Download this file - Plan4Preschool

Testing
Standardized Testing and Reporting Program
In 1997, Senate Bill 376 established the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR)
Program. Beginning with the 1997-98 school year, the STAR Program required that all
California public school students in grades two through eleven take a nationally normreferenced
test each spring to measure achievement in basic academic skills. The test
designated by the State Board of Education (SBE) for the first five years of the program
was the Stanford Achievement Test, Ninth Edition, Form T (Stanford 9).
In 1999, the legislature required that the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, with
approval of the SBE, provide for the development of an assessment for grades two
through eleven that would measure the degree to which students were achieving
California’s content standards and required the inclusion of a direct writing assessment
to be administered once in elementary school and once in middle school.
In 2001, Senate Bill 233 reauthorized the STAR Program for three additional years
(2003–2005). Following this reauthorization, the SBE designated the California
Achievement Tests, Sixth Edition Survey (CAT/6 Survey) as the nationally normreferenced
tests to replace the Stanford 9. In 2004, Senate Bill 1448 extended the
program through 2010. This reauthorization required that the California Standards Tests
(CSTs) in grades three through eleven be administered through January 1, 2011; that
the CST in grade two be administered through January 1, 2008; and that the STAR
Program’s norm-referenced test be administered only in grades three and seven
through January 1, 2011.
In 2005, Senate Bill 755 changed the requirements for students taking a designated
primary language test. In addition to taking the designated STAR tests in English,
Spanish-speaking English learners who either receive instruction in their primary
language or have been enrolled in a school in the United States for less than 12 months
are required to take a primary language test designated by the SBE.
The current STAR Program has four components: the CSTs, criterion-referenced tests
assessing the California content standards in mathematics, English-language arts,
science, and history-social science; the CAT/6 Survey, a nationally norm-referenced
test; the California Alternate Performance Assessment (CAPA), an alternate
assessment to the CSTs that is designed to assess the performance of students with
significant cognitive disabilities; and the Aprenda, La prueba de logros en español,
Tercera edición (Aprenda 3), the designated primary language test in Spanish, a
nationally norm-referenced test.
All students, including English learners and students in special education programs,
must take the CSTs in English. The CSTs in English–language arts and mathematics
for grades two through eleven became part of the STAR Program in 1999. Standards
37