ELPAC Test Administration

ELPAC Administration Overview

Local educational agencies (LEAs) are required to administer the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) to eligible students in kindergarten (or year one of a two-year kindergarten program, sometimes referred to as “transitional kindergarten”) through grade twelve. The ELPAC is comprised of two assessments:

Initial ELPAC—an initial identification of students as English learners
Summative ELPAC—an annual assessment to measure an English learner’s progress in learning English and identify the student's English language proficiency level

Information about the transition from the California English Language Development Test (CELDT) to the ELPAC and an implementation timeline is available on the About web page.

The following are some basic administration facts about the ELPAC:

Paper-pencil assessment
Two separate assessments: Initial ELPAC and Summative ELPAC
Initial ELPAC shorter than the Summative ELPAC
Seven grades/grade spans: kindergarten (K), 1, 2, 3–5, 6–8, 9–10 and 11–12
One-on-one administration for students in K and grade 1
Four domains: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing
Group administration for Listening, Reading and Writing at grades two through twelve (2–12)
Read-aloud by Test Examiner in the Listening domain at K and grades 1 and 2; recorded audio in the Listening domain at grades 3–12
One-on-one administration of Speaking items to all students; real-time scoring of Speaking items by a trained Test Examiner
All constructed-response items in the Writing domain (no multiple-choice items)

Test Operations Management System

The Test Operations Management System (TOMS) will serve as the primary conduit for LEA ELPAC Coordinators of the Initial ELPAC. It is a secure system that manages a wide variety of program needs that permits authorized users to perform a number of tasks. For example, LEA ELPAC coordinators can use TOMS to:

verify contact and address information, including delivery and email addresses;
enter and manage Site ELPAC Coordinator and Test Examiner access on TOMS;
place orders for test materials; and
run various reports to reconcile and summarize data, such as pending material orders and shipment tracking.