SB 247, Liu. Pupil assessment: grade 2 diagnostic assessments.
Existing law, the Leroy Greene California Assessment of Academic Achievement Act, requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to design and implement a statewide pupil assessment program that includes numerous elements, including, among other things, a plan for producing valid, reliable, and comparable individual pupil scores in grades 2 to 11, inclusive. The act also requires school districts, charter schools, and county offices of education to administer to each of its pupils in grades 2 to 11, inclusive, certain achievement tests, including a standards-based achievement test pursuant to the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program. Existing law makes all provisions of the act inoperative on July 1, 2014. Assembly Bill 484 of the 2013-14 Regular Session, if enacted, would, among other things, suspend the STAR Program achievement test for pupils in grade 2 commencing with the 2013-14 school year.
This bill would require the State Department of Education, by November 1, 2014, to identify and make available to school districts information regarding existing assessments in language arts and mathematics aligned to the adopted common core academic content standards for pupils in grade 2 for diagnostic use by classroom teachers. The bill would require the savings realized from the elimination of the grade 2 standards-based achievement testing to be used by local educational agencies to administer the identified assessments. The bill would require the department to ensure that the selected grade 2 diagnostic assessments are valid for purposes of identifying particular knowledge or skills a pupil has or has not acquired, but the assessments would not be valid measures for purposes of pupil, personnel, or local educational agency accountability.
This bill would become operative only if AB 484 of the 2013-14 Regular Session is also enacted and takes effect on or before January 1, 2014.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
Section 60644 is added to the Education Code, to read:
(a) By November 1, 2014, the department shall identify and make available to school districts information regarding existing assessments in language arts and mathematics that are aligned to the common core academic content standards adopted pursuant to Section 60605.8 and appropriate for pupils in grade 2 for diagnostic use by classroom teachers. The purpose of these assessments shall be to aid teachers and to gain information about the developing language arts and computational skills of pupils in grade 2.
(b) The savings realized from the elimination of the grade 2 standards-based achievement testing shall be used by local educational agencies to administer the assessments identified pursuant to subdivision (a).
(c) The department shall ensure that the selected grade 2 diagnostic assessments are valid for purposes of identifying particular knowledge or skills a pupil has or has not acquired in order to inform instruction and make educational decisions. The selected grade 2 diagnostic assessments shall not be valid measures for purposes of pupil, personnel, or local educational agency accountability.
This act shall become operative only if Assembly Bill 484 of the 2013-14 Regular Session is also enacted and takes effect on or before January 1, 2014.
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