Overview of the Initial Alternate ELPAC and Summative Alternate ELPAC

This section covers information about the Initial Alternate English Language Proficiency Assessments (ELPAC) and Summative Alternate ELPAC including test structure including communication modes, purpose, who takes the assessments, how they are administered, and receiving the results.

Initial Alternate and Summative Alternate ELPAC

When a pupil's individualized education program (IEP) team determines that a pupil has a significant cognitive disability such that the pupil is unable to participate in the initial or summative assessment, or a section of either test, even with resources, the pupil shall be assessed using the Initial Alternate ELPAC or Summative Alternate ELPAC, as specified in the pupil's IEP (5 CCR Section 11518.30).

The CDE developed the Alternate Assessment Decision Confirmation Worksheet to assist student IEP teams in making alternate assessment eligibility determinations. To help demonstrate how the tool may be of use, an excerpt, which is partially adapted from the worksheet is included in Table 1. For more information on alternate assessments, visit the CDE Alternate Assessment IEP Team Guidance web page.

The Alternate ELPAC is administered in person as directed in the Alternate ELPAC Online Test Administration Manuals.

• The Initial Alternate ELPAC testing window is from July 3, 2024, through June 30, 2025.
• The Summative Alternate ELPAC testing window is from February 3 through May 31, 2025.

For more information, refer to the Initial Alternate ELPAC and the Summative Alternate ELPAC Directions for Administration. The Alternate ELPAC consists of

• the Initial Alternate ELPAC, which will determine a student’s initial classification as an English learner (EL) student or as an initial fluent English proficient (IFEP) student; and
• the Summative Alternate ELPAC, which provides information on annual student progress toward ELP and supports IEP team decisions on student reclassification as fluent English proficient.

Test Structure

This section provides information about communication modes and task types of the Alternate ELPAC.

The Alternate ELPAC assesses the four domains of Listening, Reading, Speaking, and Writing in an integrated manner—a single task type assesses multiple domains.

The Alternate ELPAC consists of receptive (Listening and Reading) and expressive (Speaking and Writing) item types.

Communication Modes

Individually preferred communication modes are the ways in which a student typically comprehends and expresses information in everyday home and classroom contexts. These communication modes include the four language domains of Listening, Reading, Speaking, and Writing. However, not all students can process information through both listening and reading (receptive) or communicate through both speaking and writing (expressive).

Instead, a student may use sign language, eye gaze, pointing, gestures, alternative communication devices, or other alternate modes to comprehend and express information.

To ensure that EL students and potential EL students with the most significant cognitive disabilities can fully access and participate in both the Initial Alternate ELPAC and the Summative Alternate ELPAC, the four domains are assessed via the student’s individually preferred receptive and expressive communication modes. Such a design (i.e., one that helps ensure the maximum participation of all eligible test takers) helps to eliminate the need to provide domain exemptions.

The Alternate ELPAC is an untimed test and should be administered one-on-one; all students should be provided with as much time and as many breaks as necessary. Students may use, but are not limited to, the following responses:

• Pointing
• Selecting the response area
• Circling
• Verbal communication
• Written communication
• Sign language
• Eye gaze
• Facial expression
• Gestures
• Picture exchange system
• Drawing
• Assistive technology and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device

Individualization

Optional individualization provides the use of real objects, manipulatives, or picture cards. The student is given the real object or manipulatives during the reading of the story or the answer options to allow the student access to more concrete, hands-on materials. For some questions, a set of picture cards can be printed for student use or can be programmed into a student’s AAC device. Using optional individualization for students who need it will allow for the testing experience to more closely mirror instruction that the student receives in the classroom.

Item and Task Types

The Alternate ELPAC consists of receptive (Listening and Reading) and expressive (Speaking and Writing) item types.

The use of receptive and expressive item types on the Alternate ELPAC allows maximum flexibility for students to demonstrate their ELP through the means most consistent with how they are able to communicate in the classroom, inclusive of listening, reading, speaking, writing, and alternate modes of communication.

Therefore, on the Alternate ELPAC, there are two item types:

• Receptive test items are those that require students to demonstrate their comprehension of a stimulus by selecting a response from two or three options; the students are not required to generate any language.
• Expressive test items are those that require students to communicate to others their understandings and ideas related to the stimulus using their individually preferred expressive mode of communication.

Integrated Task Types

The Alternate ELPAC assesses the four domains of Listening, Reading, Speaking, and Writing in an integrated manner—a single task type assesses multiple domains.

The term “task type” is used to categorize test items on the basis of their content and the evidence of student language proficiency they are designed to gather (e.g., “Recognize and Use Common Words”).

Each Alternate ELPAC task type contains multiple item types.

Standards and Connectors

The Alternate ELPAC is aligned with the 2012 CA ELD Standards via the ELD Connectors which are reduced in depth, breadth, and complexity for this specific population. The Initial Alternate and Summative Alternate ELPAC follow a single test blueprint, as described in the High-Level Test Design for the Alternate ELPAC.

The test questions, or items, within a task type are aligned with one or more of the primary and secondary ELD Connectors. The ELD Connectors for the Alternate ELPAC document.

The Alternate ELPAC balances maximum accessibility while maintaining the intended constructs to be assessed as defined by the 2012 CA ELD Standards though reduced depth, breadth, and complexity. The ELD Connectors were developed through collaboration among California educators, the CDE, and ETS research and assessment experts, with guidance from the Test Design Advisory Team of four nationally recognized experts on the assessment of EL students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. The SBE approved the Alternate ELPAC high-level test design in May 2019, and the Test Blueprints were approved by the SBE in May 2020. The High-Level Test Design for the Alternate ELPAC and Alternate ELPAC Test Blueprint are available under the “Technical Documents” section of the CDE’s Alternate ELPAC web page.

Levels of Linguistic Complexity

Within the receptive and expressive test items, the Alternate ELPAC shows three levels of linguistic complexity: high, medium, and low. The expectations at each level were developed based on the proficiency level descriptors provided by the English Language Proficiency Standards for English Learners with Significant Cognitive Disabilities (Council of Chief State School Officers, 2019) and the professional judgement of those who developed the ELD Connectors (California educators, CDE staff, and ETS staff, 2020). They can be found under the “Technical Documents” section of the CDE’s Alternate ELPAC web page.

Initial Alternate ELPAC Overview

The Initial Alternate ELPAC is intended to identify students as EL students or initial fluent English proficient (IFEP). The Initial Alternate ELPAC is administered to students only once in their lifetime.

Students in kindergarten through grade twelve (K–12), ages three through twenty-one, who has an IEP that designates alternate assessments, and who have a primary language, as indicated on a home language survey, that is or includes a language other than English shall take the Initial Alternate ELPAC to determine whether they are EL students or are fluent in English. ELPAC regulations, those students must be administered the Initial ELPAC in accordance with one of the two following timelines (5 CCR sections 11518.5 and 11518.25):

• Within 30 calendar days after they are first enrolled in a California public school
• Sixty calendar days prior to instruction, but not before July 1

Summative Alternate ELPAC Overview

The Summative Alternate ELPAC is designed to:

• Determine the ELP level of EL students.
• Assess the progress of EL students in acquiring the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in English.

The Summative Alternate ELPAC shall be administered annually to EL students in grades K–12 through age twenty-one, who have an IEP that designates alternate assessments, until they meet the reclassification criteria (EC Section 313), and they are reclassified as fluent English proficient (RFEP) (5 CCR sections 11518.15 and 11518.25).

Students who are identified as EL students should be provided available language acquisition programs to support instruction in conjunction with special education services for the purpose of increasing language acquisition skills to promote independence, self-advocacy, and access to academic content.