Standards, Assessment, and Accountability: SAA Update

Standards, Assessment, and Accountability Division

Week of September 3, 2007

Welcome to this week's SAA Update!

In this week's SAA Update we bring you the following timely information:

Grade 2 Testing Continues
High School Grade-Level Calculation
Classroom Reports for English Learners

California Education Code Section 60640 has been amended by Senate Bill 80 to reauthorize Grade 2 testing for the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program through the STAR Program sunset date of June 30, 2011. The 2007-08 state budget, currently awaiting the Governor’s signature, includes funding to continue testing in Grade 2. Students enrolled in Grades 2 through 11 during the 2007-08 school year will be required to take the applicable STAR tests during spring 2008.

We urge principals and STAR Site Test Coordinators to ensure that students in Grade 2, as well as students in Grades 3 through 11, are represented in all aspects of planning for the spring 2008 STAR testing.

High School Grade-Level Calculation

For many years, Administrative Procedure 4770 has defined the rules for determining high school students' grade levels based on credits earned toward graduation. Until the 2006-07 school year, this was not done in a consistent, centralized, automated manner. To avoid problems in administering state assessments based on student grade level, in tracking the progress students are making in their high school careers, and in conveying to students how far along they are in meeting high school graduation requirements, a decision was made before the 2006-07 school year that students' grade levels required greater accuracy. Beginning last year, a computerized process is run twice a year to update high school students' grade levels based on the number of credits they have earned toward graduation.

Over the Labor Day weekend, to ensure consistent application of the criteria in Procedure 4770, the Research and Reporting Department recalibrated individual high school student grade levels to reflect actual numbers of credits earned. With the help of the Information Technology Department, these corrected grade levels were loaded into Zangle along with updated “Class of” information. This is done at the beginning of each semester, after first semester or summer school grades have all been loaded. High school student grade levels based on this application should not be "fixed" by school site personnel.

Under this application of Administrative Procedure 4770,
- Students with 9 or fewer credits are considered 9th grade students;
- Students with between 10 and 20 credits are 10th grade students;
- Students with between 21 and 30 credits are 11th grade students; and
- Students with 31 or more credits are 12th grade students.

There are several exceptions to the application of these rules:

1) A student's credit-based grade level may not exceed his/her expected grade level, derived from the academic year in which he/she entered Grade 9. For example, a third-year student (who first entered 9th grade in the 2004-2005 school year and is in the Class of 2008) who has earned 32 credits toward graduation after the first semester of the 2006-2007 school year is still considered an 11th grade student that school year.

2) Students for whom one or more semesters of academic history data are missing (e.g., students who recently entered the district and have not yet had official transcript data entered into their record) are considered to be in the grade level determined correct by the student's school.

3) Non-diploma bound students' grade levels are not determined based upon credits earned but are incremented by one grade level each year after they enter the 9th grade (until 12th grade).

4) Non-concurrently enrolled Adult Education students and students in the Joint Diploma Program are considered to be in the 12th grade.

5) Charter schools are excluded from the automated grade level calculation.

Please direct any questions to the Research and Reporting Department at 619-725-7188.

Classroom Reports for English Learners

Many of you have already called to inquire about the annual EL classroom reports. We typically post them in mid-October, after the master schedules have become more stable and we better know which students belong to which teachers. We will send you an announcement, probably via a future SAA Update and another direct email. Thanks for your interest in the report. We’re glad you’ve found them so useful! Please direct questions to Susie Millett at smillett@sandi.net.

If you have questions and/or comments about this information, please contact us.

Standards, Assessment, and Accountability Division
Eugene Brucker Education Center
4100 Normal Street
Room 3150 San Diego, CA 92103
Telephone (619) 725-7166

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