Title 5 Regulations and 2006 Item and Time Charts Available
The Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program sections of the California Code of Regulations, Title 5, Education and item and time charts for the California Standards Tests (CSTs); California Achievement Tests, Sixth Edition Survey (CAT/6 Survey); California Alternate Performance Assessment (CAPA); and Aprenda, La prueba de logros en español, Tercera edición (Aprenda 3) are available in Administrative Documents on the California Department of Education (CDE) Web site on the STAR Web page.
October STAR Notes Correction
The October 2005 STAR Notes included the statement, “Beginning in 2005-06, students who use modifications on the CSTs and the CAPA will not count toward the 95 percent participation rate requirement that is part of the AYP component of NCLB.” The CAPA should not have been included in this statement because no modifications are noted for the CAPA. When the CAPA is administered, the test examiner adapts the administration to match the way the teacher regularly works with the child during instruction. Only students who use modifications on the CSTs will not count in the 95 percent participation rate for AYP.
Documents Posted on the CDE Web Site
STAR Program documents posted on the CDE Web Site are changed and reposted only when changes are made in the program or to the documents. Therefore, documents for the current program may have prior years’ posting dates. For example, documents such as the test blueprints, the test variation matrix, and the performance level tables may not change from year to year.
2005 Apportionment Information Reports
District superintendents received the 2005 STAR Apportionment Information Reports during September to certify and return to the CDE. Districts are reminded that any reports postmarked after December 31, 2005, must be accompanied by a waiver request as provided by California Education Code Section 33050. Therefore, action by the State Board of Education (SBE) would be required to approve any late reports. For additional information see the California Code of Regulations, Title 5, Education, Section 862.
STAR Management System Modules and Manuals
The three STAR 2006 Management System modules and manuals (Administration Setup, Order Management, and Pre-ID) for the CSTs and CAPA are available on the STAR Web site (Outside Source). All districts and charter schools testing independently from their authorizing agencies should have set up the STAR administration periods and ordered test materials for spring 2006. District Pre-ID deadlines are available by clicking the Test Administration Summary link in the Test Administration section in the left navigation bar in the STAR Management System.
Pre-Identification (Pre-ID) Service Provided by California School Information Services (CSIS)
The CDE strongly recommends that district STAR coordinators process spring 2006 CST and CAPA Pre-ID files through the CSIS Data Cleansing and Reporting Service before submitting the files to Educational Testing Service (ETS) to print Pre-ID answer documents or labels. Since both CST and CAPA data are used in Academic Performance Index (API) Growth and AYP reporting, coordinators should ensure that data are as accurate as possible before submitting files to ETS. The CDE’s Academic Accountability Unit (AAU) will receive the spring 2006 CST and CAPA student data files with results too late to provide districts an opportunity to do a data review and correction before posting the academic accountability reports in August. The 2006 API and AYP results will all be posted in August 2006 as part of the Accountability Progress Report (APR). The August release is driven by federal mandate. The AAU does not expect to post any data review reports until after the APR is released in August.
When Pre-ID files are submitted to CSIS or the data are entered into the CSIS Extended Client application over the Internet, the file will be checked for content errors. Users will receive a frequency distribution report that can be used to confirm the reasonableness of the data submitted (e.g., The report shows 79 percent Asian when it should be 12 percent.). CSIS is able to apply reasonability edits beyond those offered by ETS. The CSIS edit process will also blank out invalid data (e.g., disability codes that are not valid), and the district report will include information about the fields that were blanked out. District STAR coordinators can review the Frequency Distribution Report (FDR) and look for the number of student records with blanks in each field. The district STAR coordinator can then correct or have the contractor/district office who prepared the report correct the file. The corrected file can be resubmitted through CSIS for another edit. Using the CSIS process, districts may submit and correct Pre-ID files multiple times, so that the district can submit a clean file to ETS. Please note that submitting files to CSIS does not take the place of submitting Pre-ID files to ETS. Once cleaned, all Pre-ID files must be sent to ETS for processing. (See the diagram on the last page of the PDF version of this document.)
CSIS Student Numbers Required for All Students
CSIS (statewide) Student Numbers are required for all students this year. Districts are responsible for obtaining CSIS Student Numbers for all students in the district, including special education students whom the district has assigned to county office of education special education programs or non-public certified schools (NPCS) based on individualized education program (IEP) team recommendations.
Pre-ID files will be edited for CSIS Student Numbers, and districts will receive error reports for students who do not have CSIS Student Numbers. If districts do not have CSIS Student Numbers for students who recently changed districts or moved into the state, the student records in the Pre-ID file may be edited up to the district’s last day to submit Pre-ID files, or the numbers may be entered and gridded on student test booklets/answer documents.
CSIS Student Numbers on Pre-ID Answer Documents and Labels
Beginning in spring 2006, the Pre-ID answer documents and labels will include CSIS Student Numbers. Locally assigned (school or district) student numbers will not be printed on the documents or labels.
Testing Students in Non-Public Certified Schools
As a reminder, school districts are required to test all students the district enrolled in NPCSs based on IEP team recommendations. The district STAR coordinator is responsible for ordering testing materials for these students, notifying the NPCS of the district’s testing schedule, distributing testing materials for the district’s students to schools, getting the materials back, and submitting the students’ tests for scoring. Tests are to be ordered and submitted for scoring using a school code of “0000001.” This school code may be used only for students enrolled in an NPCS.
Expanded Coding of Accommodations and Modifications for 2006
The 2006 grade two and three test booklets and grade four through eleven answer documents will require coding based on the “Matrix of Test Variations, Accommodations, and Modifications for Administration of California Statewide Assessments.” For each test, the test examiner will need to mark all accommodations “2” and modifications “3” used by students with IEPs or Section 504 Plans. The “2” and “3” refer to the numbers in the matrix cells. A coding table is included in the Directions for Administration document. The matrix is available on the Student Testing Web page.
Coding of Testing Variations for English Learners
Page 7 of the “Matrix of Test Variations, Accommodations, and Modifications for Administration of California Statewide Assessments” lists the test variations that are allowed for English learners during testing. Test examiners will be required to code all test variations English learners use on each of the 2006 CST and CAT/6 Survey tests.
Single Grade on CST Test Booklets and Answer Documents
Since out-of-level testing is no longer allowed for any student, the CST test booklets and answer documents will have only the test-level grade in the grade-level box, (e.g., the grade-two test booklet will have only grade 2, the grade-four answer document only grade 4, etc.). It is essential that students receive the answer documents for the grade levels in which they are enrolled and that the grade level marked on each School and Grade Identification Sheet (SGID) match the grade of all test booklets/answer documents packaged under it.
Recommended Process for Determining Testing Grades for Students on Study Contracts
High school students in independent study programs or alternative schools may have individual study contracts and complete a sufficient number of credits to be promoted to the next grade shortly before testing begins. The CDE has received questions about the appropriate grade level tests to be administered to these students. As an example, an eleventh-grade student being tested during April or May might have completed tenth grade during February or March. Since this student is just beginning eleventh grade, it is recommended that the student be given the grade-ten CSTs and the end-of-course math and/or science tests for the last course completed during the 2005 summer session or the 2005-06 school year. The student’s enrollment grade should be marked to match the grade level tests being taken. The student is counted as a tenth-grade student and given the tenth-grade CSTs because the student has completed 85 percent of the grade-ten instruction and has not been classified as an eleventh-grade student long enough to have had the opportunity to complete 85 percent of the eleventh-grade instruction.
Reporting Testing Irregularities
In the past, district STAR coordinators have called the CDE to report test irregularities. There has been some confusion between test irregularities and test administration errors. The 2006 STAR District and Test Site Coordinator Manual will provide information on test irregularities and test administration errors as well as directions and forms for reporting any inappropriate test preparation or testing irregularities to the CDE. Test administration errors are handled at the school district level. When inappropriate test preparation or a testing irregularity is reported, the district STAR coordinator may complete an irregularity form and fax or e-mail it to the CDE or may e-mail the CDE an account of the irregularity. Coordinators will then receive information from the CDE for marking or not marking student answer documents.
CAPA Participation
The IEP teams for students who receive special education services determine how each student will participate in the STAR Program. All students who meet the CAPA participation criteria should be administered the CAPA. The one percent limit applies only to the percentage of students the state may count as proficient on the assessment for each district and the state, not the number of students who may take the CAPA.
Aprenda 3
Testing Requirements
Harcourt Assessment, Inc.’s Aprenda 3 is a norm-referenced test that replaces the Spanish Assessment of Basic Education, Second Edition (SABE 2). Spanish-speaking English learners who are enrolled in grades two through eleven in California public schools are required to take the Aprenda 3 in addition to taking the CSTs and CAT/6 Survey (grades three and seven only), if:
- They have been enrolled in school in the United States for less than a total of 12 months on the first day of testing at their schools. (These months are cumulative not consecutive.) or
- They are receiving instruction in Spanish regardless of the length of time they have been enrolled in school in the United States.
Districts have the option of administering the Aprenda 3 to Spanish-speaking English learners who have been enrolled in school in the United States 12 months or more who are not receiving instruction in Spanish.
The state provides Aprenda 3 materials, scoring, and reporting only for Spanish-speaking English learners. If the district chooses to use Aprenda 3 for dual immersion/waiver programs to assess English Only, Reclassified-Fluent English Proficient, or Initially-Identified Fluent English Proficient students, call the Harcourt Customer Support Center at (800) 763-2306 to order testing materials, scoring, and reporting for these students. The district is responsible for all costs associated with testing these students.
Pre-ID Service
Harcourt Assessment expects to have the Aprenda 3 Pre-ID service available during January. District STAR coordinators will be e-mailed information about the Pre-ID file layout and the process for submitting Pre-ID files.
Standards-based Tests in Spanish
Work is progressing on the development of the Standards-based Tests in Spanish (STS) for grades two, three, and four. These tests will assess students’ achievement of Spanish reading and language and mathematics in Spanish. STS questions will be field tested during fall 2006. As the STS are developed and become operational, they will replace the Aprenda 3 tests at those grade levels.
Pre-Test Workshops
ETS and Harcourt Assessment will be forwarding registration information for pre-test workshops to district STAR coordinators. All district STAR coordinators are encouraged to attend a workshop or to participate in the February 1, 2006, Web cast. There will be three separate workshops: CST, CAT/6 Survey, and CAPA administration; Aprenda 3 administration; and CAPA examiner training of trainers. District STAR coordinators will be notified of the workshops and sent registration materials by e-mail.
