ELPAC email update, April 11, 2023.

Dear LEA CAASPP Coordinator or LEA ELPAC Coordinator:

The California Department of Education (CDE) is excited to announce that California Science Test (CAST) and English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) Interim Assessments will become available in September 2023!

Interim assessments are one component of the California assessment system. The CAST and ELPAC Interim Assessments will join the Smarter Balanced Interim Assessments for English language arts/literacy and mathematics as optional tests available from the CDE to measure what students know and can do. The interim assessments are versatile and can be administered to students in either a standardized (e.g., benchmark) or nonstandardized (e.g., formative) manner, or used by school and district staff for professional development. The purpose of the interim assessments is to provide teachers and administrators with data they can use to support teaching and learning. In addition, the interim assessments provide meaningful information for gauging student progress toward mastery of the skills measured by the summative assessments.

CAST Interim Assessment Overview

Grades three, four, and five will have one interim assessment per grade, each of which covers all three CA NGSS domains—Earth and Space Sciences (ESS), Life Sciences (LS), and Physical Sciences (PS). Middle and high school will have three interim assessments each, one for each domain. A second set of each of these interim assessments is planned for the 2024–25 school year.

ELPAC Interim Assessment Overview

Kindergarten, grade one, grade two, grades three through five, grades six through eight, grades nine through ten, and grades eleven through twelve will each have four interim assessments, one in each domain—Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. A second set of each of these interim assessments is planned for the 2024–25 school year.

Resources to Guide Understanding

The following overview resources will be available before the launch in September to help introduce educators to the new interim assessments:

• Interim Assessments at-a-Glance
• Interim Assessments by Grade
• Interim Assessment Fact Sheet
• Quick Reference Guides for accessing the interim assessments
• Training Tests, Practice Tests, and Interim Assessments At-a-Glance flyer

In some cases, the information about the CAST and ELPAC Interim Assessments will be incorporated into existing resources for the Smarter Balanced Interim Assessments.

Webinars

Two introductory webinars will be held shortly after the launch of the interim assessments. The two webinars—Introducing the CAST Interim Assessments and Introducing the ELPAC Interim Assessments—will cover what interim assessments are available, what content areas they cover, and how to access the interim assessments. Registration for the webinars will open this summer.

Additional emails will be sent in the coming months to provide information about the CAST and ELPAC Interim Assessments.

Sincerely,

California Outreach Team

CAASPP website and ELPAC website

Contact Us: California Outreach web page