Science benchmark assessments in California just took a quantum leap forward.

1. What is the Science Assessment Series for California? The Science Assessment Series for California consists of science assessments aligned to California science standards for grades 3–8 in earth, biology/life, and physical science. Science benchmark assessments in California just took a quantum leap forward.

2. The Science Assessment Series for California is designed to: • Support you in anticipation of the upcoming science NCLB legislative mandates • Prepare students to take the state science assessments The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires districts to assess students in science in grades 3–5, grades 6–9, and grades 10–12 by the 2007–2008 school year. The California Department of Education has indicated that the state will assess students in grades 5, 8, and 10 to meet this requirement.* *www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/documents/sciencepreface1105.doc

3. The Science Assessment Series for California is designed to: • Help teachers and districts by offering three benchmark assessments and one summative assessment per grade • Provide quarterly progress monitoring of student performance relative to science standards

4. The Science Assessment Series for California is designed to: Provide prescriptive guidance using answer key rationales to determine areas of student needs Grade 4: Life Science Item

5. Grade 4: Life Science Answer Key and Rationale The Teacher’s Guide contains an answer key and rationale that indicates which California science standard is being assessed in each item, the correct answer choice, and a rationalization as to why the student may have chosen an incorrect answer.

6. Grade 8: Physical Science Item Each assessment is comprised of multiple-choice items and one open-ended item.

7. Grade 8: Physical Science Rubric For each open-ended item, a rubric is provided so that the teacher can grade the item.

8. To receive immediate results from our science benchmarks, the Edusoft Assessment Management System can be used to scorethe assessments. The Edusoft System helps you act on the results by providing access to more than 10,000 prealigned scienceresources to aid with remediationin your classroom.

9. Items were written by professional item writers and reviewed to ensure they adhered to the following criteria. • Each item is unique and functions independently. • Each item matches the intent of the standard and its cognitive requirements and the use of tool, genre, etc. • Each item contains vocabulary appropriate for the grade level being tested. • Each item is unbiased and fair.

10. Items were field-tested by a large urban district in California to ensure high quality. Riverside’s research department collected and reviewed data on the items. Once all of the quality assurance procedures were run, the content team reviewed the data in conjunction with the items. They looked for items that did not function within certain parameters on the field test. If the review committee rejected these item, they were not used again. The item level p-values and point biserials from the field test are available for customers in a technical manual.

11. To learn more about the Science Assessment Series for California, click here.