Appendix C: California Alternate Assessment (CAA) Worksheet)
CAA Guidance for IEP Teams
California Alternate Assessments for English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science: Participation Decisions
This document is intended to help guide individualized education program (IEP) teams in determining whether the California Alternate Assessments (CAAs) — alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards — are the most appropriate assessments for an individual student. The CAAs were developed by the California Department of Education to ensure that all students are able to participate in assessments that are a measure of what they know and can do in relation to the grade-level California Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the California Next Generation Science Standards (CA NGSS). In addition, the CAAs were developed to be part of a system of curriculum, instructional, and assessment tools such that students with significant cognitive disabilities would be able to participate in content instruction and assessments that are aligned with the CA CCSS. This is accomplished by a linkage between the CA CCSS and Core Content Connectors (CCCs), which are in turn aligned with the CCC and CAA items. IEP teams must consider a student’s individual characteristics when determining whether a student with a disability should participate in the general assessments, with or without accommodations, or in the alternate assessments. This document outlines steps that an IEP team is to take in determining whether the CAAs are appropriate for a student, including reviewing student records and important information across multiple school years and settings (e.g., school, home, community) and determining whether the student fits all of the criteria for participating in the CAAs as outlined in this document. Additionally, as part of the IEP process, parents must be clearly informed that their child’s achievement is being measured against alternate achievement standards, and of “how participation in such assessments may delay or otherwise affect the student from com pleting the requirements for a regular high school diploma.” While many of the students taking the CAAs are not on a “diploma track,” this “does not preclude a student with the most significant cognitive disabilities who takes an alternate assessment from attempting to complete the requirements for a regular high school diploma.”
Description of the CAAs
English Language Arts and Mathematics
The CAAs are assessments for English language arts (reading and writing) and mathematics in grades three through eight and grade eleven. They are on-demand assessments of approximately 29 test items that assess approximately 10 to 12 prioritized content targets per grade level, depending on the grade level. These content targets were identified for each grade on the basis of learning progressions and alignment with the grade-level CCSS. These assessments include multiple-choice, constructed response, and technology enhanced items. Each content target is assessed by items that have been carefully and intentionally designed to assess a range of ability and performance.
Science
BP 2004 – State and District Assessment Programs
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Desert Mountain Special Education Local Plan Area (DMSELPA) (rev. 09/18)
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