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/WRAT—Each 2nd to 12th grade student (2nd to 11th grade for SMCS) entering an IEM school must take the online
Pre-test at the Scantron website within 30 days of their enrollment, proctored
by their assigned ES. K-1st grade students take the WRAT instead. 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 and CSTs, suggest appropriate learning objectives for the
student, and provide reteaching materials on selected
topics. Each school will conduct post-tests on an individual school timetable.
Additional
assessments--Details on each of these specific assessment
can be found on the 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
It is mandatory
that students either test or have a parent request on file stating that their child(ren) be waived from testing.
The 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 testing, then they need to write a letter to the
Director of the charter school with a request for the waiver. No explanation needs to
be given in the letter. The letter must be sent to IEM, Assessment Department,
1166 Broadway Ste. Q,
Mandated Assessment Scores
The parent may
choose whether or not to include any test scores in their 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.