1. California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress and the California Alternate Assessments Special Education Local Plan Area Directors May 5, Don Killmer, Administrator I Terry DeBoer, Consultant Assessment Development Office

2. What Have We Been Up To?
Total number of students who started the CAA: SSC: 13,468 of 35,488 ELA: 8,790 of 35,471 Math: 8,083 of 35,467 Total number of students who completed the CAA: SSC: 13,379 of 35,488 ELA: 8,277 of 35,471 Math: 7,790 of 35,467 Total number of LEAs that have completed the CAA: 492 of 788
These numbers change daily; last year we tested *** student through the CAA, ***students through SBAC, and ***Districts

3. New CAA Web Page http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/ca/altassessment.asp

4. May 2016 State Board of Education Meeting Agenda Items

5. Mechanisms for Conveying Meaning of the CAA Results
January 2016 General performance level descriptors – short policy descriptors or labels that convey the degree of student achievement in a given achievement level.
May 2016 Performance level descriptors – descriptors of what students at each achievement level know and can do by grade and content area.
Fall 2016 Threshold scores – scores on an assessment that separate one level of achievement from another.
General (policy) performance level descriptors, performance level descriptors and threshold scores all work together to convey to educators, parents, students and the public the meaning of assessment results.
Talk about each bullet
These mechanisms for conveying the meaning of the California Alternate Assessment results are in the process of being brought before the State Board of Education for adoption.

6. Example of the PLDs
The Core Content Connectors (Connectors) and the essential understandings are the alternate achievement standards and were previously adopted by the SBE.
The PLDs will be adopted by the SBE in May.

7. CAASPP CAA Student Score Report (SSR)
This is a draft

8. CAASPP CAA SSR (cont.)
This is a draft! Actual threshold scores will not be available until after the SBE decision in September.
Identifies the student’s score in within the three levels of performance. Design allows space for showing multiple years.
Provides the parents a brief description of the student’s performance and guides them to the PLD Web site for more information.

9. CAASPP CAA SSR Sample Grade 5 (cont.)

10. CA NGSS Alternate Assessment Core Content Connectors (Connectors)

11. What are Connectors?
“Are defined content bridges” (National Center and State Collaborative [NCSC], 2015) between the CA NGSS and the estimated progressions of learning that are captured in the K-12 grade-level science curriculum.
Represent the grade-level content that is most critical to address for students with significant cognitive disabilities to enable students’ progression across grades.
Retain the connection with the grade-level PE
More complex PEs can be broken down into smaller segments to help clarify targets for instruction.

12. What are Essential Understandings?
Are identified for each Connector.
Define a basic, foundational key idea or concept based on the Connector that builds increasing understanding of the grade-level content.

13. DRAFT CA NGSS Alternate Assessment Connectors
Life Science 1
Components of CA NGSS for the alternate assessment
Grade Five
Performance Expectation
5-LS1-1. Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.
Core Content Connector
Recognize that plants acquire material for growth chiefly from air and water, not from soil.
FKSA 1
FKSA 1: Ability to match the materials most used for plant growth to air and water.
FKSA 2
FKSA 2: Ability to match the material least used for plant growth to soil.
Essential Understanding
Identify that plants cannot grow without water or air.

14. How to Get Involved in the Development of the CA NGSS
As California moves through its transitional phase toward the implementation of the CA NGSS summative assessments (including CA NGSS alternate assessment) there are many opportunities for professional development.
Opportunities for CA educator involvement include:
Item writing
Item review
Data review
Form review
To get involved complete the content
reviewer application at

15. California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress
Contact Information
California Assessment of Student
Performance and Progress
Assessment Development Office
(916)