing the checklist again and wanted to remind you to change the dates in the cells to correspond with your 1st day of testing (Non PT aka Smarter Summative Adaptive) and your PT (aka Smarter Summative Performance Task).

Day of Testing Pre Instruction Sheet.  Note that teachers are required to read the blue "say" boxes in the Directions for Administration that were printed and shipped to sites. You will need to update these instructions for each test (Smarter Summative Adaptive ELA, Smarter Summative Performance Task ELA, Smarter Summative Adaptive Math, Smarter Summative Performance Task Math).

Please comment below with a clarifying question regarding these two documents or anything in general.

Grade Level Science Testing

Procedures and Policies for Grade Level Science Testing

There are three categories of Grade Level Science Exams and each have separate rules:

Applicable to All (CAPA, CMA, CST)

• Become one with the Paper Pencil Testing Manual and specifically read pages 39-42

• The Directions for Administration (DFA) reference tests that are no longer administered in our district. LEAs had the option of purchasing the old STAR tests however, we did not elect to do so. The only paper pencil tests students will take are the CST, CMA, and CAPA Science exams. 

• Grade Level Science Materials were delivered yesterday. Secure testing materials (the books and the CAPA Directions for Administration, often referred to as DFAs) need to be inventoried within 24 hours of receipt, here is the online inventory form. These are all secure materials and need to be handled and stored as outlined in the Coordinator Affidavits. 

• PreID Labels will be delivered after testing is completed. Labels are delivered in alphabetical order and answer documents will need to be sorted alphabetically after testing so that labels can be applied. 

• Only students who are testing are allowed to be in the testing rooms. See your rosters for the list of "new home" students that need to be displaced. 

• Students must complete each part in a single setting unless their IEP stipulates breaks within a part.

CAPA

• CAPA Materials need to be delivered to SH teachers right away. They may keep the materials in their classroom overnight until all testing is complete. This is the only exception, all other CST/CMA Test materials need to be collected daily. CAPA teachers must have a signed affidavit uploaded to your Google Drive Folder. 

CMA

• CMA students must be tested in a separate room with only other CMA students. The CMA has three parts. Your testing calendars were built with students taking one part a day (for 3 days) however you are permitted to do two parts in one day. See image 1 below.

• Test examiners will begin reading instructions on the following pages regarding the completion of demographic information on the answer documents:
• CMA Test Examiners must use the CMA DFA. This is easy to mix up with the CST DFA so be sure you don't. See image 2 below.  
• Students will complete the information in box 1. 
• Students will only write in their name in the boxes. They will not bubble their name.
• Grade 10- Page 14 
• Grade 8- Page 13  

• Test examiners will now begin reading instructions for test administration on:
• Grade 10- Page 31 
• Grade 8- Page 27

CST

• Test examiners will begin reading instructions for the completion of demographic information on the following pages: 
• CST Test Examiners must use the CST DFA. This is easy to mix up with the CMA DFA so be sure you don't. See image 2 below.
• Students will complete the information in box 1. They need to include the testing period also. 
• Students will only write in their name in the boxes. They will not bubble their name.
• Grade 5-   Page 12
• Grade 8-   Page 12
• Grade 10- Page 12

• Test examiners will now begin reading instructions for test administration on:
• Grade 5-   Page 33
• Grade 8-   Page 30
• Grade 10- Page 42

Image 1

Image 2

CAASPP Parent Notification and Parental Exemptions

Good afternoon,

As discussed in the CAASPP Coordinator meeting on 3/27/15, the parent notification letters regarding the CAASPP assessments were mailed on Monday and will arrive at homes later this week. All parent opt out requests need to be documented and reported in TOMS (online management system for the CAASPP program).  If you receive requests for exemptions, the following procedures need to be implemented:

• The parent needs to notify the principal in writing of the request. In this request, the parent needs to specify which test they want the student exempted from. This needs to be done annually. 
• The SBAC Coordinator needs to complete the information on this spreadsheet. 
• The SBAC Coordinator needs to upload an electronic copy of the parent letter to this Google Drive Folder. 

Full Link to Regulations

Section Regarding Pupil Exemptions

§ 852. Pupil Exemptions.      (a) Each year the LEA shall notify parents or guardians of their pupil’s participation in the CAASPP assessment system in accordance with Education Code section 60604.      (b) The notification to parents or guardians, as defined in subdivision (a), shall include a notice of the provisions outlined in Education Code section 60615.      (c) A parent or guardian may annually submit to the school a written request to excuse his or her child from any or all parts of any test provided pursuant to Education Code section 60640 for the school year. If a parent or 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 or guardian and included in the pupil’s records. An LEA and its employees may discuss the CAASPP assessment system with parents and may inform parents of the availability of exemptions under Education Code section 60615. The LEA and its employees shall not solicit or encourage any written exemption request on behalf of any child or group of children.NOTE: Authority cited: Sections 33031 and 60640, Education Code. Reference: Sections 60604, 60605, 60607, 60612, 60615, 60640 and 60641, Education Code.
 

Interim Assessment Reminders

Please note the following regarding the SBAC Interim Assessments:

Teacher preparation

• Teacher Instruction List- Instructions for teachers on administering the Interim Assessments
• Print this and provide to your teachers
• Emphasize which test they will administer and to avoid the summative category. Remember, a testing irregularity is one click away! See this doc for more details.
• Remind teachers to encourage students to do their best, they will receive real scores!
• Contingency plans- review your list of trained test administrators and arrange for back up proctors for ELA/US History teachers who might be absent on the day of testing. Also, some of you still haven't submitted electronic forms and/or scanned affidavits for your testing teachers and I cannot guarantee they will get their accounts on time. See instructions here. 

Test Security

• Student desks need to be spaced appropriately for a state testing environment. Spaced appropriately means that there are 4 feet between center of desk to center of desk. 
• No electronic device signs are posted in front of the room and both sides of the doors. 
• All staff entering the room needs to have a completed "anyone having access to the test affidavit" on file and scanned into the Google Folder
• The designated Site Coordinator will need to be available by 7:15 on the day of testing to walk classrooms (checking desk spacing and electronic device signs). A district administrator will be on your campus at 7:15 and will walk classrooms with you. 
• During Testing- There is one small difference with the Interim Assessments regarding Test Security. Teachers are allowed and encouraged to offer assistance to students if they are struggling with technology or need clarification on questions. This of course, is not allowed during the summative assessments (starting in April)

Misc

• This is a real test for students and teachers however it is a perfect practice opportunity for testing coordinators. 
• You should take note of logistical challenges that will affect you during the summative testing window. Here are a few ideas: 
• What were common mistakes teachers and students made? How did you or will you address them? 
• What logistical hurdles did you run into? Did field trips, IEP meetings, off campus meetings or anything else affect your ability to coordinate and monitor testing? 
• How did you handle adjusting for absent test proctors? 
• Do adjustments need to be made for students with disabilities? 
• What else did you learn from this experience?