About the CAASPP

CAASPP results give one measure of how well students are mastering California’s challenging academic standards.

LEAs are encouraged to use the results in CERS and TOMS for local planning, including public meetings with the LEA’s local governing board. Aggregate results from the most recent administration and prior years are available on the CDE Test Results for California’s Assessments website as well as in CERS.

CAASPP results that are invalidated for any reason are included in the aggregations of students who tested but not in the aggregations of students who tested with scores on the CDE Test Results for California’s Assessments website.

Grade Levels and Subjects Reported

CAASPP results are reported, and SSRs are generated, for the assessments students took. Students who took the grade-level or grade-band, optional CSA in addition to the required Smarter Balanced assessment(s) and the CAST will receive two SSRs: one for the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments and the CAST; and another for the CSA. Students assessed with the CAAs might receive up to two reports: one for the CAAs for ELA, mathematics, and science; and another for the CSA.

Overview of Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments

The Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for ELA and mathematics are available to students in grades three through eight and grade eleven as part of California’s membership in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. These assessments are aligned with the CCSS in their respective content areas and are intended to measure student progress toward college and career readiness. These assessments are also available as PPT forms to students who require a special version paper–pencil test.

Assessment blueprints, content specifications, and other information on the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments can be found on the Test Development & Design web page on the Smarter Content Explorer website. California uses the adjusted form blueprints for the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for ELA and mathematics.

Grade eleven students may elect to share their ELA and mathematics results with CSUs and participating CCCs for purposes of course placement. The EAP is designed to provide students with an early signal of college academic preparation through CAASPP/EAP results. CAASPP/EAP scores are one of the multiple measures the CSU utilizes as an indicator of students’ readiness for college-level coursework in English and mathematics and for placement of first-time freshman in the appropriate General Education English and mathematics courses once they enroll at the CSU. EAP results are not used in college admissions. For more information on how the CSU uses multiple measures (CAASPP/EAP, ACT, SAT, AP, high school, and college coursework) for placement, visit the CSU Student Success website.

Note that the student’s results will not be sent to the CSU unless the student opted to do so after completing the ELA assessment (for ELA results) and mathematics assessment (for mathematics results). Students who did not release their results at the end of the assessments may later submit a copy of their score report to the CSU or CCC (or both) in which they have enrolled.

Scoring Overview

Student responses to selected-response items (i.e., questions) are machine-scored. Responses to constructed-response items are scored by human raters for some items and by a hybrid human–automated scoring approach for other items. A percentage of all constructed responses are second scored in support of reliability.

A student’s overall scale score is dependent upon their performance on both the CAT and the PT. Final student scale scores represent the ability estimates for students. For Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments, once the responses from the PT and CAT portions are merged for final scoring, the resulting ability estimates are based on the responses to the specific test items that a student responded to, not the total number of items answered correctly.

The weighting of an individual item within the student's overall scale score varies depending on the statistical characteristics of the item, including how difficult the item is. Therefore, there is not a fixed weighting between the CAT and PT portions of the assessments. When thinking broadly about how much the CAT or PT contributes to a student’s overall scale score, one can consider the number of items and number of points available for each item within the CAT and PT, respectively.

Computer Adaptive Testing

A CAT is designed to adjust the level of item difficulty, on the basis of the responses provided, to match the ability of a student. By adapting to the student’s ability as the assessment is being taken, the CAT presents an individually tailored set of questions—also referred to as “items”—that is appropriate to each student and provides more accurate scores for all students across the full range of the achievement continuum. A CAT requires fewer items as compared to a fixed-form assessment—that is, an assessment where students are given the same items regardless of the student’s responses or ability—to obtain an equally precise estimate of a student’s ability.

During the assessment, if a student gives a wrong answer, the TDS will follow up with an easier item; while if the student answers correctly, the TDS will follow up with a slightly more difficult item. Since the answers of items used to estimate the student’s ability are machine-scored, the correctness of the student’s response can be known immediately, and successive items are selected to adapt to the current ability of the student. This process continues until the test content outlined in the test’s blueprint is covered.

The CAT requires a large pool of test items statistically calibrated on a common scale to cover the ability range.

Validity of the CAT

After due consideration, the SBE approved the use of adjusted blueprints for the Smarter Balanced for ELA and mathematics assessments; these are available in the “Test Blueprints” section on the Smarter Balanced Content Explorer Test Development & Design web page. The adjusted-form blueprint contains approximately 50 percent fewer CAT items than the full-form blueprint used in 2018–19 and prior years.

Because the adjusted-form blueprint has the same proportion of different types of items as the full-form blueprint, both in terms of item difficulty and the proportion of items on different types of content, the adjusted form provides overall results comparable to the full form with little loss of precision when evaluating the performance of schools or LEAs.

The validity of these forms is based on the premise that the blueprint for the adjusted form has comparable content across the claims while also maintaining the same proportion of depth of knowledge. Although the precision for the total score of the assessment will be less, scale scores are still comparable to those of prior years.

Performance Task

A PT is a nonadaptive form designed to provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to apply their knowledge and higher-order thinking skills to explore and analyze a complex, real-world scenario. It is a required portion of the assessment. PTs are not targeted to students’ specific ability levels and are assigned randomly to students.

The adjusted blueprint did not affect the number of items in the PTs administered to students at any grade level.

Lexile and Quantile Measures Results

To provide an avenue for additional support, Smarter Balanced partnered with MetaMetrics to link the Lexile® and Quantile® Frameworks with the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments.

The Lexile and Quantile measures are research-based, developmental scales that can be used to gauge student academic skills and growth. These measures can be used to inform instruction and are interpreted within the context of the CAASPP Smarter Balanced administration.

Lexile measures are based on the overall scale score for ELA. With the help of Lexile measures, parents/guardians and educators can find reading materials at the appropriate difficulty level for students to support students’ learning and monitor students’ growth in reading over time. The higher the Lexile number, the stronger the student’s reading performance.

For mathematics, Quantile measures are based on the overall scale score for mathematics. With the help of Quantile measures, parents/guardians and educators can identify the mathematical skills a student is ready to learn and monitor students’ growth in mathematics over time. The higher the Quantile number, the stronger the student’s mathematical performance.

MetaMetrics provides resources on the Lexile & Quantile Hub website, which allow educators and families to support teaching and learning in ELA and mathematics. Lexile and Quantile measures are included on an SSR for any student who took a Smarter Balanced summative assessment; however, the measures will be suppressed automatically from the SSR if the LEA had designated the student as PGE or NTE within TOMS.

Reporting Criteria

Any student with a valid test registration is reported in the LEA’s student data files and aggregate results on the Test Results for California’s Assessments website.

Students who log on to both CAT and PT portions of the assessment are considered “tested” for purposes of aggregations reported on the Test Results for California’s Assessments website. A student can be considered tested but not meet the minimum scoring threshold required to calculate a scale score. A student must respond to at least 10 CAT items and 1 PT item to meet the scoring threshold. Students who log on to both the CAT and the PT, answer at least 1 question, but do not meet this minimum scoring threshold will receive the LOSS.

Students will not receive a scale score on their SSR in the following instances:

The student had a medical emergency during testing.
The student’s parent/guardian requested exemption from testing.
The student did not test because the student was an EL who has been in a US school for less than 12 months (ELA only).
The student did not log on to both CAT and PT portions.
The student logged on to both parts (PT and CAT) of the assessment but did not answer any questions.

Overview of the California Science Test

The CAST is a computer-based assessment that is aligned with the CA NGSS and administered to all eligible students in grades five and eight and once in high school (i.e., grade ten, eleven, or twelve). The CAST uses the CAASPP secure browser and TDS. These assessments are also available as PPT forms to students who require a special version paper–pencil test.

For the 2023–24 administration, LEAs administered the CAST to all students in grades five and eight as well as to students in grade twelve who had not yet taken the CAST. LEAs had the option to test any eligible student in grade ten or eleven. The guidelines for administering the CAST to high school students are available in the Science Test Administration for High School Students web document. Students assigned to take an alternate assessment took the CAA for Science.

Starting with the 2021–22 administration, the CAST January 2020 revised SBE-approved blueprint was implemented. With this revised blueprint, the CAST includes three PTs to assess all three science domains (Earth and Space Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences). Refer to the Organization of the California Science Test web document for more information on the CAST.

Scoring Overview

Student responses to selected-response items (i.e., questions) are machine-scored. Responses to constructed-response items are scored by human raters for some questions and by the AI scoring algorithm for other items. A student’s results from the discrete items and PTs are combined to determine an overall scale score for that student. Refer to the subsection Scale Scores for more information about the process used to determine a scale score.

Reporting Criteria

Any student with a valid registration is reported in the LEA’s student data files and aggregate results on the Test Results for California’s Assessments website.

Students who log on to the assessment are considered “tested” for purposes of aggregations reported on the Test Results for California’s Assessments website. A student can be considered tested but not meet the minimum scoring threshold required to calculate a scale score. Students who answered at least 1 but fewer than 10 questions received the LOSS. The LOSS for grade five, grade eight, and high school is 150, 350, and 550, respectively.

Students did not receive a scale score on their SSR in the following instances:

The student had a medical emergency during testing.
The student’s parent/guardian requested exemption from testing.
The student did not log on to the assessment.
The student logged on to the assessment but did not answer any questions.

Overview of the California Alternate Assessments

Students who have the most significant cognitive disabilities whose IEP teams designated the use of an alternate assessment on statewide assessments are assigned to take the CAAs for ELA and mathematics in grades three through eight and grade eleven. Eligible students in grades five, eight, and once in high school—grade ten, eleven, or twelve—are administered the CAA for Science.

The summative CAAs for ELA, mathematics, and science are administered using the secure browser and TDS. The CAAs are administered one-on-one by a test examiner reading scripted instructions to a student.

Content Areas

ELA and Mathematics

The CAAs for ELA and mathematics are computer-based, summative, grade-level assessments for students whose IEP teams designate the use of an alternate assessment. The CAAs give students the opportunity to demonstrate their achievement of the Core Content Connectors—the “Connectors”—which are derived from the CCSS, by taking an assessment commensurate with their abilities. The Connectors are the alternate achievement standards assessed on the CAAs. The Connectors take the main achievement standards from the CCSS and make them more accessible for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. The Connectors can be found on the CDE’s California Alternate Assessments for ELA and Math web page.

At the start of testing, a test examiner administers a Student Response Check using the first one to four items in the assessment to identify whether the student has a consistent and observable way of indicating responses to test items. For students who do not orient or provide an observable, consistent response, test examiners are directed to end the assessment.

Science

Eligible students enrolled in or assigned to grade five, grade eight, and high school (grade ten, eleven, or twelve [as long as the student is not repeating grade twelve]), also take the computer-based CAA for Science.

The CAA for Science is an assessment aligned with the Science Core Content Connectors—the “Science Connectors”—that are derived from the CA NGSS. The Science Connectors provide learning goals that are aligned appropriately with the needs of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities and serve as the basis for the state’s CA NGSS alternate summative science assessments for eligible students. For more information about these Science Connectors, access the Preliminary Science Core Content Connectors and Essential Understandings web document, which is available in the “Technical Documents” section on the CDE California Alternate Assessment for Science web page.

The CAA for Science is composed of four embedded PTs administered to students shortly after receiving the related science instruction. The embedded PTs address the three science domains (Earth and Space Sciences, Life Sciences, and Physical Sciences). All four embedded PTs must be administered to complete the test administration.

Each embedded PT is prefaced by an orienting activity, which is a nonscorable activity designed to engage and familiarize a student with a science concept that was taught previously. In some cases, the CAA for Science includes hands-on exercises completed with the test examiner during testing.

Scoring Overview

CAA for Mathematics and CAA for Science items (i.e., questions) are machine-scored.

Most CAA for ELA items are machine-scored, while a few questions (items) are scored by the test examiner at the time of testing (“rubric-scored items”). A student’s results from the machine-scored and examiner-scored items are combined to determine an overall scale score for that student.

Some schools are required each year to conduct second scoring of rubric-scored items for the CAA for ELA. Schools chosen to second-score are required to have a second qualified test examiner observe and score the student’s response at the time of testing. Second scoring is one method of providing scorer reliability evidence; these second scores do not contribute to student results.

Reporting Criteria

Any student with a valid registration is reported in the LEA’s student data files and aggregate results on the Test Results for California’s Assessments website.

For the CAAs for ELA and mathematics, students who logged on to the assessment—or whose test examiner logged the student on to the assessment—are considered “tested” for purposes of aggregations reported on the Test Results for California’s Assessments website. A student can be considered tested but not meet the minimum scoring threshold required to calculate a scale score. Students who were logged on to the assessment but did not provide any answers received the LOSS. Students whose test examiner logged on to the assessment and recorded answers to at least one but fewer than four questions received the score of LOSS +1.

For the CAA for Science, students who were logged on to all four embedded PTs are considered “tested” for purposes of aggregations reported on the Test Results for California’s Assessments website. Students who were logged on to all four embedded PTs but did not provide any answers received the LOSS. Students whose test examiner logged on to all four embedded PTs and recorded answers to at least one but fewer than four questions received the score of LOSS +1.

Students do not receive a scale score on their SSR in the following instances:

The student had a medical emergency during testing.
The student’s parent/guardian requested exemption from testing.
The student did not log on to the assessment.
The student logged on to the assessment but did not answer any questions.

Overview of the CSA

Students receiving instruction in Spanish in California and students seeking a measure that recognizes their Spanish-specific reading, writing mechanics, and listening skills in grades three through twelve had the opportunity to take an optional computer-based assessment in Spanish reading/language arts, the CSA.

The CSA is aligned with the CCSS en Español, which were developed as a joint effort between the San Diego County Office of Education, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and the CDE. The CCSS en Español are a translated and linguistically augmented version of the English-language CCSS for English Language Arts & Literacy.

In the 2023–24 test administration, the CSA was expanded to include full-write items and the speaking domain. Because these new items were field-tested, the scores from these field test items do not contribute to a student’s overall scale score and are not reported in 2023–24; constructed-response scores will be reported in the next test administration, once the new items are operational.

Scoring Overview

CSA student responses are machine-scored to determine an overall scale score reporting range for that student. Refer to the subsection Scale Scores for more information about the process used to determine a scale score.

Reporting Criteria

Any student with a valid registration is reported in the LEA’s student data files and aggregate results on the Test Results for California’s Assessments website.

Students who logged on to the assessment are considered “tested” for purposes of aggregations reported on the Test Results for California’s Assessments website. A student can be considered tested but not meet the minimum scoring threshold required to calculate a scale score. Students who answered at least 1 but fewer than 10 questions received the LOSS.

Students do not receive a scale score on their SSR in the following instances:

The student had a medical emergency during testing.
The student’s parent/guardian requested exemption from testing.
The student did not log on to the assessment.
The student logged on to the assessment but did not answer any questions.
The student was administered an out-of-grade-level assessment.