Following robust discussion, the board approved proposed threshold scores for the California Alternate Assessment (CAA) for Science, as well as continued use of the adjusted form blueprints for the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for English language arts/literacy (ELA) and mathematics, and the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) and English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) Student Score Reports (SSRs) for 2022–23.

After a tumultuous couple of years for testing that saw the board approve revisions to the 2021–22 CAASPP SSRs to account for a lack of testing at the height of the pandemic, the board is continuing to make adjustments.

With a significantly larger percentage of students participating in the CAASPP in 2021–22, California Department of Education staff said a comparison between 2021–22 and 2022–23 performance should offer suitable and valid insight into student progress and performance. In response, the board moved to add comparison language back to the design specifications for the SSRs for the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments.

Finally, the board approved the continued use of adjusted blueprints for the Smarter Balanced assessments in ELA and math until the Smarter Balanced Consortium proposes changes to these blueprints.

The shortened blueprints reduce the amount of time students spend on the assessments, allowing for increased instructional time and flexibility in scheduling, as well as minimizing the risk of connectivity or network issues. However, they do not support the reporting of individual student claim results and target reports, although the specifics are under discussion by the Consortium and its technical advisory committee for implementation in the 2023–24 year.

The proposal to continue use of adjusted blueprints split the board, with several members applauding the benefits, while others expressed concern.

“I’m very sympathetic to the rational around wanting to have less testing time — especially on the heels of so many school closures and lost instructional time … Thinking of it as a pandemic measure in many ways made a lot of sense,” said board member Kim Pattillo Brownson. “Hearing that there’s an effort to still understand the efficacy of using the shorter form blueprints and also realizing how much we have compacted information that’s available to families gives me a lot of pause about having this recommendation be … a continued use until a date uncertain.”

In response to these concerns, Board President Linda Darling-Hammond noted that work to improve the shortened blueprints remains underway, and that, should the board adopt their continued use now, it could reverse course in the future.

In January, the Department of Education denied the amendments to California’s Every Student Succeeds Act State Plan, which sought to bring the DASS modified methods into compliance with ESSA requirements while ensuring DASS schools were evaluated fairly and held accountable for student achievement.

Alternative schools typically have lower graduation rates than traditional campuses and rank lower on accountability measures than more conventional schools. These schools typically serve students who have not been successful in regular schools, often because of behavior, disciplinary or other concerns. They also include juvenile court schools and special education schools.

In March, the SBE approved the submission of a waiver to the department requesting the continued use for DASS schools to maintain the DASS modified methods for calculating the Academic and Graduation Rate Indicators. The waiver request was submitted on April 15 and declined by the Education Department on July 27.

CDE staff requested from the board short-term next steps to meet the requirement for school identifications based on the 2022 Dashboard and long-term steps for future dashboards.

Short-term options approved by the board included:

• Labeling DASS schools that meet requirements for ESSA Comprehensive Support and Improvement eligibility or low performance as a DASS Community of Practice to distinguish the uniqueness of these schools and the students served.
• Developing differentiated improvement activities for schools that predominantly serve students returning to education after having exited secondary school without a regular high school diploma or who, based on their grade or age, are significantly off track to accumulate sufficient academic credits to meet high school graduation requirements.

CDE staff emphasized that any schools identified in the 2022 Dashboard will need to meet the specified exit criteria approved in the COVID-19 Addendum for this year. Several other minor changes to the Dashboard were approved, including using the lowest status level as a proxy for “Red” to determine local educational agencies eligible for differentiated assistance.

• New board members were sworn in: Alison Yoshimoto-Towery, executive director of the UC/CSU California Collaborative for Neurodiversity and Learning and former Los Angeles Unified School District chief academic officer, and Naomi Porter, a Palos Verdes Peninsula USD high school senior.
• Amendments to California Code of Regulations, Title 5, Section 3043 were adopted to clarify that LEAs should consider the least restrictive environment in making determinations related to the extended school year program.