The California State Board of Education and California Department of Education have laid out a timeline for testing. The following dates are found on the California Department of Education Website:
2016-2017 - Pilot Test
2017-2018 - Field Test
2018-2019 - Operational Test
2019-2020 - Operational Test (Canceled due to COVID-19 Pandemic)
2020-2021 - To Be Determined
Information regarding the California Science Test (CAST) can be found on the California Department of Education (CDE) website.
California Science Test (CAST) web page, with updated information about high school student eligibility and assessment timelines
California Alternate Assessment (CAA) for Science web page, with updated links to access the CAA for Science practice and training tests and the CAA Test Examiner Tutorial
Alternate Assessment Individualized Education Program (IEP) Team Guidance web page, now with recommendations about when to administer the CAA for Science embedded performance tasks for high school students
In early March, 2018, three new CAST training tests—one each for grade five, grade eight, and high school—will be available on the CAASPP Online Practice and Training Tests Portal to introduce students, test administrators, and parents/guardians to the new item types that may be on the CAST field test. These training tests consist of discrete items and a performance task. Step-by-step instructions on how to access the training tests for the CAST are provided in the “Quick Reference Guide: How to Start a Training Test.”
The training tests also include all accessibility resources that will be available on the CAST field test (e.g., calculator, Spanish stacked translation, print-on-demand). To learn how to access the embedded accessibility supports, view the related video tutorials on the CAASPP Portal Embedded Universal Tools, Designated Supports, and Accommodations Video Tutorials Web page.
Along with the new CAST training tests, new scoring guides have been developed. In addition to the correct answer and point value, these scoring guides provide specific details about the California Next Generation Science Standards—the Performance Expectation, Science and Engineering Practices, Disciplinary Core Ideas, and Crosscutting Concepts the item is designed to assess. Scoring rubrics, when necessary, are included. The scoring guides will be available in early March on the CAASPP Portal Test Administrator and Test Examiner Resources for Practice and Training Test Web page.
SDUHSD has purchased the NGSS Item Bank.
Consult Amy Sprinstead's Ed Tech Illuminate help page for troubleshooting and "how to" guides for Illuminate.
Science Assessment Task Screening Tools (Achieve)
NGSS/Achieve Task Annotation Project in Science (TAPS)-includes sample assessment tasks and resources for developing assessments (must-haves for 3D NGSS Assessments)
A Framework to Evaluate Cognitive Complexity in Science Assessments (NGSS/Achieve) have developed rubrics for evaluating assessments on pp. 4, 7, and 8)
Transforming Science Assessment: Challenges and Recommendations for States (Achieve, June 2018)
Next Generation Science Assessment (from Concord Consortium)-middle school
Concord Consortium’s Interactions-high school
Performance Assessment Resource Bank (Council of State Science Supervisors and Stanford University)
Stanislaus County Office of Education NGSS 3D Assessment Implementation Modules (click on NGSS Assessment Database tab)
LA County Office of Education Performance Task Development Project (click on Performance Assessment Task Bank: NGSS)
The Wonder of Science (formerly Bozeman Science) Assessment Design
The Wonder of Science (formerly Bozeman) Performance Assessments
Integrating Science Practices Into Assessment Tasks from Research & Practice Collaboratory
How to Craft 3D Classroom Science Assessments from STEM Teaching Tools
Prompts for Integrating Crosscutting Concepts into Assessment and Instruction
Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards
In this new NSTA publication, the focus of the August issue is Assessing Three Dimensional Learning. “In this issue, we start by examining the recommendations of a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report on integrating assessment and instruction in the classroom, then showcase the experiences of three teachers working to connect teaching with student learning. Next month, we’ll take a broader view and examine assessment at school, district, and state levels.”
Seeing Students Learn Science: Integrating Assessment and Instruction in the Classroom
This book can be downloaded for free as a pdf from the link above, and “draws on research-based recommendations for assessment to explore how classroom teachers can use assessments as part of instruction to advance students’ three-dimensional learning.”
STEM Teaching Tools - Assessment
STEM Teaching Tools PD Module (Institute for Science + Math Education)
Conducting Assessments (NGSS @ NSTA)
Using Crosscutting Concepts to Prompt Student Responses (Council of Chief State School Officers)
Wisconsin Classroom Science Assessment Examples (Wisconsin Dept. of Education)
Cult of Pedagogy's Know Your Terms: Holistic, Analytic, and Single-Point Rubrics
Article on typical problems with rubrics - too often rubrics rely on gradations such as 1-2 examples, 3-4 examples, and 5-6 examples, or never, sometimes, and always. These language tricks rarely show what a real progression of learning looks like.
Article on creating 3D rubrics linked to a formative assessment task
Article by J. Thompson, et al. on Productively Reviewing Student Work - for rubrics to be valid teachers must collaboratively review student work in relation to the rubric scale and set anchor papers as reference points throughout that scale. This article further provides ideas for a "What-How-Why" Rubric that shows a continuum of students' explanations - from "what happened" to "why it happened."
Evidence Statements of the NGSS - these evidence statements provide a detailed look at what student proficiency means in relation to particular science and engineering practices in a specific context.
NGSS Practices Progression - these progressions detail what students at K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12 should be able to do in the realm of particular science and engineering practices. They can form the basis of specific sub-skills seen in a rubric and support a progression of those skills.
Stanford SCALE Quality Rubric Webinar and Resources - while not all science specific this Google folder includes a recording of the creating rubrics webinar, a science and engineering practices rubric, a Scientific Literacy Rubric (focuses on arguing with evidence, and a crosscutting concepts rubric.
Science Practices Leadership - this group has rubrics for the practices from the perspective of observing them in the classroom as well as using them for instruction. They also have great supports for observing teachers such as video-based case studies where they analyze use of the science practices.
Assessment in a Virtual Setting (includes using rubrics in Google Classroom)
Google Classroom 201