Making Sense of CAASPP Scores
The California Department of Education (CDE) released results for the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments in both English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics for grades 3-8 and 11 on September 9, 2015. Parents will soon begin receiving their child’s results and it’s important to help them make sense of the scores—what they mean and what they don’t.
You can help parents make sense of the CAASPP scores by letting them know…
STUDENTS ARE MORE THAN ONE TEST SCORE
o These are just one set of test scores and the true measurement of student achievement is always done through multiple measures and can never focus on one test score. As an educator, you have a better sense of how your students are doing through all the work going on in your classrooms. And it's important to have those conversations with parents.
THESE TESTS CANNOT BE COMPARED TO PREVIOUS TESTS
o These test scores reflect the first full year of implementation of the online Smarter Balanced tests aligned to new California Standards and set new baseline scores. California basically hit the restart button on statewide assessments and these results cannot be compared to previous statewide assessments.
THE STANDARDS BEING TESTED HAVEN’T BEEN FULLY IMPLEMENTED
o The new standards are still being implemented for students and educators. As you are experiencing firsthand, all textbooks aligned to those standards have not been approved by the state and are not even available to students, educators and schools.
PARENT AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IS KEY TO STUDENT SUCCESS
o We're implementing a new school funding formula that focuses on local involvement and control. And we're still transitioning to rigorous new learning standards that require students to develop critical-thinking skills needed for college and careers. Educators, parents and local community members need to continue to work together to ensure students have the resources they need to succeed.
Here is the link to the videos that explain how to read the testing results:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLgIRGe0-q7SZtZI9b50s4TLpy1_LPf9tP&v=FQi4qlOCrmk