Assessment
Requirements
Mandated Testing Policy
This
Mandated Assessments
STAR--The
Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program requires that all public
school districts in
PFT--The
PFT is a state-mandated fitness test to be administered only to 5th, 7th,
& 9th grade students, annually.
CAHSEE--The
California State Board of Education (SBE) requires that high school students
graduating in the 2006 school year and beyond must pass the CAHSEE in order
to receive a high school diploma. The CAHSEE consists of English/Language
Arts sections 1 and 2 and a Mathematics tests. The state requires that students
taking the High School Exit Exam present a photo I.D. on the first day of
testing. You may present a California I.D. issued by the DMV office, or a
valid driver’s license. The school does not reimburse the I.D. costs. You
can also get an I.D. mailing a one inch photo of the student to the school
office so that the school can create an ID for you. (See Student ID Card policy).
SCANTRON--Each student entering CWCS school must take the online Pre-test
at the Scantron website within 30 days of their enrollment, proctored by their
assigned ES. This pre-test data will be used in school reporting
to show the progress of our students over time. It can also be used to select
appropriate grade level curriculum, predict outcome on the STAR, suggest appropriate
learning objectives for the student, and provide reteaching
materials on selected topics.
Additional
assessments--Details on each of these specific assessments
can be found on the CWCS
Assessment webpage. These assessments are a required part of the charter
school experience, since by law, charter schools are required to prove that
their students perform as well as other students in their district.
Mandated Assessment Waiver
CWCS Parents sign an Assessment Confirmation Form when they enroll and annually thereafter stating that their students will participate in all required assessments. They understand, when signing the form, that they will participate in the Mandatory School Assessment but that it can be waived if the student participates in the Mandated STAR.
Participation in the STAR can be waived, but the
CWCS Mandatory School Assessment must still be taken.The STAR waiver must
be parent initiated. It is unlawful for any staff member to encourage a parent
to waive their student from testing. A school employee may only explain the
mandated assessment policy. If a parent is requesting that their child be
waived from mandated testing, then they need to write a letter to the Director
of the charter with a request for the waiver. No explanation needs to be given
in the letter. The letter must be sent to CWCS, 12420 Bentley Street, Waterford,
Ca 95386. Attn: Assessment Department/Waiver. A school administrator may be
in contact with the parent for more information.
Mandated Assessment Scores
The
parent may choose whether or not to include any test scores in the student's
cume file when the Student Agreement is signed each semester.
NCLB Participation Assurance
In
order to keep our school in good standing with the federal NCLB requirements,
we must ensure that 95% of our students in the required grade levels take
the STAR and CAHSEE tests each year as mandated. We have an electronic database
tracking system for each of our students who are required to take the mandated
assessments. As soon as the students complete their testing, a notation is
made in the database. Any students that have not completed any of their state
mandated tests, as indicated in the database, will be contacted daily and
will be followed up until their tests are complete. This database system ensures
that we will track and monitor each of our student's testing record. The ES’s
must check their e-mail daily to make sure that all of their students have
completed their tests. The ESs will be in constant communication with the
assessment department during the testing windows to deal with any problems
that arise with a student not following through with their mandated assessment
obligations.
Proctoring Requirements for ESs
As
part of the ES job responsibility, each ES must participate in the proctoring
and/or other duties associated with the charter school's state and school
mandated assessment tests. Each charter school has individual testing requirements
that can affect the length of the local testing cycles. Each ES must participate
equitably with the testing duties under the direction of the local testing
coordinator to which they are assigned until testing is completed.
Instructions
for Entering Assessment Info in FRED
CWCS WRAT