Code Section

60603.  

As used in this chapter:

(a) “Achievement level descriptors” means a narrative description of the knowledge, skills, and processes expected of pupils at different grade levels and at different performance levels on achievement tests.

(b) “Achievement test” means any summative standardized test that measures the level of performance that a pupil has achieved on state-adopted content standards.

(c) “California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP)” means the comprehensive assessment system, inclusive of consortium-developed assessments, that has the primary purpose of modeling and promoting high-quality teaching and instruction using a variety of assessment approaches and item types.

(d) “Census administration” means a test administration in which all pupils take comparable assessments of the same content and where results of individual performance are appropriate and meaningful to parents, pupils, and teachers.

(e) “Computer-adaptive assessment” means a computer-based test that utilizes a computer program to adjust the difficulty of test items throughout a testing session based on a test taker’s responses to previous test items during that testing session.

(f) “Computer-based assessment” means a test administered using an electronic computing device.

(g) “Consortium” means a multistate collaborative organized to develop a comprehensive system of assessments or formative tools such as described in Section 60605.7.

(h) “Constructed-response questions” means a type of assessment item that requires pupils to construct their own answers.

(i) “Content standards” means the specific academic knowledge, skills, and abilities that all public schools in this state are expected to teach, and all pupils are expected to learn, in reading, writing, mathematics, history-social science, world languages, visual and performing arts, and science, at each grade level tested.

(j) “Diagnostic assessment” means an assessment of particular knowledge or skills a pupil has or has not yet achieved for the purpose of informing instruction and making placement decisions.

(k) “End of course examination” means a comprehensive and challenging assessment of pupil achievement in a particular subject area or discipline.

(l) “Field test” means an assessment or assessment items administered to a representative sample of a population to ensure that the test or item produces results that are valid, reliable, and fair.

(m) “Formative assessment tools” means assessment tools and processes that are embedded in instruction and used by teachers and pupils to provide timely feedback for purposes of adjusting instruction to improve learning.

(n) “High-quality assessment” means an assessment designed to measure a pupil’s knowledge of, understanding of, and ability to apply, critical concepts through the use of a variety of item types and formats, including, but not necessarily limited to, items that allow for constructed responses and items that require the completion of performance tasks. A high-quality assessment should have the following characteristics:

(1) Enable measurement of pupil achievement and pupil growth to the extent feasible.

(2) Be of high technical quality by being valid, reliable, fair, and aligned to standards.

(3) Incorporate technology where appropriate.

(4) Include the assessment of pupils with disabilities and English learners.

(5) Use, to the extent feasible, universal design principles, as defined in Section 3 of the federal Assistive Technology Act of 1998 (29 U.S.C. Sec. 3002) in its development and administration.

(o) “Interim assessment” means an assessment that is designed to be given during the school year to evaluate a pupil’s knowledge and skills relative to specific academic standards in order to provide timely feedback, used in combination with other sources of information teachers have about their pupils’ progress, for purposes of continually adjusting instruction to improve learning, and that produces results that can be aggregated by classroom, course, grade level, or school.

(p) “Local educational agency” means a county office of education, school district, state special school, or direct-funded charter school as described in Section 47651.

(q) “Matrix sampling” means administering different portions of a single assessment to different groups of pupils for the purpose of sampling a broader representation of content and reducing testing time.

(r) “Performance standards” are standards that define various levels of competence at each grade level in each of the curriculum areas for which content standards are established. Performance standards gauge the degree to which a pupil has met the content standards and the degree to which a school or school district has met the content standards.

(s) “Performance tasks” are a collection of questions or activities that relate to a single scenario that include pupil interaction with stimulus. Performance tasks are a means to assess more complex skills such as writing, research, and analysis.

(t) “Personally identifiable information” includes a pupil’s name and other direct personal identifiers, such as the pupil’s identification number. Personally identifiable information also includes indirect identifiers, such as the pupil’s address and personal characteristics, or other information that would make the pupil’s identity easily traceable through the use of a single or multiple data sources, including publicly available information.

(u) “Population sampling” means administering assessments to a representative sample of pupils instead of the entire pupil population. The sample of pupils shall be representative in terms of various pupil subgroups, including, but not necessarily limited to, English learners and pupils with disabilities.

(v) “Recently arrived English learner” means a pupil designated as an English learner who is in his or her first 12 months of attending a school in the United States.

(w) “State-determined assessment calendar” means the scheduling of assessments, exclusive of those subject area assessments listed in subdivision (b) of Section 60640, over several years on a predetermined schedule. Content areas and grades shall only be assessed after being publicly announced at least two school years in advance of the assessment.

(x) “Summative assessment” means an assessment designed to be given near the end of the school year to evaluate a pupil’s knowledge and skills relative to a specific set of academic standards.