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NCLB Tests

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND TESTS FOR SCIENCE

The No Child Left Behind act specifies that all students must be tested in science at least once within the grade spans K-5, 6-9 and 10-12.

To comply with the law, California tests students at grade 5 on the grade 4 and 5 standards, middle school students at grade 8 on the eighth grade physical science standards, and high school students at grade 10 on the high school biology and middle school life science standards.

The high school test is comprised of 60 items, 43 percent assessing the middle school life science standards and 57 percent assessing the high school biology standards.

Teachers and administrators need to be aware that the 10th grade NCLB test is given in addition to the state STAR tests (CST) administered at grades 9, 10 and 11. NCLB requires all students at the selected grade, in this case, grade 10, to take the same test. Therefore, California’s high school STAR tests would not be sufficient measures under NCLB, as they are administered only to those students taking a specific standards-based science course covered by one of the tests.

Concerned that administering the high school test at tenth grade and covering only biology and life science would adversely affect those districts which teach biology at a later grade, CSTA had urged the State Board of Education, which adopted the blueprints, to consider changing administration of the test to grade 11. “We wanted districts which offer earth or integrated science at grades 9 and 10, or which provide a physics-chemistry-biology sequence, to be able to maintain the flexibility to do so,” explained CSTA executive director Christine Bertrand. “We fear that the NCLB testing scheme may force districts to have to revamp their science programs at significant cost to them."

However, as the NCLB requires that at least 95 percent of students participate in the NCLB test, the state board appeared concerned that it would not get a 95 percent participation rate if the test were administerd in 11th grade, as not enough students take science beyond grade 10. The board relied heavily on CBEDS data that indicate that the majority of students at grade 10 take biology.

CSTA had also urged that the middle school test be comprehensive, testing all standards in grades 6 through 8 rather than focusing only on the physical science standards.

California's NCLB tests are now part of the California Standards Tests (CSTs). Blueprints for all CSTs can be found on the CDE website at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/blueprints.asp.

A complete state testing schedule, including the CST, can be found on the CDE website at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sa//testdates0506.asp.